EATONTON, Ga. — There are few joys in life that bring everyone together. Luckily for the Lake Country, there is something new coming where all three of those simple pleasures will be in one place.

Brewed by Bruzze Brewing in Eatonton, ‘Live at The Plaza,’ is a new blonde ale.

‘Live at The Plaza’ is a collaborative effort between Visit Eatonton, The Plaza Arts Center and of course, Bruzze Brewing.

Visit Eatonton took the initiative to form a great partnership with Bruzze Brewing when they came to the area and opened the brewery. As a tourism effort, Visit Eatonton, wanted to create a beer that represented the artistic facet of the town that makes it so special. Then, enter The Plaza. As a mainstay of Eatonton, The Plaza brings arts and culture to the area.

Between Visit Eatonton wanting to celebrate the arts and The Plaza wanting a specialty beer to sell at events, a perfect combination was formed. The Plaza and Visit Eatonton worked together with Bruzze Brewing to create the tasty blonde ale.

“Working together with The Plaza Arts Center and Bruzze Brewing to create ‘Live at The Plaza’ was a fantastic experience,” said Hannah Tyson, tourism director of Eatonton-Putnam Chamber of Commerce. “This unique beer captures the vibrant artistic energy of our beloved town. It has been truly inspiring to see our local organizations unite in creating something that not only celebrates Eatonton, but also showcases our community’s creativity and spirit.”

It’s of utmost importance to Visit Eatonton to support organizations in the community and this collaboration was a great, unique way to do that.

“We are excited to release our first collaboration beer this month called Live at the Plaza,” Peggy Teufel, one of the owners of Bruzze Brewing said. “Hannah Tyson and Taylor Surman approached us in 2023 about doing a collaboration beer with Visit Eatonton and The Plaza in downtown Eatonton. As a brewery, we have seen the success from other breweries when a collaboration beer is created in partnership with the local businesses, visitor centers and community theaters.” In fact, this idea came from other “tourism beers.”

The crew involved in planning ‘Live at The Plaza’ looked at the success of beers like the ‘Golden Isles IPA’ from Silver Bluff brewery and ‘A Night on Ponce’ from Three Taverns brewery to get inspiration.

“We knew we wanted a sippable beer for our patrons,” Taylor Surman, marketing director at The Plaza said. “Being able to design a beer label has been a dream of mine for a while and this was the perfect storm to make that happen.”

Live at the Plaza is a blonde ale that has a crisp light flavor, with notes of fruitiness and a hint of malt sweetness.

“This is a beer that everyone will enjoy,” Teufel said.

“Something for everyone is what we were going for,” Surman said. “There’s something for everyone at The Plaza. Whether it’s a cover band or a theatrical performance, The Plaza welcomes everyone and we wanted a beer that showcased that.”

‘Live at The Plaza’ will officially be released Aug. 15 with a beer release party at the brewery. This will be the first day that the beer is available in the taproom at Bruzze Brewing.

Justin Huff, a local musician known for playing at restaurants all over the Lake Oconee area, will be playing live from 6 to 8 p.m. There will be a food truck and of course, lots of beer.

The event is free to attend, but beer will be purchased at the brewery.

Bruzze Brewing is located at 170 Scott Road, Suite 2 Eatonton.