Tap Handle #850: Sweetwater - Sweet Georgia Brown Girl

Tap size:  12.75"

Rarity:  10 or less seen, tap retired

Mounting:  3/8" ferrule on 5/16" anchor bolt

After a long (and much-needed) break, I'm back with another profile from the Bill Gibson wing of the Museum. I refer to this tap as the "Sweetwater Sweet Georgia Brown Girl". It features a girl wearing a tied-in-front shirt with Daisy Dukes, standing on grass next to a tree stump. Below that is the name of the beer and then the base of the tap. The brewery's name does not appear anywhere on the tap. It was manufactured in 2001 and pre-dates the rainbow trout tap that became associated with the brewery (I posted that tap in profile #212). It is 1 of 3 taps from the brewery bearing the Sweet Georgia Brown or Georgia Brown beer name, with the other 2 being the rainbow trout, as well as a microphone-themed tap. I don't really have any further information on the Girl tap, other than it is subject to the shrinking resin/cracking paint issue that many of these older taps show (which my tap is starting to exhibit). The Sweet Georgia Brown Girl is incredibly rare...I have only seen 4 others. The secondary market price range has typically been in the $125-$200 range, with the last one seen in 2021; 2 did sell for considerably less than the typical range, but those 2 suffered badly from paint loss.

For more about Sweet Water Brewing, see this post.

Sweetwater's Sweet Georgia Brown (later changed to just Georgia Brown due to copyright infringement) was a Great American Beer Festival Gold Medal winner. This brew yields a prominent aroma of fresh grains with some notes of toast and brown bread, moderate caramel, hints of maple syrup and coffee, some nuttiness, and a kiss of spicy and somewhat woody hops. On the palate, expect a blend of lightly bitter hops, burnt toast, and above all, a rich, sweet, nutty character (think hazelnuts and almonds) with deep-down caramel tones and a hint of cocoa powder. There's a ghost note of coffee at the intro to the finish, which gives way to a back-of-the-tongue hop bitterness that complements the hops and balances the sweet malty notes through the fade. Far from being thick or heavy, this brown ale delivers robust flavor while remaining light on its feet. Recommended food pairing is a cheese plate featuring aged gruyere, camembert, and morbier melted over pumpernickel bread wedges. Although it had been retired for several years, Georgia Brown was re-released in 2023 as part of the brewery's 26th Anniversary celebration, on tap at SweetWater’s Atlanta and Fort Collins taprooms, as well as taps in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Beer Advocate:  81 out of 100 (good)

Editor's Note: With the closure of the Ratebeer site on February 1st, 2025, there will be no Ratebeer scores in my profiles from this point onward...