Once Tech alumni and Pi Kappa Phi fraternity brothers Jason Santamaria, Mgt 06, and Chris Doyle, Mgt 07, MBA 11, discovered what real beer was, getting together and opening their own brewery—the Second Self Beer Company—was all but inevitable.
That night at Rocky Mountain Pizza changed Jason Santamaria’s life. Normally, he was there every Monday, playing trivia with his Georgia Tech pals. But that week, everyone bailed except his buddy Brian Brady, who ended up winning $50 in house cash all by himself. After a quick phone call to their friend Chris Doyle to share the good news, it was time for the guys to step up and help Brian drink that prize.
“We decided the three of us couldn’t muster through that many $4 pitchers of Miller High Life,” Santamaria remembers. “We asked the barkeep what their most expensive beer was, and it was Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout, for a whopping $8 a pint. It was magical—rich, smooth, roasty, delicious, balanced and just wonderful. Ever since, beer has never been the same, nothing has been the same.”
As fraternity brothers, Santamaria and Doyle bonded early over The Big Lebowski and Adult Swim cartoons, and once they were of legal drinking age, they started bartending at parties. While hard liquor was their passion at first, after that evening with Sam Smith and his delicious Oatmeal Stout, the pair got to talking about beer on a regular basis.
“The time living under the same roof at the fraternity house gave us the ability to understand each other’s backgrounds and how we approached life,” Doyle says. “That’s the biggest leg up we had from our time at Tech—getting personality conflicts out of our systems, becoming friends and moving on to create Second Self.”
Opened last September, Second Self Beer Company stands just a few miles up the road from Tech, in the same industrial complex that once housed one of Georgia’s very first breweries, the Dogwood Brewing Company. It’s also the space that once belonged to Bill Loy Foods, the company that handles, amongst other things, the potato salad for Hooters franchises all over the country.
The brewery houses 20 barrel tanks and can produce up to 2,400 barrels of beer a year. The duo specializes in making “bold but balanced beers” such as Thai Wheat, Red Hop Rye, a LIPA (Light India Pale Ale), a Saison and a chocolate-centric Mole Porter.
“Red Hop is our top seller, but Thai Wheat is a close second,” Santamaria says. “But most of the surprises have been on the sales side, not the brewing side. We have to constantly prove ourselves to restaurant managers and owners that we have a superior product.”
SEE RELATED STORY: How Second Self Makes its Thai Wheat Beer
Not content to rest on their core line, Second Self is also working on a couple limited-edition specialty beers—JunIPA (an India Pale Ale with juniper and rosemary, inspired by gin) and Bleeding Heart (a red ale with cocoa and vanilla, inspired by red velvet cake). Santamaria says he hopes to have Thai Wheat cans in the market this summer, and that more specialty beers and experimental one-offs are in the works, as well as collaborations with brewers both near (Twain’s Brewpub & Billiards in nearby Decatur) and far (2nd Shift Brewing in New Haven, Mo.).
It was the pair’s time at Georgia Tech that gave them the skills to open their own business in their early 30s. Santamaria reminisces fondly on the mental challenges of college, how he figured out essentials such as hard work, determination and problem solving. Doyle says his critical thinking expanded exponentially during his time at Tech. Santamaria graduated with a bachelor’s degree in management in 2006 and a background in software sales; Doyle with a management degree in 2007, then an MBA in 2011.
While working in “regular” jobs, they each experimented with home brewing and grew more entranced with the idea of making beer a full-time occupation.
After graduate school, Doyle earned his certification from the American Brewers Guild and spent a year learning the commercial brewing ropes at SweetWater Brewing Company in Atlanta—the country’s 19th biggest craft brewery by volume. He serves as Second Self’s “Alechemist,” in charge of brewing operations, while Santamaria leads sales and marketing as the company’s “Beer Architect.”
“Chris is grain to door, and I am door to glass,” Santamaria says. But he also plays a pivotal role as Second Self’s “taste ambassador,” drawing upon his experience in the restaurant business to help Doyle develop flavor profiles and recipes for the beer they make.
The name Second Self, of course, signifies the glorious present where they’ve ditched their traditional business careers to pursue their love of beer. Their day-to-day activities now revolve around making and selling beer together—and seeing it on tap at their favorite places. Brick Store Pub. Leon’s Full Service. Holeman & Finch Public House.
Santamaria doesn’t mince words when it’s time to give thanks.
“Having a Tech degree opened up many doors that allowed me to see the country and the world,” he says. “From my time living in San Diego, to the personal travel I was able to do in Belgium and Thailand that inspired several beers we craft now. Arguably the most important are the friends I made at Georgia Tech. Only with their support and encouragement, and the skills we acquired at Tech, were we able to build this company.”
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