CARLTON FLETCHER: Excitement, expectations surround brewery

We be taking care of business …

— Bachman-Turner Overdrive

Maybe it’s not fair to pile all these expectations on Tripp Morgan and the Pretoria Fields Collective brewery, what with the business being the first of its kind in this area.

But still we do.

After a few special events that will culminate Thursday with an invite-only VIP gathering, Pretoria Fields will open Friday. And this is an opening whose implications go far beyond Morgan and the collective’s bottom line.

Albany-Dougherty Economic Development Commission President Justin Strickland probably put it best.

“Pretoria Fields could turn a profit without even opening their doors to the public,” Strickland said. “But the city needs for the brewery to become a destination. If that happens, it’s going to show developers that downtown is a viable option for future development.”

The road to Friday’s opening of the craft brewery has been one of those Grateful Dead “long strange trips.” It started when plantation owners in southwest Dougherty County complained before the Albany-Dougherty Planning Commission and the Dougherty County Commission that locating a brewery on land Morgan owned adjacent to prime quail-hunting land nearby would prove a nuisance.

The exchange got heated at times, and Morgan’s camp noted at one point, “We didn’t know this was going to upset every billionaire in Dougherty County.”

Somewhere along the way, the public suggestion was made that Morgan and Co. look at downtown as a possible location for the brewery. Tripp Morgan, it should be noted, is not one to be pushed around by anyone, no matter how fat their wallets are. But whether it was a product of that suggestion or some other bit of serendipity, Morgan started talking with city officials about the possibility of purchasing property downtown.

Because the city, as Downtown Manager Latoya Cutts pointed out, has been looking “for that one signature development in the district,” the brewery became a godsend for city officials hoping to redevelop a business district that has languished for decades.

Talks quickly turned serious, and out of the desire to create a viable public-private partnership, city officials became accommodating to the brewery. Their shared desire to create momentum downtown sped the process along, and soon enough there was an honest-to-God groundbreaking on the property that used to be the Art Park.

While construction was ongoing, the collective grew crops that will be used in the beer-making process on farmland Morgan owns in Dougherty, Mitchell and Lee counties, and experimented with growing other not-really-Southwest-Georgia crops like hops, which are vital to making beer. Those efforts are vital steps in the process of creating signature beers common only to this region. And, in the spirit of the DIY air that surrounds such projects, all of the farmland utilized by Pretoria Fields is either certified or in the process of being certified organic.

Personnel at the brewery has evolved as the project has moved from planning toward reality, but Morgan said last week he’s excited about the team he’s put together. Among that group is head brewer Jonathan Rodriguez, microbiologist/sales specialist Hogan Skandamis and, in an announcement that was something of a surprise, brewery manager Billy Mann.

Mann has been one of the primary cogs behind Bo Henry and Stewart Campbell’s Stewbos restaurant group, but Mann said last week that while he hated leaving Stewbos, the opportunity with Pretoria Fields “has always been a dream of mine.” (It should be noted that — class all around — Mann said he would not leave Stewbos during the Christmas rush, and he noted that, “Bo and Stewart have supported me, knowing what this opportunity means to me.”)

The brewery will have an immediate impact on downtown traffic, but there’s no question it’s a business that will evolve. In the plans are tours of the farmland with the development of some type of facility on the southwest Dougherty County land and tie-ins with local restaurants. Possibilities seem unlimited.

Initial reviews of the brewery have been raves, and the craftsmanship in revitalizing the historic downtown structure is top-of-the-line. It’s the kind of business that can not only attract customers, it can attract complementary businesses. That’s’ what brewery and city officials are counting on.

Email Carlton Fletcher at [email protected]. Follow @ABH_Fletcher on Twitter.

Staff Photo