Dorchester Brewing

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By in Brew Blog Comments Off on Fall Beer Profiles and Oktoberfest

Fall Beer Profiles and Oktoberfest

oktoberfest_image

Now that we’re into September, you’ve been seeing a change on tap at your favorite bar and liquor stores. To really get into the spirit of fall beer, we thought we’d talk about fall beer flavor profiles and what exactly it is about fall beer that makes it so…..fall. And what you can expect for the next month at DBco.

When you’re looking at a traditional fall beer flavor profile, there are some obvious differences then summer beers – no matter what type of beer drinker you are from novice to expert. Fall beers typically have a maltier profile than summer beers, which are often dry and quenching. Traditionally, the German Fest beer and Austrian Vienna Lager are the go-to styles for Fall. Both have smooth, lasting malt flavors accompanied by the herbal and spicy hop notes that German hops are known for. For Fall, our Head Brewer, Todd Charbonneau thinks of darker, sweeter malt profiles with generally more substance than Summer beers, so that’s what you’ll be tasting. Todd and the rest of our team over here love to transition into a deeper beer with these flavors with a lasting, smooth finish. But, not too early! We waited until post-Labor day for a reason. Don’t rush it – just enjoy it. Fall never tasted so sweet.

Where exactly does all of this Oktoberfest come from? If you want a little mini history lesson, the original October fest or Marzen style was typically brewed in March (Marzen). Then, they cellared it in cool caves throughout the warm German Summer to drink in the fall. The original Munich Oktoberfest was held in October of 1810 to celebrate the marriage of Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese. Today, Munich continues to celebrate annual every mid-September through early October, known as Oktoberfest. Us Americans, as we typically do, latched on to have our own celebration!

To kick things off, TODAY we are releasing our very own Oktoberfest beer called Dorchester Festbier. It’s our version of the German Fall classic that is fully bright and deep golden. It’s brewed with Vienna and Pilsner malts with malty sweetness throughout. The 6.3 ABV beer is well balanced by a single addition of German Hallertauer Tradition hops with a long and satisfying finish. Try it today with one of the bgood pretzels and brats!

We’re also super excited to announce our very own Oktoberfest event, taking place the same time as Munich’s kickoff on Saturday, September 17th. We’ll be celebrating all day from 11:30am-11pm with lots going on including food specials from our food vendors, a traditional German band, and lots of fun Oktoberfest themed surroundings (just wait!). Get more info here.

By in Brew Blog Comments Off on 5 Things to Consider When Building Your Brewery

5 Things to Consider When Building Your Brewery

Today on our blog, we’ve got a special treat for you! Our friends over at Zajac, who know a thing or two about building out breweries, have put together a few essential things to consider for anyone thinking about building a brewery. Zajac is a leading supplier to the Craft Brewing industry, delivering high quality process piping, custom stainless steel fabrication and complete packaging lines since 1975.  They provide all of the mechanical and electrical services including brewhouse installation, fermentation tank installation, filtration piping, process skids, valve manifolds and CIP systems. They were an incredible partner in helping us build out our space over the past few months, resulting in what you see today!

  1. Plan to plan: Your business plan should have a direct impact on the brewery, cellar, utility and packaging equipment that you are going to invest in. Are you planning on adding additional fermentation down the road to increase capacity? It’s much easier and less expensive in the long run to plan on additional cooling capacity in the initial design than it is to replace the chiller in the future and/or have to increase the size of the distribution system. The bottles you have now are great – but are you looking to add a can line down the road?  Planning for the future significantly impacts not only which equipment to buy, but how equipment will be laid out in the plant and how material flows through your facility. Going through a tough planning stage now will save you substantial time, money, and stress down the road.
  2. Safety first: Your goal is for all your employees to go home safe and happy every day. You can take steps to achieve this goal in the design stage – plan a thorough review of your layout and question everything from a safety perspective. Should the brewers be lifting a heavy bag of grain that high? Is there any chance your platforms and walking surfaces are going to have standing water on them creating a slip hazard? There are a million decisions that need to be reviewed from a safety perspective – take the time now to create a safer place to work for your team.
  3. Pack it in: As many brewers have told us, packaging systems are much more complex than they had ever imagined and is an area they constantly struggle with. Packaging equipment is expensive, difficult to install and commission, and has a large footprint that results in numerous material handling and foot traffic issues. Due to the cost and size, packaging equipment needs to be closely tied to your business plan and should be a driving factor in determining the pace you need for your brewery.
  4. Utilities, utilities, utilities: The beer is the fun stuff – who doesn’t like shopping for a new brewhouse? Utilities aren’t sexy, but they are incredibly important in allowing you to consistently put out a quality product that you can be proud of. The biggest issue we see is under sizing utility systems. Electrical, glycol, steam, water and waste all play an important part in delivering a repeatable product. Designing and installing utility systems that both adequately meet yours process needs and incorporates important safety elements is extremely difficult and should be left to a qualified integrator. Your utilities are also likely subject to unique regional/city codes; it is best to meet with local inspectors/authorities as early as possible in order to determine what permits, licenses, inspections, etc. are required. Steam and electrical are particular utilities to examine closely.
  5. Go with the flow: The flow of product, ingredients, materials, equipment, waste, and people will always be something you have to manage and should be considered before construction begins. Those beautiful, 12’ shiny tanks will look amazing – once you find a way to get them through your 8’ doors. Is there adequate space to move your raw materials from receiving to your process area? Are your forklifts going to be constantly zooming through high foot traffic areas – creating a safety hazard? What is the plan to conduct safe tours of your new brewery while your team is operating the system? All of these flows need to be carefully reviewed to run a safe and efficient operation.

Zajac understands the enormous task ahead of you. They have been working with breweries like Dorchester Brewing Company for over 30 years. Contact them today to discuss your upcoming project!

By in Meet Our Team Comments Off on Meet Our Team: Head Brewer, Todd Charbonneau

Meet Our Team: Head Brewer, Todd Charbonneau

In our latest installment of blog series, we’re introducing you to everyone on our team. Get used to us, we’ll be sticking around for quite some time. So, to get started, we’d like to introduce you to the guy responsible for all of that beer you’re drinking. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Todd, he’s one of our co-founders and Head Brewer. You may also know him as the previous Head Brewer at Harpoon. But he’s so much more then that!

Todd’s background in beer started by walking into one of Boston’s premiere breweries 15 years ago and he landed a job on the bottling line. He worked hard, and his dedication paid off becoming Head Brewer for over ten years at Harpoon Brewery. Todd’s not one to brag about himself (or super wordy as you can tell!), so we did a little Q&A so that you could get to know him better.

Todd, how did you get into craft beer?
A friend was a beginner homebrewer and invited me along on a couple of brews in his kitchen. From then on out, I was hooked.
What do you do when you’re not drinking and brewing beer?
During the summer I enjoy spending time with my family at our lake house. Lots of boating and fishing, swimming, etc.
I hear you’re also in a band…
I am in a band called The Winter Project, which began as just that. However we are still practicing and writing well into mid summer!
What is your favorite type of beer to both brew and also to drink?
I really try to be a student of style. When I’m developing a new recipe a lot of thought goes into the history of the style, ingredients used by those that developed the style. Of course I am a huge fan of American-style IPAs and love to brew them.
Do you have any advice for brewers just starting out?
Read as many books as you can. Practice makes perfect. You want to do a lot of brewing on a small scale, volunteer at your local brewery, and keep it fun. Make incremental changes to your recipes to determine how these changes affect your batches of beer.
What do you have in mind for the next few DBco beers?
Will be continuing in the hoppy beer vein with Mass Ave IPA and V1 double IPA. Also in the queue are a Berliner vice, a German Roggenbier, Pilsner, and in late summer, our Oktoberfest!

Want to pick his brain even more? We’re hosting a Meet the Brewer Night every month on the last Thursday of the month! Todd will be on hand to chat about all things beer on Thursday, July 28th from 5pm-8pm. More info at:  //www.dorchesterbrewing.com/events/event/meet-brewer-night/
By in News Comments Off on Thank You and Grand Opening Announcement

Thank You and Grand Opening Announcement

As we move towards our grand opening, we’ve started to think about all of the people and groups that helped us get to this point. For those that might not know, Dorchester Brewing Company started with a vision from our Co-Founders about 2 years ago and our team has worked tirelessly to make our dream a reality. There have been a few setbacks and delays as startups always have, but we’ve been extremely fortunate to get where we are today and that’s all due to the people around us.  So, as we look towards our opening, we also want to take a moment to reflect on everyone who helped get us there.

First and foremost, we want to take a moment to recognize the city of Boston and Mayor Martin J. Walsh. Their support and continued backing of the project has been instrumental in the development of our building construction process and financial patronage. Witnessing their commitment to innovation and development in Dorchester has been a true inspiration and we’re thrilled to be able to give back to Boston and Dorchester and help further the economic development of the area.  Specifically, we’d like to thank John Barros and Adalberto Teixeira at the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Rafael Carbonell, John Lynch and Keith Hunt at the city of Boston’s Office of Business Development, Steve Rumpler at Boston’s ReStore Program, Bill Nickerson at the Boston Local Development Corporation and Sheila Dillon at the Department of Neighborhood Development.

In addition, we would like to recognize the Mass Office of Small Business Development and the Mass Growth Capital Corporation for providing financial support to the project. Special thanks to Nam Pham, Assistant Secretary of Business Development at The Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing & and Economic Development, as well as Larry Andrews, Neil Martin and Rob Williams at Mass Growth Capital Corp for working  tirelessly with us to move the project forward.

Furthermore, many thanks to Beth Chea at Wells Fargo Bank and Eric Bancroft at Northeast Bank who were instrumental in helping DBco gain access to a significant amount of private debt capital, without which the project would not have moved forward.

We also want to thank all of our partners in the project and everyone involved in helping us get to where we are including RODE Architects, Zajac, Thomas Reale Photography, Salmon Studios (signage), College Hype Apparel, Pulp + Wire (website design), All Temp Systems Mechanical, Clean Beer (tap system), Macaran, Edelstein (accounting), Bowditch & Dewey (legal), Gary Barsomian-dietrich (finish carpentry), Roscoe Studio, Outkast Electrical, Allen and Sons (general construction), EH Marchant (plumbing), VFrancis Mechanical, Metro Equipment (site contactor), Galway Interiors (rough carpentry), LVR Corp. (engineering)  and many others who helped play different roles in the development of Dorchester Brewing Company. Also, to our family and friends. You guys have been amazing for putting up with us throughout these last two years as you supported us in our vision.

And lastly, thank you a million times to everyone in the Dorchester community. We are speechless over the countless people who have taken time out of their daily lives to lend a helping hand, voice their support, show up when we asked and overall, just provide continued encouragement over our project.  The pride in the community really stands for itself and at DBco, we promise to give back to the community and continue to celebrate where we live.

For our first step in our Grand Opening announcement, we’ll be hosting a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony with Mayor Martin J. Walsh tomorrow on Wednesday, July 20th to celebrate the opening of our facility.

And for all of you future craft beer drinkers, we are thrilled to announce that we will officially open our Taproom on Thursday, July 21st at 11:30am – 11pm and will continue the grand opening festivities throughout our normal business hours on Friday –  Sat  11:30am – 11pm and Sunday 11:30am – 9pm. Stay tuned for more details on our website!

Cheers and looking forward to seeing you soon,

Matt, Todd, Travis and Holly

By in News Comments Off on We’re in the Home Stretch

We’re in the Home Stretch

We’re due for a status update for sure! Since our new signage went up last week, we’ve been getting a lot more inquires on when we’re going to open. So today on the blog, we wanted to give a quick status update on our progress so you guys can get ready. Thanks for being so patient with us…the end is near and we’re in the final home stretch.

The past month has been a lot of behind-the-scenes work. Meaning, we’ve been doing a TON of the nitty gritty work to get the brewery up and running like welding, electrical, plumbing, piping and all of that fun stuff. As you know, the brewing equipment is pretty much all set and now we’re excited to get our packaging systems in place – right now we have the conveyors inand are almost ready to setup our canning and bottling lines, which have both arrived and are almost ready to go. More pictures to come soon once it actually looks like a packaging area.

silo3The biggest update over the past few weeks has been our signage. We’re thrilled to finally get our huge Dorchester sign up on top of the building and our logo up on the silo. The Dorchester script was actually created by a local calligrapher, Jake Rainis, who did an amazing job! We also have to give a special shout out to Salmon Studios for making these amazing signs! For anyone that drives by on a regular basis, our signs have definitely transformed the exterior of the building. We’re excited to celebrate Dorchester and announce to everyone that we are here! We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Speaking of opening, it’s looking like early July for us. We can’t even describe the excitement and appreciation for your support in moving towards our opening. Specifically, the City of Boston has been amazing in their support of our project, along with everyone local to Dorchester! THANK YOU!

Right now, we’re getting the interior all ready to brew and will be starting that process in another few weeks, so that we’ll have plenty of inventory to quench your thirst when we open. Once we have a hard opening date, you’ll be the first to know. We’ll be blasting the info all over our social media, blog and email, so rest assured you will be informed as soon as we have info to share!!

We’re also super pumped to have just received our t-shirts and hats so we have a full supply in stock – zip-up hoodies are on their way. I know you want your hands on them now, but patience my friends. Soon enough.

new tshirts

​​In the meantime, check out our jobs page to see what we’re hiring for!

Special thanks to Thomas Reale Photography for taking the amazing pictures of our space. You’ll be seeing more of his work very soon!