social fox brewingToday we’d like to introduce you to Kevin Keyes.

Social Fox Brewing started off as a homebrew club back in 2015. Mike Greene and Kevin Keyes brewed numerous styles of beers and won various medals at local homebrew competitions. With the changing of Georgia beer laws, Mike and Kevin decided that it was time to take their brewing to the next level. They teamed up with Scott Norwood, an award-winning homebrewer since the early 90s, who also decided that it was time to go pro. The three shared plans, visions and goals and decided a partnership would be beneficial. They formed an LLC, 400 North Brewing, in order to move forward with their plans to open a microbrewery.

The team purchased a 1-barrel pilot brewhouse in order to start producing large quantities of homebrew for competitions and sampling events. They used these events to spread the word about 400 North Brewing and their plan to open a craft brewery in Gwinnett county. After a year of planning and scouting out various locations, the team was introduced to the Director of Economic Development for the City of Norcross. Representatives from the city asked to consider Norcross as a location for the brewery. The Economic Development team assisted in locating a building and offered guidance to navigate the ordinances and permitting process. The warehouse located at 20 Skin Alley was selected as the prime spot for a small brewery footprint. Not only was the building located in the heart of downtown Norcross, but it also had an amazing mural painted on two sides. The mural entitled, “Tumblefield” features several frolicking foxes and bold, bright colors. Residents love the mural and the city asked to preserve it. Since the mural was going to stay the name, “400 North Brewing” no longer applied. Several options were presented until the perfect name was chosen. Social Fox Brewing was then formed.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Building a brewery has been a rollercoaster of emotion with lots of ups and downs. You can plan to every little detail and a new challenge will still occur. Since we renovated a building in a historic district, there were challenges with making sure our buildout would conform to the look and feel of the current downtown area. We had issues with water hookups along with sewer connections and back and forth between city and county on who owned the pipes that we would be connecting to. Ultimately we were able to overcome each challenge that we have been faced.

Please tell us about Social Fox Brewing.
Social Fox Brewing is committed to bringing to customers the quality beer they deserve. We seek to be the next symbol for the town of Norcross, to give back to the community, and most importantly, those working to provide the public with this vision. The culture of the company is based around perfecting the art and science of brewing quality World Class craft beer. Our taproom has an amazing vibe and great staff. We offer a fun, friendly, social environment for customers to spend their time and enjoy great beer. For us, it’s all about the beer.

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