The Brewery In Alabama That Features One Of The State's Best Music Venues
By Lisa Battles|Published June 19, 2024
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Lisa Battles
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Lisa has traveled the U.S. for over a decade, seeking out and sharing the stories of its most interesting places, people, and experiences. A journalism graduate of Auburn University, she has been a content strategist, editor, and writer for more than 25 years. Lisa has worked in community news, PR, and marketing with a focus on tourism, hospitality, and economic development. Besides following her curiosity around every corner, she's a devoted dog mom of two and advocate for animal welfare.
Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past 15 years, you know about how craft breweries catalyze neighborhood revitalization, spark new business development, and inspire tourism. It’s especially impactful when you have a brewery that’s established itself as an entertainment destination along with producing award-winning beer. Case in point: Avondale Brewing Company, a top music venue in Birmingham, Alabama.
Most credit the 2011 opening of Avondale Brewing Company as a big player in revitalizing the Avondale neighborhood, which started as a company mill town in the late 1800s. It thrived in the early 1900s after the city annexed it, and yet fell into a high-crime, run-down area by the 1970s. Today, Avondale is considered one of the best places to live in Birmingham.
The brewing company is located in an 1885 building that fell into disrepair by the late 1980s after housing many businesses over the century before, including a bunkhouse, bank, confectionary, and saloon.
A pair of brothers, Colby and Hunter Lake, joined two more partners, Chris Donaldson and Craig Shaw, to launch the brewery business in 2010. They welcomed their first customers to the taproom a year later.
Fun facts about the brewery's logo: It features Miss Fancy, an elephant resident of the first Birmingham Zoo that was located in Avondale Park until it closed in the 1930s. According to James L. Baggett writing for Alabama Heritage, she was sold to a circus that renamed her Bama and brought her out on their circuit two of the four years they had her. At that point, she was sold to a zoo in Buffalo, New York, where she lived until her death in 1954.
In 2016, the brewery opened its first Sour Room focusing on sour ales and cocktails. After operating in another location, it moved next door to the main brewery in 2019. In between, a development group bought the brewery property as part of a package deal in 2017. A few years later, fellow Birmingham brewers Good People Brewing Company purchased the business and continues to preserve the brand.
In 2021, the brewery opened a new feature next to Sour Room – Cinderella Story, a space with a state-of-the-art indoor HD Golf simulator. You can book your tee time online and then check in with the bartender at Avondale for access.
Even with these fabulous indoor spaces, Avondale Brewing's backyard is its most popular draw, whether for daytime lounging, special events, movie nights, festivals, or music.
Avondale Music hosts a packed schedule of nationally touring artists and local bands on the main outdoor stage and smaller, indoor venue called "The Upstairs." The backyard venue holds about 3,000 people, making it a much more intimate outdoor setting for bands you'l also see playing much larger amphitheater shows.
You can find operating hours and all of the latest concert dates for this top music venue in Birmingham, Alabama on the Avondale Brewing Company website or the Avondale Music dedicated Facebook page. The company also has individual Facebook pages for the brewing company and Sour Room.
Have you seen a show at Avondale Brewing Company? We’d love to hear all about it and who you’re planning to see next. If you’re looking for a great place to stay while there, check out this cozy cottage in the heart of Avondale.
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