THE GIST
Just a year removed from opening a second facility 20 miles south of the city, Boston’s Trillium Brewing is embarking on yet another sizable expansion. The brewery, renowned for its hazy New England-style IPAs, today announced plans to relocate from its cramped Fort Point location to a run a much larger brewery in the same neighborhood.
“Our new Boston brewery will be a long-awaited expansion for all of us,” company co-founder Esther Tetreault wrote in an open letter published Thursday. “For now, let’s just say there will be more of everything: more beer, (way) more space, and more fun.”
WHY IT MATTERS
In a mere three years, Trillium has established itself as one of the Northeast’s most exalted breweries, easily fetching as much as $22 for a 4-pack of any one of its highly coveted IPAs.
Early demand was such that, by the end of year two, the company outgrew its miniscule space in Fort Point and opened a 16,000 sq. ft. brewery and taproom in Canton with a theoretical capacity to produce 35,000 barrels a year. Even with that added space, though, Trillium beer has remained elusive. The company sells nearly all of it directly to customers and only self-distributes to a handful of retailers, somewhat unpredictably. Meaning, if you want Trillium, your best bet is to head to the source itself, be it in Canton or Fort Point.
This new project sounds like it should only embolden the company’s come-hither approach to selling beer. Brewbound reports that the new 15,000 sq. ft. space will include a full-scale restaurant, outdoor patio seating, and, pending feasibility, a roof deck bar. Production-wise, the company plans to install a 20-BBL brewhouse as well as wooden foeders for aging sour beer and will experiment with styles it’s not primarily known for. The facility is slated to open by early 2018.
The new brewery wasn’t the only announcement the company made today. Equally massive, if somewhat notional in nature, Esther said in her note that the company is “looking and dreaming” of building out a third home, this one a farmhouse brewery in Connecticut.
“The farmhouse brewery was our original dream long before we even built our first home on Congress Street,” she wrote. “It would be at minimum a two-year project, and we don’t even have a farm yet. But it sure is fun to keep planning and dreaming.”
The company has done a bit more to grease the wheels than just dream, however. This past November, JC described the brewery’s vision to officials in North Stonington, a town 105 miles south of Boston. Per The Day, the company envisages an “estate brewery” where hops, barley, and other ingredients would be grown onsite. “A large barn on the property could be used for the events and be served by a small kitchen, while a smaller horse barn could easily serve as the brewing location,” The Day reported at the time.
Today, the company further committed to its non-commitment, though, with Esther writing: “We need to make sure we have the right space, in a town and community that will welcome and support us, and can make it easy for all of our fans to visit.”
For now, they’ll keep dreaming.
—Dave Eisenberg
READ MORE
A Letter From Esther (Mrs. Trillium) [Trillium]