Craft brewing community member killed in hit-and-run

KENNESAW, Ga. — Friends are remembering a man who was hit and killed while walking along a busy road.

They say Dan Rosen, 58, was a big influence on the local craft brewery scene.

Crime scene tape still marks the spot on Briarcliff Road where Rosen was killed early Tuesday.

His friends told Channel 2’s Justin Wilfon Thursday evening that they want to make sure he's remembered not for how he died but for his big contribution to Atlanta’s growing beer scene.

At Burnt Hickory Brewery in Kennesaw, there's a new beer on the menu. The owner named it after Rosen, who had been his friend.

"He really loved beer. Not just the drinking of it. But the making of it. What goes behind it," friend Scott Hedeen said.

Rosen helped lead the charge in Atlanta’s booming craft brewing scene but now he'll never see what it might become.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Rosen died after DeKalb police say a driver hit him while he was walking on Briarcliff Road.

"My Facebook blew up, my phone blew up, and everyone said, 'Hey guess what? Dan Rosen is dead," Hedeen told Wilfon.

A police report reveals the driver took off. Someone later found Rosen lying in the road. With no apparent witnesses to the incident, solving the case could prove difficult for police.

"No crime ever goes unseen. The person who did it, saw it," Hedeen said.

Rosen's friends want justice for the man who sometimes brewed his beer, called MAZURT, at Burnt Hickory.

His beer was so good, many people thought Rosen could someday open his own brewery.

"You knew about Dan. Dan was a legend in the beer scene,” friend Michael Cyrop said.

On Thursday night, they renamed a similar beer "Dan"zurt as a special toast to their late friend.

"Something's missing there now. There's a piece missing in the Atlanta beer scene. And he was a big part of that," Cyrop said.

His friends aren't sure why Rosen was walking along Briarcliff, but they say he lived in the area.

Rosen apparently was hit so hard one of his shoes was found 75 feet down the road.

Cox Media Group