ATLANTA MAGAZINE — With the FIFA World Cup expected to bring thousands of soccer fans to the city this summer, Monday Night Brewing co-founder and CEO Joel Iverson knew he had to do something interesting to make his brewery stand out. Last year, he went to a World Cup information session for small businesses hosted by the city, and the gist, he says, was, “If you’re not right near the stadium, you’ve got to come up with something really good to draw people [in].”

Knowing that there’s a large overlap between soccer and craft beer fans, Iverson and his team decided to wait and see which international teams would be playing in Atlanta, then try to collaborate with a brewery from one of those countries to create a unique, World Cup-themed brew. Iverson says the goal was to make Monday Night “a welcoming hub” for fans from other countries.

“There is a craft brewery in almost every country, and they share the same values of community we as a craft brewery do,” Iverson says.

Of the 10 countries coming to Atlanta for group stage matches, Iverson and his team picked two with strong beer cultures to try to collaborate with: Spain and Czechia. But with just a couple of months left before World Cup games began, the team had to quickly find international breweries who were willing to partner up. [MORE]