Joseph D.
Yelp
TLDR: First of hopefully many great breweries in Sandy Springs.
With the laws improving for Georgia craft beer with the passing of SB85 last September, it's no surprise that more and more breweries are popping up in and around the Atlanta area. With the grand opening of Pontoon Brewing three weeks ago, Sandy Springs finally has its first microbrewery.
Pontoon is right off of 400 in an industrial/business park (think Jekyll, Red Brick, etc.) in Sandy Springs, and if you don't Uber, Lyft, etc. here, there should be plenty of parking right next to the brewery. There's a pop up canopy right outside the main entrance, so you can't miss it.
One of the first impressions I got when I walked in was that Pontoon has a really nice space for their taproom. They have room for quite a few people here and there's stuff to do all over the place, including board games, cornhole, and TV to watch the game.
Pontoon's beer list consisted of 9 taps, one beer cocktail, and one cask beer. The cask beer changes every weekend and it's probably going to be more of an experimental beer with trying out different combinations of flavors. Some of the beers are more traditional to the beer style, while others are much more forward thinking beers. I think it's a good mix for the both the craft beer drinker and non craft beer drinker alike.
In case you can't commit to just one beer, you can always get a smaller pour (4 oz or 10 oz), or get a flight of four 4 oz beers for $11. Since it is a new brewery, I did want to try multiple beers so I went with a flight of:
- Galaxy Drifter IPA
- Midnight Sliver Pecan Pie Nut Brown Ale
- Don't Haze Me Bro NE Style IPA
- Melon Balla Shandy
At the very least, I thought all four were pretty good. They weren't the best I've ever had, but I really enjoyed them, especially the Midnight Sliver and the Melon Balla. I personally really like pecan flavor with brown ales and I thought Pontoon did a good job with Midnight Sliver. The Melon Balla, which is a shandy beer with watermelon, honeydew, pineapple, and mango, is a beer I can see becoming really popular in the summer. You can really taste the melon in this shandy. If it sounds good to you, the Beermosa on their menu uses the Flotation Device Berliner Weisse as the base beer. However, I would substitute the Floatation Device with the Melon Balla - it's a delicious drink.
I love how much more affordable the prices are here. Some pints are as low as 3.50 and many of the 10 oz pours are between $2-$4. Don't forget to check in here and you'll get $2 off.
Overall, I think this is a great addition to the Atlanta craft beer scene and it's definitely a brewery worth checking out.