When a college football team wins a national championship, parties are thrown, parades are planned. When a team does it two years in a row, like the Georgia Bulldogs just did with their 65-7 drubbing of TCU, there are bigger parties and bigger parades.
And beers are created, too to celebrate the moment. That is exactly what Athens brewery Southern Brewing Company did when they released Back 2 Back.
Southern Brewing's history supporting the Dawgs is steeped in tradition, and they're more than just a brewery based in Athens. From their raspberry and blackberry Berliner Weisse called Red and Black, to an IPA homage to Larry Munson called Hobnail, to 7:00 AM, a light American lager that's a nod to the time when campus tailgating opens on game day, Southern Brewing Company lives UGA sports.
"We are a proud Athens Brewery and we are all fans of the program," said the brewery's sales director, Jay Harris. "Yes, we have a few beers that pay homage to UGA football and the university. We have utilized and worked with some of the schools like the Lamar Dodd Art School. They have helped us create our labels for our Double IPA series with a student spotlight on the can for them."
Harris even said the brewery has gotten help from the Franklin School of Arts and Sciences to create local Georgia yeast strains found in their beers, Cherokee Rose and Wild Azalea.
When the Dawgs started prepping for their second trip to the title game in as many years, Southern Brewing started prepping too.
"We took a leap of faith and we were hopeful the Dawgs would win," said Harris. "So we brewed a 30-barrel batch of beer before the game and just waited to see the outcome and see what the reaction would be. To say the least it was overwhelming. We sold out instantly."
That batch was just for Athens. Harris said they immediately brewed a 60-barrel batch to send out all over Georgia, and another 30-barrel batch for the Athens faithful. Back 2 Back will hit stores outside of Athens on Monday, Feb. 6. Harris described the beer as "light and hazy. Hazy IPAs are very popular, so this beer will have a tropical fruit tone on the nose and a nice pineapple-mango kick on the palette."
As for the name, the brewery had to take another leap of faith. Southern Brewing ordered labels for the beer cans more than a week prior to the national championship. Then they hatched a plan for an outstanding social media post and got some unplanned help for a Hollywood superstar.
"Our Athens sales rep, Chad Cheely, is the company’s biggest Dawg fan, so of course he made the trip to Los Angeles for the game," said Harris. "The idea was to have him bring an empty can of the beer into the game to get an epic photo for our social media. The picture was epic and one of our most popular posts in almost eight years of being in business. The Samuel L. Jackson tweet was just too perfect to not feature on our photo, so we worked it in."