Rarely will you find two beer drinkers who are exactly the same. Trey Sinclair, who founded Dry County Brewing Company in Kennesaw, knows that all too well.
“Sometimes I do want to sit at a bar and sip on a 10-percent barleywine and pick up the tasting notes, and sometimes I just want to crush Mexican lagers on a rooftop,” Sinclair said.
So Dry County is building a new taproom where beer drinkers can enjoy a plethora of styles, moods, and vibes.
The second Dry County location will ultimately rest 1.4 miles from the brewery’s current location at 1500 Lockhart Drive. It will join a newly bustling downtown district that has welcomed many new restaurants, small businesses, and mixed-use residential. Downtown Kennesaw is set to explode, and Sinclair wants to help the area grow.
In Dry County’s release about the new location, they hope to open by July 4, 2021, but expect normal delays and workflow to make early September a more realistic timeframe for opening.
Sinclair is planning for the new location to offer 30-plus taps with a wide variety of beers for people to try.
“I’d like to see people come in and drink their way through the BJCP guidelines,” Sinclair said in regard to the Beer Judge Certification Program, an organization that certifies beer judges to taste and score beers in hundreds of different styles. “I want people to come in who are really into craft beer and the art and science of craft beer and to be able to drink through the styles, really traditional stuff that might not be the sexiest stuff ever.”
People will still find hazy IPAs, sour beers, and Dry County’s core beer offerings at the new place too, but alongside those the brew team is going to start experimenting.
But what’s the place going to feel like once it’s complete?
Sinclair is planning two stories and a rooftop bar right in the heart of the busiest intersection in downtown Kennesaw. And he already knows how each floor should be laid out and what it’ll feel like. The first floor will look, feel, and act similarly to their current taproom on Lockhart Drive.
“I feel we’ve got -- and I’m pretty proud of this -- kind of the casual, laid-back, everybody’s welcome vibe in our current taproom,” Sinclair said. “It’s not pretentious, it’s nothing like that. That’s what I want [the] first floor over there to feel like.
“[The] second floor [will be] a little more of that craft beer bar vibe. Proper glassware depending on the style of beer you’re ordering.”
Sinclair loves talking beer and he’s modeling the second floor to cater to a group he affectionately calls “beer nerds.” He’s thinking barleywines, imperial stouts, and he wants to welcome both knowledgeable discussions on the styles and learning moments for drinkers looking to explore new styles or just broaden their beer palettes. Think craft beer utopia with a welcoming guide-like vibe to people who want to be adventurous.
“[The] rooftop will be drinking out of a can or in plastic glassware,” Sinclair continued. “Lechuza (Dry County’s Mexican lager that's exploded on the local beer scene), the cocktails (the Blueberry Lemonade Vodka is a crowd favorite), stuff like that, kind of themed around it with obviously multiple other beers available. You can get an IPA up there. It’ll be geared toward drinking Mexican lagers in the sun [kind of] deal.
“[We’ll] have different atmospheres on each of the three levels depending on what mood you're in.”