SweetWater Brewing history

Sabrina McNerney, forty, Kevin’s wife; the two met in 1999 while she was working in sales for the Costa Rican beer brand Cerveza Imperial.

In 2002 SweetWater won Small Brewery of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

In 2003 the brewery outgrew its space on Fulton Industrial Boulevard and moved to a 25,000 square-foot facility in Atlanta's Armour Circle Industrial Park on Ottley Drive.

In 2004 SweetWater signed with United Distributors, one of the largest volume beverage distributors in the United States, increasing SweetWater's distribution from 200,000 to 700,000 cases in six years.

Kevin McNerney resigned from SweetWater Brewing Company in 2008 to spend more time with his family, and later became brewmaster at 5 Season's Brewing Company.

In 2012 SweetWater completed a three-phase expansion project adding additional office and event space, a bottling line and packaging hall, and a tank farm that increased capacity from 100,000 to 500,000 barrels per year.

In 2013 SweetWater ranked 26th among the top 50 United States breweries and 19th among the top 50 United States craft brewing companies based on sales volume.

On September 29, 2014, SweetWater announced that it was selling a minority interest to TSG Consumer Partners.

In July 2015, SweetWater promoted Kim Jones from Chief Financial Officer to Chief Executive Officer.

On November 4th, 2020, Aphria Inc., a large producer of cannabis based in Canada, acquired SweetWater for $300 million.

In July 2021, the company acquired the Fort Collins, Colorado brewery of Vancouver-based Red Truck Beer.