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After hiking the Vickery Creek Trail and enjoying the waterfall, I stopped off for a much needed brew at Variant brewery and to check the scores I missed. You see, my brewery stop was right in the middle of the NFL playoffs.
Really I had no expectations for the brewery. I was hoping for a decent beer after a 4 mile hike. In fact, my visit was before I compiled the data for the best breweries in Atlanta, where Variant Brewery scored near the top in the state. Had I known this data, I would have been much more excited going into the visit.
The beer at this little brewery completely exceeded my expectations. No wonder all you savvy beer connoisseur rated this the second best brewery in the state of Georgia.
I can’t agree more, the beer is damn good. As a hazy, New England style IPA fan, I am usually disappointed by Georgia beers.
Not at Variant.
In my opinion, these rival some of the NE style IPA’s I sampled at Treehouse in Massachusetts and The Alchemist in Stowe, VT.
The Brewery
Located near downtown historic Roswell, it is slightly off the main road on Alpharetta St. You have to turn down Norcross street and drive a half a block.
There is a very small parking lot that was completely full. I found some additional parking in the office spaces down the street. They appeared to be closed on Sunday.
In the parking lot at Variant, there was a vendor serving some barbeque. I didn’t try it, but it smelled delicious. They have a rotating food truck service to supply patron’s with food to pair with the beers. Here is a list of the food truck schedule at Variant Brewery.
The Taproom and Patio
You could tell the building was recently refurbished. Everything looked new and clean inside. Outdoors there is a fairly large patio. The day I visited, it was very cold. The patio served as overflow from the main taproom.
The tap room isn’t large, but the ceilings are very high, probably to make room for the beer tanks that are out of the way in the back. There are maybe six bar stools and many tables. They were all full.
Beer Styles at Variant Brewery
For selection, they had about 6 of their year round brews. There were many more seasonal brews and variants. The variants, I believe, are slight tweaks made to the main brews.
I had the seasonal Snake Money, which is New England IPA. It was excellent. In my opinion, it was even better than their year round, Cashmere. It seems like everyone on Untappd agrees with this sentiment.
Once a bar stool opened up, I had the Norcross St. IPA. I would drink it when I see it, but it is not unbelievable.
For take out, I bought crowlers of Cashmerer NE IPA and Splodey King, which is a fruited gose. It has notes of black Truffle, black cherry, blackberry and black currant. You could really taste the black truffle in the after taste, in a good way. I would definitely like to get my hands on another pour of this.
Variant Brewery Visit, In Summary.
Overall, I really enjoyed my visit to Variant. I will be returning to this brewery time and again, especially when it gets nicer out and the patio is a little more pleasant.
The beer is simply outstanding.
The location is a little small. I anticipate them outgrowing the space with the brews they are making and what seems to be a loyal following.
The prices were excellent, in my opinion, for the value you are receiving.
Variant Brewery is located at 66 Norcross St, Roswell, GA 30075. All opinions are simply my own.
If you are not done exploring here are some fun things to do in Roswell or my guide to breweries near Atlanta.