It began with a homebrewing kit, like many other brewers before them. In this case, the kit was delivered to an office at MIT where then-students and roommates Greg Horning and Alex Bergan were taking courses. They applied methodologies used in their lab courses to their beer brewing hobby, both of them passionate about beer and the science involved in creating the optimal mix of ingredients.
Dr. Bergan and Dr. Horning both graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering, completing research in marine biology and marine geophysics, respectively, in 2017. At the end of their studies, the two friends pondered their next step.
“Should we go get our post-docs or do something more interesting,” Mr. Horning asked. Both agreed parlaying their homemade beer into a livelihood was the more appealing and interesting option. Three years and a few hiccups later, they opened Aquatic Brewing.
The tap room opened at 661 Main Street on Saturday, November 21. The owners said they did little to advertise their opening day, but the crowds came anyway. Many in the area had already been drinking their beer they brought to WHOI events and parties.
“We had made a pretty good name for ourselves by giving beer to friends and acquaintances,” Mr. Bergan said. “We would bring the beer we brewed to WHOI events and eventually we began known as the guys who made good beer.”
Dr. Horning said he heard from many people that were anticipating the opening. “People said ‘we tried your stuff back in 2015 at a party you hosted and we’ve been waiting.’”
COVID-19 and construction renovations made by the building’s new owner, Longfellow Design Build, sidetracked the opening, which was originally slated for 2018. Now they found themselves trying to open during a pandemic.
“We had been working on this for years and thought maybe it would be over by the time we were ready to go,” Mr. Horning said. They decided to open up anyway and can only sell alcohol to-go under state COVID guidelines that say you must serve food with alcohol.
“We don’t have a kitchen, but we had the brewing equipment and the ingredients, so we went for it.”
The plan for the 1,000-square-foot tap room is to create a space where beer lovers can drink and sample fresh from the barrel beer.
“Our vision is for a small brewery. We like brewing in small batches and doing new and interesting things,” Mr. Loring said. “
Tables and bar stools will be added once the state is able to lift pandemic restrictions. They want to create a community gathering spot. While they do not plan on serving their own food, they want to have food trucks on premises and will allow take out.
“We don’t want to take over the world. Just want to sell as much as we can through the taproom and have people join us,” Mr. Bergan said.
As of this Tuesday, they have two taps open and are pouring a California-style amber lager and a dry-hopped hefeweizen. Once up and running full steam, they will have at least eight styles on tap, including popular styles like IPA, pales ales and stouts.
“It takes a while to build up a repertoire that we’re happy with,” Mr. Horning said.
Their friendship began in 2011, when they were paired as roommates for a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution summer program. They both grew up on the West Coast—Dr. Began in the San Francisco Bay area and Dr. Horning in Portland, Oregon—both established craft brewing regions. Dr. Horning learned how to home-brew beer while attending college in Portland, Oregon, and when he moved to Woods Hole, he passed along his passion to his new roommate.
“We both have a science background, so we thought about a lot the science behind brewing and we took good notes,” Dr. Began said. “You can’t assess what is going right or what is not working if not taking notes or doing it haphazardly.” The two approached brewing like they did their lab work and were meticulous and methodical.
“We rolled all those things into brewing. A lot of people just throw things together but we were pretty rigorous homebrewers and put in way more effort than most people would consider reasonable. A lot of our brewing is controlled experiments where we change one small variable at a time,” Dr. Horning said.
They plan on opening for “grab and go” beer Fridays to Sundays until state pandemic restrictions allow them to open the taproom.
November 27, 2020 at 12:00PM
https://ift.tt/2HN9wGQ
Beer Taps Flow At New Downtown Brewery | Falmouth News - CapeNews.net
https://ift.tt/2NyjRFM
Beer
No comments:
Post a Comment