Variant Brewing Company is currently in the early planning stages and targeting late 2016 to open, bringing the total of breweries-in-planning in The Peach State to 16. We spoke with Matt Curling, Variant’s owner and Brewmaster, about their plans.

The brewery will be located in Roswell very near to the Canton Street scene. They’ve acquired a 3,600 square feet building where most of the space will be dedicated to their brewhouse. Initially Variant will start with a 7-barrel system with a couple 7-barrel fermenters and brite tank as well as a couple 3.5-barrel fermenters and a brite tank. Matt said the brewery focus, “…will be on variety rather than quantity so the smaller fermenters will allow us to explore some more experimental recipes.”

Initial offerings will include many year-round mainstays (yes, one will be an IPA) with seasonal/one-off variations of those beers available as well. One beer that will definitely be available is an Oatmeal Stout, a beer Matt is very passionate about and that he has been brewing and tweaking as long as he’s been brewing, about 6 years. In addition to his homebrewing Matt also worked previously at Cherry Street Brewing Co-Op.

There are no set distribution plans at this time and upon launch the focus will be in serving the local community. Several locations were considered for the brewery but as a life-long resident Matt says, “…ultimately I chose Roswell for the same reason a lot of people choose the location for their business, it’s home.”

So what’s with the name? Matt mentioned as a homebrewer he always brewed what he personally wanted to drink and many times they didn’t fit into traditional brewing styles, but rather variations of those styles. As he got further into brewing he began thinking about competitions and many of his beers were only appropriate for the Specialty, Fruit, or Spice/Herb/Vegetable categories. That seemed to work out well for him as he’s won several awards for his beers in those categories. Matt says the name Variant Brewing Company represents, “…my preferences and it says while we brew traditional styles we’re not afraid to put out some unique styles and variations of those beers.”

To stay up-to-date on the progress of Variant Brewing Company you can follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Their website is currently under construction.