ATLANTA — To hear it from Georgia's brewery and distillery operators, it has been a long, but now fruitful road, to get here. A "game-changing piece of legislation," says Jim Chasteen, CEO and co-founder of ASW Distillery in Atlanta, of the new state law now in effect as of Sept. 1.

Governor Nathan Deal earlier this year signed Senate Bill 85. No longer does a manufacturer have to only sell its product to a wholesaler, who would then in turn sell to retailers. Now, Chasteen's business, and other distillers and breweries, can sell direct to their customers at their site.

Georgia becomes one of the last states in the country to allow limited sales direct from the manufacturer.

"It's the difference between having a craft movement in Georgia, and just not having one," Chasteen tells WSB.

At his distillery, Chasteen said up until now, customers had to buy a tour, which allowed for three samples of his bourbon. In some cases, a bottle of his product was attached to the tour. Now, visitors can buy up to three 750 ml bottles of liquor at a time. At breweries, the new law now allows purchase of up to a case of beer per visit.

"I think it gives us a way to market ourselves, in a way we hadn't been able to previously," says Jonathan Baker, co-founder of Atlanta's Monday Night Brewing. His business has been up and running since 2011, and now is ready to take that next big step into what he hopes is solid profitability.

"We've really been staffing-up," says Baker, "hiring additional managers, bartenders, sales people, with the intent of really capitalizing on it." That expansion includes Monday Night opening a second brewery later this month, next to ASW Distillery, which itself is expanding into a new space in the West End.

Both Chasteen and Baker see this law as giving craft alcohol tourism a big boost in Georgia. Chasteen says this law comes just in time. "We cannot wait 10 or 15 years to get people trained to ask what's the local spirit selection look like here. That has to happen in short order, and this law greases the skids for that."

Simply put from Monday Night's Baker, "I think you'll see a lot of folks kind of exploring craft beer in Atlanta and Georgia more."