10 years of beers

Its cans may say “brewed legally since 2008,” but the story of Good People Brewing Company started far earlier than that.

Co-founders Michael Sellers and Jason Malone met at Auburn University in the 1990s and spent several years drinking beer before deciding to start brewing together. Sellers traveled internationally for 12 years selling software, while at the same time learning more about the variety of beers outside the spectrum of what was offered in the South.

He started homebrewing with Malone, and in 2006, after building a reputation for good beer with friends and family, they made it official and incorporated GPBC — but it would be another two years before selling their first beer. 

First, there were a few obstacles to overcome.

At the time, there was only one brewery in Alabama — Olde Towne Brewing Company, which suffered a fire in 2007, rebuilt in 2008 but would close for good in 2011 — and selling beers above 6 percent alcohol by volume or brewing at home were illegal. Plus, brew pubs, or places that brew beer and sell food, could only open in historic sites and in counties where beer was commercially brewed before Prohibition.

Free the Hops, a grassroots lobbying organization that formed in 2004, was working to change those laws. In 2006, Good People joined the fight.

“That legislative session was when I first started hearing about them [Good People], and they were supporting us and going to the Legislature and speaking on their own behalf, but also supporting us,” said Stuart Carter, a Free the Hops board member. “They are some very smart, sharp business people. They knew back then how important our legislation would be to their business, and that was why, I think, they came on board as such staunch supporters and allies from the get-go.”

Helping lobby for changes in legislation was an investment in the brewery’s future, Carter said, and it paid off.

“You look at where they are in Alabama beer today, and I don’t need to say anything to prove the point that they were right,” he said. “Biggest brewery in Alabama, one of the larger regional breweries in the Southeast. Look at their reputation on the beer rating sites — people love Snake Handler.”

In 2007, Good People opened its first location in Five Points, and the next year, on July 4, 2008, it sold its first beer — a keg of Good People Brown Ale to a bar in Five Points. It would be another several years before Good People could sell directly to consumers from its taproom.

“I feel like Good People kind of helped pave the way for craft beer,” said Lauren McCurdy, marketing director for the brewery. 

“I think it really showed that craft beer was possible in the state, even with pretty restrictive laws at the time.”

Carla Jean Whitley, the author of “Birmingham Beer: A Heady History of Brewing in the Magic City,” was able to witness the growth of craft beer firsthand. Those early days of Good People, she said, have had a lasting influence on Birmingham culture.

“Early on, it didn’t feel totally lacking [to not have breweries] because it was still so new to us,” Whitley said, “but as Good People first started, and then they just really exploded so quickly, that really shaped our idea of what that scene is like. Breweries now are such a part of our culture, even if you don’t like beer.”

The first beer fit under the state restriction of 6 percent ABV but, after lobbying efforts by Free the Hops and breweries, a law change in 2009 opened up the chance to expand brews as well. 

Ten years later, Good People now has eight year-round beers ranging from 4.2 to 10 percent ABV and several seasonal beers, some of which would have been illegal prior to 2009.

Having a brewery already established in Birmingham, Whitley said, helped put a face on the craft beer movement and in turn helped push along legislation that allowed breweries to expand.

“That was a really exciting time locally in the beer movement because it was so new and fresh, and it taught us that there is more out there, and there are economic ramifications to this as well,” Whitley said.

While it would be possible to understate the impact Good People had on Birmingham brewing, Carter said it’s not possible to overstate that influence.

“Without having Good People there as the trailblazers, the flag bearers, the ones who dealt with the entrenched bureaucracy … without Good People, Birmingham brewing would not be anything like it is now,” Carter said.

In the Five Points neighborhood, McCurdy said Good People quickly found a following. Its presence and the potential it symbolized helped revitalize a sense of pride in the city and led to more people planning to stick around, she said.

“Back then [in 2008], a lot of people were moving to Atlanta or Nashville, or even Chicago or New York,” she said. “I think, in my opinion, Good People was kind of one of those first brands that really made people rethink moving away and [instead] wanting to build a community where they grew up.”

The brewery quickly needed more space, McCurdy said, and moved in 2010 from Five Points to its current location on 14th Street South across from Regions Field — a move that grew Good People’s footprint nearly 10-fold. In addition to expanding its square footage, the brewery started canning beer and opened a taproom in 2011, following the passage of the Brewery Modernization Act.

Near its new location, Good People saw the community growing as well.

“Especially in the part of town we’re in now, 10 years ago you never would have thought that it would be what it is now, with Railroad Park and the Barons and all of that,” McCurdy said.

The brewery is in a peak place for entertainment, Whitley said. 

“You have an experience. You get to look out into your city while you’re enjoying something made right where you’re sitting, you have the iconic ball team right across the street,” she said. “It becomes a very Birmingham-booster kind of moment. That has such great ramifications for tourism, that has economic development ramifications, and that helps attract other businesses, too.”

As for the trend in 2008, when people would move away after graduating college, McCurdy said that script has flipped in a sense. As Good People has expanded its distribution to neighboring markets in Georgia, Florida and Tennessee, she said they have seen more visitors to Birmingham.

“It almost is like a little bit of street cred in my opinion, where so many people 10 years ago were leaving to go to Nashville and Atlanta because they were the exciting [cities],” she said, “but now, it’s almost like a role reversal, where people from Atlanta are coming to Birmingham for the weekend.”

Good People plans to celebrate a decade of beer by bringing back past “fan favorites,” McCurdy said, as well as merchandise and events in late June and early July. 

For more details, go to goodpeoplebrewing.com.