Dorchester Brewing

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By in Meet Our Team Comments Off on Meet the Team: Joe Carani, Packaging Manager

Meet the Team: Joe Carani, Packaging Manager

You may know all about our folks up front that serve the beer in our Boston brewery..and a little bit about those folks that actually brew the beer. But, there are a bunch of other vital areas of the production process which helps to bring you the freshest craft beer to your bellies. For example, we could not do what we do everyday without our Packaging Team! They are the real heros that manage the process of taking the sweet nectar from product to package so you can drink it up. So, today, we’re excited to introduce you to Joe Carani, our Packaging Manager here at Dorchester Brewing Company.

So, how exactly did a finance guy with a college degree in Political Science/Religion working at a bank in Portland, Oregon trade in his suit for rubber boots in Boston? Joe bought a home brew kit on a whim and basically went crazy getting into it with a buddy of his and his side hobby snowballed from there. Still working in finance, he moved to Illinois and took a side gig as a bartender at a local brewery to continue being around beer as much as possible. He hopped in to help the brewery with some brewing needs and ended up with an actual job in the back of the brewery, working his way up from job to job. He’s done pretty much every position from Racker, Cellar Manager, Brewer, Packaging Manager, which led him to us at DBco!

So, what exactly does Joe do at DBco every day?

  • To start the morning every day, Joe prepares the canning line for production. That means sanitizing it and setting it up to run cans for the day.
  • Next, is actually running the cans. We can run anywhere from 15-20K cans per day with up to two different beers.
  • Some days also involve kegging and racking.
  • At the end of the day, we clean, sanitize, get some more cleaning in and then get prepped and ready for the next morning.
  • Set to repeat!

Where does Joe’s passion lie?

Joe initially thought he wanted to be a brewer when he first got into beer, but he actually found his passion elsewhere in the process…by looking at challenges and fixing problems that arise with his quick-thinking problem solving skills. For example, he’s always looking to create efficiencies to make processes better and faster. Which is a great fit as a Packaging Manager!

Lastly, and most importantly, what beer does Joe like to drink?

His favorites styles to sip on are Kolsch, ESB or Oktoberfest depending on the season of course, but his absolute favorite DBco made beer would have to be our German lager, Zwickelbier.

 

 

 

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 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 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