New Beer Company Coming to Downtown Macon

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – A beer company wants to open in downtown Macon. The owners say they hope to make great beer and help revitalize the community at the same time.

Jeremy Knowles and his business partner Cory Smith plan to open Macon Beer Company in a building off Oglethorpe Road.

“We’ll be a production brewery. We’ll have large tanks, large equipment,” Knowles said. “We’ll then keg it, send it out through a distributor and we’ll also want to have tours and tastings.”

The partners say they’ll produce more than 2,800 kegs of beer a year, which equals 240 kegs per month. They plan to ship the beer to stores and restaurants across Middle Georgia and eventually into other states.

“We have some general production goals we like to meet and we’re hoping we can reinvest into the community and downtown,” Smith said.

Knowles and Smith say the brewery not only makes business sense, it will be a great boost to downtown Macon.

“It is exciting to have a brewery here because it will pull people off 16 and 75, more tourists creates more business for restaurants, more jobs overall and creates a lot of activity in the downtown area,” Mike Ford, president of New Town Macon, said.

It’s still early on in the planning process but Knowles and Smith say they hope to engineer great beer and boost downtown one keg at a time.

“We want to make sure as we grow, Macon grows with us.,” Knowles said. “We want to be a positive influence.”

The owners hope to have Macon Beer Company running in time for the Cherry Blossom Festival.