Two new breweries – Abbey of the Holy Goats and Gate City Brewing – have opened in Roswell, Georgia this year with another one – Variant Brewing – planning to open later this year. On a recent Friday Night, I went and toured both Abbey of the Holy Goats and Gate City with a friend of mine that’s also into craft beer.

Our first stop on the two-stop brewery tour was Abbey of the Holy Goats. We intentionally started here since the tasting room is open from 5-8pm on Friday nights (1-4pm on Saturday) while Gate City is open until 9pm. Abbey of the Holy Goats is located in an older industrial/business center near Mansell Road and was started by Kathy Davis who is one of the first females to own and operate a brewery in Georgia. Kathy focuses mostly on Belgian-style ales and I was honestly blown away by the quality of the beers. The “Goats in the Garden” (Saison with Elderflowers), “Goats of the First Order” (Session Beer w/ lots of flavor), “The Lazy Goat” (Belgian-American Pale Ale), and “The Goat’s Obsession” (Belgian-Influenced, Dark Double IPA) were all fantastic. The tasting room was also very cool with its medieval theme. It’s not the fun, party brewery…it’s all about the beer and goats, of course.

After we finished our tasting tickets, we headed to Gate City Brewing. The brewery is located on Canton Street in popular Downtown Roswell. Gate City initially contract brewed at Reformation Brewing in Woodstock until the brewery was completed earlier this year. As we were walking up to the door, we could hear a band playing at Gate City and the brewery was packed with people. The atmosphere is very lively and fun. The beers are starting to get there. I honestly wasn’t a big fan of the first couple of beers that they released, but I had a couple of better beers at the brewery. One of the best things about Gate City is its location. It’s a great place to go before you hit dinner on Canton Street and it looked like many people in there had that idea. In fact, after we left Gate City, we went to Roux on Canton which has a small but great craft beer list. Roux usually has a couple of rare or hard to find craft beers on their draft list and the food is good and cheap.

If you’re looking for something to do in Roswell, I highly recommend checking out Abbey of the Holy Goats and Gate City Brewing. And make sure you call Uber at the end of the night…

-Billy Holcombe