Before 2016, Augusta hadn’t had a brewery in town since the 1920s.
“It’s about damn time,” was the slogan of Riverwatch Brewery when it opened on 4th Street seven years ago.
Retired army colonel Brey Sloane brought the business to town after learning to make beer when she was stationed in Burma.
“We couldn’t import beer, but we could import ingredients,” she said. “We became known for making the best beer in town, at least among expats.”
When she opened Riverwatch in April 2016, Augustans were hungry for the experience, she said.
“Being the first one like that after such a long gap, the business took off,” Sloane said.
But a year after the successful opening, a second brewery, Savannah River Brewing Co. opened up a half mile away on 5th Street, and Riverwatch saw business drop off by 25% to 40%, she said.
“A lot of people even saw ‘river’ in the name and thought we moved to a new location,” she said.
At the same time, costs for ingredients have skyrocketed by 40% since 2019 due to inflation, she said.
Sloane, 59, who runs the brewery with her daughter, Anne, 32, and her son, James, 28, said they want to move from their industrial location to one downtown with more foot traffic.
They’ve been looking for options since 2019 and are on their sixth attempt at making a location work, she said. The problem that keeps popping up is that many buildings downtown would require too much money in renovations and repairs to be worth it.
“It’s been a long story of misery trying to make this happen,” she said.
The trio currently has a lease signed for a spot on Broad Street downtown that needs new flooring and a new roof, she said. There is no timeline for when that could happen right now, she said.
Being downtown would give the brewery more space and make it easier for newcomers to spot, she said. It would also give them more freedom to host live music and comedy groups.
“We’d love to be downtown,” she said. “There are just certain things we can’t do here because it’s too small.”
