Dorchester Brewing

Brew Blog

By in Brew Blog Comments Off on Happy Birthday To Us!

Happy Birthday To Us!

As we approach our one year anniversary, we can’t help but remain in awe about how much support and love we’ve gotten from our friends, customers, partners, family, neighbors and industry folks to help us get to this point. Thank you just doesn’t seem enough – you all are the reason why we are celebrating this milestone!!!!

It seems incredible that it was only one year ago when we were planning to open our doors for the very first time and getting all of the last minute details finalized in the tap room and prepping for our ribbon cutting ceremony with the Mayor. And today we are doing our final prep for our biggest party of the year on Saturday! It seriously went by in the blink of an eye. And, we are beyond thrilled for where we are today and even more invigorated at what’s to come for the future!

Here’s some of the bigger milestones we’ve hit throughout our very first year:

36: Number of Dorchester Brewing Co. Beer Styles Brewed

12: Total Number of Partner Breweries

33: Number of Partners Beer Styles Brewed

4,167: Total Barrels Brewed

33: Total Number of Employees

81: Total Number of Charitable Partners Donated Towards

34: Number of Food Trucks and Vendors Hosted at the Brewery

253: Instagram Pictures Posted

541: Number of Events and Parties Hosted

1,800: Current Barrels Brewing Per Month

LIMITLESS: Happy Customers Who Love Our Beer

Thank you again to everyone that made this last year the best one yet! Please join us in celebrating our birthday on Saturday. The city of Boston has given us a one day permit to double our capacity, so that means no long lines to get in – we’ve got double the space and double the fun. As part of our celebration, we’ve got a pig roast and food from the Bacon Truck, a very limited fresh beer release honoring our 1 year anniversary, live music and LOTS of giveaways, including our limited edition 1 year anniversary glassware, free cupcakes and pretzels and more. Here’s the full schedule:

ALL DAY: Pig Roast, Beer Release and 25% off all Merchandise

Captain Squib BEER RELEASE: To celebrate our one year anniversary, we brewed a classic East Coast IPA fermented with the Sac Trois yeast strain for pronounced pineapple character, accompanied by tropical fruit notes from Idaho 7 and Citra hops. 6.5% ABV

11:30am: Free Custom Limited Edition 1 Year Anniversary Glassware for the first 150 people in the door

12pm-2pm: FREE Soft Pretzels from the guys at Wicked Twisted

12:30-1:30: Special Surprise Musical Guest (may or may not be a large bear playing a keytar) 😉

1pm-8pm: The Bacon Truck (they are serving from their truck and the pig roast should be ready late afternoon around 3ish)

2-5pm: Live music from Summer Beard

6pm: Celebratory Cupcakes for ALL

7:30pm – Close: DJ Sprino Spinning 80’s Dance Party

By in Brew Blog Comments Off on Brewery Tours Are Up and Running

Brewery Tours Are Up and Running

If you’ve always wanted to get into the back of our brewery and learn all about how we make beer in our Boston facility, what ingredients go into the brewing process, the history of how DBco started and all about our partner brewing, your wishes have been granted! We’ve started running brewery tours in the Tap Room every Saturday.

Tours will be running on the hour between 12 and 3pm. If you’d like to join, we’ll have a sign up list in the Tap Room before the tour. Tours will be limited to the first 10 people to sign up. Tours are free to the public, but we do ask that you would give a $5 suggested cash donation to a local charity. You get to choose which jar to throw your money into: College Bound, Horizons for Homeless Children and Dorchester Historical Society.

We hope that you will join us and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out!

By in Brew Blog Comments Off on It’s a Collaboration: Guest Post from City Brew Tours

It’s a Collaboration: Guest Post from City Brew Tours

As part of our mission to highlight our contract brewing partners, today we’re featuring a guest blog showcasing a recent collaboration brew with City Brew Tours and Down the Road Beer Company, written by Malcolm Purinton, City Brew Tour Boston Guide and Beer Historian.

What a fun morning! We, the guides and crew of City Brew Tours Boston, joined Donovan Bailey of Down the Road Beer Company and everyone at Dorchester Brewing today to put together our first collaboration beer ever! Down the Road is one of Dorchester’s partner breweries and is brewing several of its great brews on site. In addition, Dorchester Brewing is one of our newest City Brew Tour partners and it was a pleasure to be able to have us all in one place collaborating!

Today was a rather dark and rainy day here in Boston, which made it a perfect time to be inside brewing on Dorchester’s 5-barrel pilot system! Cody, Dorchester Brewing’s assistant brewer, led the way and showed us step-by-step how they do things at DBC. He started by pouring specialty grains into the mill using the recipe that Donovan created with the Boston Brew Tour guides. Even though it was 8am, we enjoyed some delightful breakfast beer including DBco’s tart Resolution Berliner and Jamaican rum-barrel-aged Bikini Bottom. We hope ours comes out even half as good!

What were we brewing do you ask? Well, a perfect beer for a frigid Boston winter: a hot chocolate flavored porter that we’re calling Wicked Wintah! We came up with the recipe and ingredients through collaboration with DBco and Down the Road by combining the flavors of Down the Road’s London-style porter with a touch of vanilla, a bit of lactose, and some cocoa nibs. It will be a delicious and cozy way to enjoy whatever this wintah turns out to be like. Here’s hoping for more snow and less rain!

While the misty winter rain fell outside, Cody got our wort up to a nice boil and Matt, Dorchester Brewing Co-founder/CEO, led us on a personal tour of the brewery – including the huge freezer in the back! During the tour Matt told us all about the history behind DBco and how they work closely with their many brewing partners. Seeing how shiny and new everything was made us all very excited to show off DBco’s operation to our future tour guests!

With today’s brewing complete and the Wicked Wintah beginning its primary fermentation, we cannot wait to taste it! The team and I are so grateful for the opportunity to brew with the folks at DTR and DBco!

In just a few weeks, we’re going to share this Wicked Wintah porter at a release party hosted by DBco. With some sweet original artwork by Down the Road’s remarkable label artist, this brew will be packaged and available in crowlers and on draught in select locations come late January. The release party is scheduled for Friday, January 27th at Dorchester Brewing Company from 5pm-11pm. Is there a theme you ask? Yes, we felt a Wicked Wintah 80’s ski party would be RAD! If your wardrobe lacks 80s’ winter gear, just dress ’80s!

We’ll be giving away City Brew Tours swag as well as a special getaway package that includes Ski Tickets with City Brew Tours tickets.

The folks at the M&M Rib Truck will be there all night! We’ll have snacks to enjoy on-hand as well as a special treat provided by City Brew Tours for the first 20 guests who purchase a pint of Wicked Wintah!

Come after work, come for a night out, whatever you prefer! Either way, we can’t wait to see you there!

 

By in Brew Blog Comments Off on Holiday Events and Hours

Holiday Events and Hours

Holiday season is upon us! Besides planning some awesome events, we wanted to share our updated business hours during the holidays, so that you can plan accordingly!
Holiday Hours
  • Christmas Eve: 12/24/16- 11:30am-6pm
  • Christmas Day: 12/25/16- CLOSED
  • New Year’s Eve: 12/31/16- 11:30am-12:30AM *Extended business hoursfor New Years Eve Bash!
  • New Year’s Day: 01/01/17- CLOSED
Upcoming Holiday Events

Don’t forget to stock up for your next holiday party – When you buy 4 Crowlers (32oz cans), you get a FREE DBco T-shirt through Christmas! We also have gift cards available for purchase in any amount in the Tap Room.

By in Brew Blog Comments Off on Down the Road Beer Company Announces the Newest Addition to its Session Beer Lineup: Patchwork Kilt Scottish Ale

Down the Road Beer Company Announces the Newest Addition to its Session Beer Lineup: Patchwork Kilt Scottish Ale

We’re thrilled to share the news about Down the Road Beer Company’s newest addition to the company’s session beer lineup brewed at Dorchester Brewing Company!

Here’s a copy of their latest press release announcing the beer details and info on the upcoming launch party at DBco:

Down The Road Beer Company is pleased to announce the Patchwork Kilt Scottish Ale, the newest addition to the company’s session beer lineup. This malt-forward beer is hauntingly complex with deep, rustic notes of dried fruit and fresh honey. Patchwork Kilt clocks in at 4.5% ABV, the perfect balance for taking the edge off without losing your wits. This Ale pours a dark copper with a creamy head. The nose is thick and almost bready with a faint hint of currants. On the palate, Kilt is smooth, almost silky, with a delicate, honeyed sweetness that gives way to roasty malt and a homely smokiness.

Each beer from Down The Road draws on a character from folklore often with an emphasis on the region from which the brew originates. The Patchwork Kilt is an homage to the Headless Drummer of Edinburgh Castle, a protective spirit that strikes fear into the hearts of intruders, villains and blaggards who would threaten the ancient stronghold of the Scots.

The Patchwork Kilt was brewed under contract at Dorchester Brewing Company in Dorchester, MA. This is the first beer Down The Road has brewed at Dorchester Brewing Company, Boston’s first and only dedicated partnership brewing facility. In response to strong customer demand for its Fresh, Local and Inspired beer, Down The Road will be opening its own Taproom and Brewery in Everett, MA in early 2017 and is also expanding its contract brewing relationships. The company hopes to brew additional styles at Dorchester Brewing Company later this year while maintaining its existing brewing relationships. Down The Road will be the first Brewing Partner for Dorchester Brewing which opened in July 2016.

To celebrate this partnership and the release of Down the Road’s Patchwork Kilt Scottish Ale, the companies are hosting a release party at Dorchester Brewing Company at 1250 Massachusetts Avenue in Dorchester on Friday, November 4th from 6-11pm. The event will include complimentary traditional Scottish fare from The Haven in Boston, as well as Down the Road Beer merchandise specials. Partners from Down the Road will be on hand to serve up the Kilt. For more information about the event, visit: //www.dorchesterbrewing.com/events/event/downtheroad/

 

By in Brew Blog, Meet Our Team Comments Off on All About Quality Control (And Fred!)

All About Quality Control (And Fred!)

As part of our “Meet the Team” series, we’ve been introducing you to members on our team that make it all happen! Today, we’re excited to get to the down and dirty of actually making the beer…good beer at that. In fact, the best. We’re extremely proud of the steps we put in place to ensure the highest quality beer production for all of our beers including our house beers as well as our brewing partners. To that end…have ya met Fred?

209

Fred Hamp, DBco’s Lab & Quality Assurance Manager became involved with DBco from his old friend Todd, our Head Brewer, from their days at Harpoon. Fred had been a stay at home dad for a few years and the timing was right for him to re-emerge into the craft beer scene at Boston’s newest startup. Fred has been with us since our building was a bit of a construction zone and he helped us design our QA program from the ground up (literally from the dirt floor!).

Fred’s love affair with brewing started long ago, fresh out of college. He hounded every brewpub and brewery in the Buffalo area until finally Tim Herzog of Flying Bison Brewery took pity on a him and let him clean kegs and access his brewing library. While there, Fred became committed to brewing professionally and saved his pennies to pay for the Master Brewers Program at University California Davis. After graduating, he took a job with Harpoon and did pretty much every job in the business until finding his passion for Quality Assurance and Control. After working with Todd at Harpoon, the rest was history!

When we tasked Fred with developing our lab and QA program, we told him to go big or go home.  As Fred mentioned, “The lab and QA program at DBco is state of the art for a brewery even 5 times our size. We place the quality of our brews on a pretty high pedestal.” When pulling it all together, he purchased the best equipment out there to ensure a high quality end product including: A Haffmans combined CO2/02 meter with piercing station for cans/bottles, a laminar flow hood that is PCR ready for micro work, a pharmaceutical grade spectrophotomer, a microscope for quantification of yeast, an autoclave, incubator, and more! We’ve got quite the science lab in the middle of the brewery.

When he’s not elbows up in beer, Fred loves to immerse himself in the craft beer culture. When we asked him his favorite beer, he said, “
I think choice is incredibly important. As an example, who wants to listen to the same album over and over again?  Sometimes you want speed metal, other times EDM, funk or classic rock. When I drink beer, I usually let the season/ time of year influence me. My favorite DBco beer right now is the soon to be released Baltic Porter.  It is incredibly balanced and complex… a real treat.”
And, as a last word from Fred, he believes”Beer is culture.  People come together over beer and this allows an environment for ideas and beliefs to swirl together.  The diversity of the community in Dorchester makes this dynamic even more exciting.”