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On July 25, 1801, John Milledge purchased 633 acres of land near a trade settlement along the banks of the Oconee River, and donated them to the University of Georgia — which was chartered 16 years prior. He named the area Athens, homage to the original city that was home to the academy of Plato and Aristotle in ancient Greece.
Plato’s school of philosophy was founded at Akademia in the year 385 BC amidst a sacred grove of olive trees. One of the first-known institutions of higher learning and research, it was a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill.
Like the Academy of Plato, the University of Georgia was the birthplace of American higher education. And much like the city with which it shares a name, Athens is recognized as the Classic City, with Greek-inspired architecture, history and higher learning.
It’s for these reasons that our founders, Matt Casey and Morgan Wireman, chose to deem this brewery Akademia: named for the location of the Academy of Plato, inspired by the Classic City elements in the Athens it calls home.
As Plato himself reportedly said, “the beginning is the most important part of the work.” The beginning of Akademia Brewing is rooted in nearly 30 combined years of homebrewing beer, dedicated study of the craft brewery market and navigation of state laws regarding breweries. Matt and Morgan chose to go the route of the brewpub, which combines food, drink and space to gather, inspired by the agoras of old.