Western Mass. brewers collaborate to support local charities

May 12, 2020 | Chris Maza
Chrism@thereminder.com

GREATER SPRINGFIELD – While the coronavirus pandemic and resultant restrictions have had a major impact on the Western Massachusetts craft beer industry, several local brewers have banded together to offer support to their communities.

Rustic Brewing Co. of Indian Orchard, Skyline Beer Co. of Westfield, Two Weeks Notice Brewing Co. of West Springfield, Westfield River Brewing Co. in Southwick, White Lion Brewing Co. of Springfield and Vanished Valley Brewing Co. of Ludlow have started a local offshoot of a larger movement called All Together. Initiated by Other Half Brewing Co. in New York City, All Together was designed as a worldwide effort to support the hospitality industry and bring awareness to its struggles during the pandemic by brewing a specialty beer and donating a portion of the proceeds to a charity of the brewery’s choosing.

“It’s a little bit of positivity in a time when there really isn’t much to be had,” said Sergio Bonavita, Westfield River Brewing’s brewmaster.

In Western Massachusetts, these six brewers are joining the movement by each brewing the same base IPA recipe while putting their own spin on it. While most are brewing their own, because White Lion’s facility is still in the construction phase, its brewmaster Mike Yates is working in partnership with Two Weeks Notice’s Mark Avery.

“It’s all the same core recipe, but they’re all going to be a little bit different with the different house flavors that we have,” Skyline’s Lisa Pac said. “They should be similar with the same hops for the most part and similar hop profile, but you can give different brewers a recipe any day of the week and they’ll always come out a bit different if not a lot different.”

 Bonavita got the local effort going when he reached out to Pac and her managing partner and head brewer Dana Bishop about doing a collaboration.

“We knew that it would be difficult to do considering we couldn’t really get together, so we were trying to figure out a way to get together without getting together,” Pac said. “We found out about that this [All Together] collaboration thing that was going on and figured why try to reinvent the wheel? This is a thing that seems to be working and there’s a ton of breweries involved, so we started reaching out to everybody.”

In keeping with the spirit of the original movement, the price point for the beer is being kept as low as possible while still making meaningful contributions. Westfield River Brewing identified the Southwick Food Pantry as their beneficiary while Skyline is donating what they can to Off Their Plate, an organization that provides relief to the frontline workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of press time information on the charities supported by Vanished Valley, White Lion, Two Weeks Notice and Rustic was not available.

Each brewery has set its own timeline for when their beer will be ready for the public. While Westfield River Brewing and Skyline have released their beers already, Two Weeks Notice and White Lion began brewing theirs on May 6 and they expected it would be ready in two and a half to three weeks. Todd Kopiec of Rustic Brewing said while they only had one tank available to brew the beer, another was coming open, so they may brew multiple batches, possibly in multiple styles.

The hospitality industry has been among those hit hardest by coronavirus-related restrictions. While Gov. Charlie Baker recently announced a task force that would lay out a reopening plan this month, the brewers said challenges exist for their industry and other related businesses.

“I think it’s hard to plan for the future. I don’t know how anyone else feels, but there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of direction at any level, whether it’s federal, state or local,” Bonavita said. “You have so many different voices, that how you plan for the future is beyond me.”

Most establishments are formulating tentative plans for how their businesses will operate once the restrictions on restaurants and bars are relaxed and admitted their spaces might look very different when they do reopen.

“We kind of have a plan for what we want to do when the taproom is able to open. It will definitely will be restricted; I’m sure they’re going to cap it. We’re getting rid of our long picnic tables and bringing in smaller tables that are distanced further,” said Avery. Pac also noted the family-style dining tables at Skyline had been popular and a big part of their atmosphere that likely would not return in the near future.

Todd Kopiec of Rustic Brewing explained in addition to social distancing guidelines, the questions surrounding when restrictions are going to be lifted is making it difficult to map out production schedules.

“With the cycle for everything, you’re looking at a three to four, five, sometimes six-week cycle when you make something versus when it’s ready to go, so you’re always up against that trying to figure that out. If you wait too long to start ramping production up, then you’re behind; if you ramp up too soon, then you’re sitting on stuff that is not going to be optimal when you want it to be,” explained.

Avery agreed that uncertainty of the timetable for reopening was a challenge. “As far as when we’re going to ramp up, we usually have 10 beers on tap. I don’t know if I’d be able to have eight to 10 beers on tap when we get ready to open because I don’t know when that’s going to be,” he said.

White Lion President Ray Berry said he was able to maintain 62 percent of his business because stores to which they distribute were able to stay open as essential businesses. White Lion also recently started delivery service to the local area. The taproom currently under construction in downtown Springfield was anticipated to open in June.

“That’s not going to happen,” Berry said. “So we’re going to be very mindful of the phase one, phase two, phase three parameters that the federal and state government put out. I’m very optimistic that [Gov. Charlie] Baker over the next two or three weeks with the new advisory board will put the right recommendations in place that the local government can adhere to and hopefully we all can start welcoming folks back into our respective space by the end of summer.”

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