I’m always looking for places to enjoy an adult beverage or two so when Left Nut Brewing popped up in our search results in Gainesville, Georgia for breweries, I was intrigued. I mean, let’s get serious. Who isn’t going to want to visit a spot with “Left Nut” in the name if just to ask to hear the story in person? Reviewers on Google loved the place as their average 4.7 star rating reflected so we decided to check them out. After two visits in one night (more on that later), we knew we would be visiting every time we were in town.
Housed in an old Johnson and Johnson textile mill, Left Nut Brewing’s tasting room is open to the brewing operations, giving its customers an unimpeded view of how that liquid in their glasses is made. The tasting room has a small bar you can sit at and enjoy the company of others or you can choose to occupy one of the many tables in their cavernous space.
While we didn’t get to enjoy a seat at the bar (which is always my preferred spot), we did get to meet some of the locals as well as the owner, Pap Datta, and his family. When they found out we were from the South Bend area, the bashing of Notre Dame commenced post-haste, as would be expected in Georgia Bulldogs country. It was all in fun and good taste, however, and not being an ND fan myself, I gladly encouraged it.
Those interactions with the people at the bar are the reason I decided to write this article. Yeah, the beer was excellent and stayed amazingly fresh three weeks and a thousand miles later after they carbon/froze/sealed it with some fancy brewery tricks (take some home – I highly recommend it!). It was the conversations that I observed (and soon became part of) between the family that owned the brewery and their customers. Everyone seemed like family and if we’ve learned anything from a a few decades of watching Cheers, everyone wants to walk into a bar where everyone knows your name.
If you find yourself in north Georgia and you’re looking for a place to go enjoy some brews with your old friends and some soon-to-be new friends, head to Left Nut Brewing. You won’t regret it. Unless you hate nice people, good times, great beer and some kick ass merch. Then you might not like it.
Speaking of merch – make sure and pick up some of their merchandise. We loved it so much that we got glasses, stickers, a t-shirt and a hat. We posted it to Facebook after we left and the doctor who birthed both of our children saw the post and loved the hat. Since he helped our kids enter the world, we figured the least we could do was head back and grab him a hat. If you think about it, it’s kind of apropos. Hence, our two visits in one night.
And the name? I’ll let them explain it to you since it’s actually a pretty cool play on two phrases:
“Left Nut Brewing Company” came into being as a Georgia Corporation in 2013. Many have asked, “Why did you go with that name?” Fair question. The name, “Left Nut Brewing Company,” is built on a vernacular which epitomizes the willingness to give up something of extreme value to do something or create something unique; something for which we have endless passion. Recall the phrase mentioned earlier, which started this whole thing. Conversely, it also applies to not letting go of something cherished or of value:
“Hold on to the one you got left.”
The name and the “catch phrase” just worked well with each other.
You can find out more about Left Nut Brewing!
