Traveling from NJ and visiting Atlanta in two weeks. Staying in Cobb, but have use of a car. Looking for suggestions and recommendations for breweries and bottle shops within a reasonable driving distance. Thanks.
Cobb County is huge, so I guess it just depends what part you are staying in. Burnt Hickory Brewery in Kennesaw is fantastic.
As mentioned above, you could go to Burnt Hickory, also in the same general area are Dry County, Southern Sky, and Reformation. If you want to go toward downtown, you could visit Scofflaw, Second Self, Torched Hop, Hop City (either location), Wrecking Bar, and Porter. Check days/times for each, GA still has crazy brewery laws until Sept 1st (have to pay for a tour to drink on site at brewery until 9/1, then everything changes, brewpubs you can drink on site without a tour).
Breweries are well covered above, as for bottle shops I highly recommend Sprayberry Bottle Shop in Marietta and Hop City in Atlanta.
Red Hare is also in Marietta, depending on what part of Cobb you are staying in. Some solid beers there...in particular, I'm a fan of what they are doing with their sours lately. In the Kennesaw/Woodstock area, I second the Burnt Hickory love, and Reformation has some nice offerings, especially their belgians.
Whatever you do avoid wasting your time at Red Hare, cool marketing but that is about the only quality thing coming out of that Brewery. Burnt Hickory and Dry County are good choices for Cobb but your best bet is driving into downtown Atlanta or Decatur where there are multiple quality breweries and bottle shops.
