Peach State brew: Athens man fills a niche with Georgia's unofficial lite beer

Jake Sapp always has that look about him. A big smile, drooping shoulders resulting from his 6-foot-8 stature, and a Peach State Lite cap atop his head. But there was a time the cap lost its perch.

“I just met this awesome group visiting from Mexico,” he recently shared. “They were drinking my beer, so I introduced myself and gave them my hat.”

The gesture perfectly expresses his easygoing demeanor.

Just six months after risking it all to make his own beer, Peach State Lite has sold more than 20,000 beers at more than 150 locations throughout Georgia. Additionally, his newest client, Circle K, plans to sell the beer in another 50 stores.

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'The unofficial beer of Georgia'

When Sapp started Peach State Lite, he had one goal: to make the go-to light beer for the state of Georgia. The slogan came fairly easy: “The unofficial beer of Georgia.”

One glaring problem stood in the way of making that happen. He had no experience in the beer industry.

Sapp had spent seven years at Extra Special People, a nonprofit that serves children with disabilities headquartered in Watkinsville. In August 2020, he decided to take a month-long road trip with his Boykin Spaniel to travel across the country in his camper truck.

In between the camping and hiking, he visited breweries, sampling each state’s regional light beer. That’s when he said the idea hit him.

“Every state I visited had their own really cool light beer,” Sapp said. “It made me realize that Georgia needed something like that. I brought all the creative ideas I discovered from that trip back with me.”

After leaving ESP on “great terms” in February 2022, he started working for his Athens-based family business, Modern Body Shop. With the extra time on his hands, he was able to put his thoughts to fruition.

“Not a week later, all my creativity from the trip just came rushing back,” Sapp said. “That’s when I really got set on making Peach State Lite happen.”

Brewing up a business

Sapp first reached out to his former roommate at the University of Georgia Aaron Bisges, who owns the brewery StillFire Brewing in Suwanee. While skeptical at first, Bisges decided to serve as Peach State Lite’s official brewing partner.

Now that Sapp had a place to brew his beer, his next step was to find a place to sell it. He reached out to his high school best friend’s wife, Katie Morris, director of marketing for Golden Pantry.

By August 2022, Peach State Lite was on the shelves of more than 30 Golden Pantry locations across the region.

“He’s genuine and good at selling his idea on what makes a good Georgia beer,” Morris said. “I think that resonates a lot with our customers.”

“For years, I’ve seen that if Jake’s going to be a part of something he’s going to give it his all,” Morris said. “I knew that especially locally, we would have a good partner in someone who was going to create something and work hard to see it be successful.”

Sapp then got in touch with Paloma Park, a restaurant in downtown Athens. The general manager, Hank Sewell, was instantly sold and became the first restaurant or bar to sell Peach State Lite.

“The Golden Pantry and Paloma Park allowed me to have two flagships that I could use to pitch Peach State Lite to other places,” Sapp said. “The ball really started rolling from there.”

With the recent addition of Circle K, Sapp continues to make Peach State Lite recognizable to all beer drinkers across the state.

“Five years from now, I want Peach State Lite to be the highest-selling independent beer in Georgia,” he said. “That would be a dream.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Road trip inspires Athens man to create Georgia's unofficial beer