Beer

5 steps local breweries are taking to make the most of things

From delivery to new beer releases, breweries are helping ease our pandemic anxiety.

Night Shift's new year-round IPA, Fluffinity. Night Shift Brewing

By Gary Dzen

3 minutes to read

Things could certainly be better.

Massachusetts taprooms are shut down amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and breweries are almost universally struggling to make up half, or in some cases nearly all, of the revenue they depend on.

“It’s a lot to replace,” says Barrel House Z founder Russ Heissner. “And as any restaurant and bar owner will tell you, it’s a lot of gross profit, and not just revenue, to replace as well.”

It’s a situation many brewers say is not sustainable, with the only relief in sight the hope of relaxed social distancing rules that get breweries, bars, and restaurants operating at some semblance of normalcy sometime in the future.

But craft brewers are a resilient bunch, a group that largely came into business swimming upstream against bigger competition, and have continued to innovate and contribute to the community since.

Here are five ways Massachusetts brewers are making the best of it.

They’re offering curbside pickup and delivery.

Dozens of local Massachusetts breweries are offering curbside beer pickup, and in some cases delivery.

“Some part of us was like, ‘Is anybody even gonna want this?’ Trillium co-founder Esther Tetreault said of a delivery model that’s been up and running for a few weeks. “But we’ve gotten some really positive feedback.”

Last week, I received a Trillium delivery myself to my home on the South Shore. Ordering was easy — I logged onto Trillium’s website the day before, and a mixed case of pastry stouts and IPAs arrived at my house in a refrigerated van. I definitely missed the opportunity to try a few small pours of the beers in a tap room before making my selection, but Trillium is Trillium, and free delivery for beers like that may never come around again.

More delivery notes: If you’re ordering from Trillium, log on early. Each day is a different delivery zone, and slots fill up minutes after opening. Several smaller breweries are delivering as well and may be more local to you; it never hurts to call and ask. Finally, Night Shift entered into the delivery space just a few days ago, and will bring you coffee as well as beer.

Parties are canceled, but many new beers aren’t.

In a Facebook post last week, Notch Brewing founder Chris Lohring wrote, “We will never have a 10 year anniversary party, but the beer was already brewed and we can crack one open on Zoom. You’ll see this in a few weeks.” Attached to the post was a flyer for Desítka, a triple-decocted lager that’s sure to be as special as everything Notch makes.

Idle Hands’ Farmhouse Pale was just canned and is ready to drink. Lamplighter just dropped Overnight Oats, a wild oat lager brewed in collaboration with Cambridge Brewing Co. Night Shift is also cranking out new releases, including Fluffinity, a year-round IPA with notes of pineapple candy, and Nite Heavy, the big brother of Nite Lite and the Everett brewery’s answer to a much larger, multinational beer company’s crisp, clean American lager.

Some good beer is showing up in surprising places.

Night Shift’s distribution arm dropped a big surprise on April 2 with the announcement that it would be distributing famed Alchemist beers Heady Topper and Focal Banger to Massachusetts. Drops were limited to specific towns, and a Night Shift rep says it’s unclear whether or not this will happen again. But don’t be surprised if it does, or if other out-of-the-way breweries follow suit.

Of course, you should support local breweries as often as you can. Here’s a list of 10 Mass. IPAs that would be perfect to drink right now.

Breweries are still connecting people . . .

In normal times, the Rhino Run Club meets every Sunday afternoon at Old Planters Brewing Co. in Beverly, pounding out a few miles before returning to the tap room. These are not normal times, but the club is still meeting (virtually) anyway. This past Saturday, the group hosted a virtual relay, raising funds for workers at Beverly hospital.

. . . and they’re giving back.

Since opening in 2015, Jack’s Abby has periodically donated pizzas to those who need them. The Framingham brewery is continuing that effort now, launching a program to help donate at least 150 pizzas a week to organizations assisting those affected by COVID-19.

Harpoon’s 5-miler for ALS research, scheduled for May 17 and which has raised over $2.1 million for the cause to date, is going virtual for the first time. In addition, Samuel Adams is partnering with the Greg Hill Foundation to donate $2 million to help kick start the Restaurant Strong fund to aid workers affected by COVID-19 closures.

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