USA, MA: Arcpoint Brewing to open as first brewery in Belchertown

Chris Peterson, CJ Eldridge and Dave Pare from Arcpoint Brewing have signed a lease at 30 Front St. to open the first brewery and taproom in Belchertown, Reminder Publications reported on August 17.

Peterson said, “We want to be taproom focused. If we can, we won’t do a lot of distribution. We really want to create an atmosphere for people to come out, put their phones away, socialize with each other. We want to promote getting away from your screen and having a good time.”

Peterson said Belchertown was their ideal place to open their first brewery.

Peterson said, “We always put Belchertown in the forefront of our minds. We really didn’t want to open up anywhere else. Our partner Dave was just driving around and he had seen a lease sign go up at the location we are at now. The price was right, the place was great, the location was great, it was like winning the lottery to the point where we locked down the lease in January and have been paying on the lease before we even got the loan squared away because we were that excited.”

The owners are currently working with an architect to get their plans finished and are about “80% there,” according to Peterson.

All the equipment is already being manufactured and the opening timeline in Peterson’s mind is January.
He joked about the time of the year and said, “It’s probably the worst time of the year to probably open you know — dry January and everyone is trying to get fit again — but we’re hoping that they’ll be willing to come out to support us regardless.

Peterson described the space as a three bay garage with an office space attached to it.

Arcpoint Brewing will be leasing one third of the building which is around 2,700 square feet but also has a lot of lawn space according to, Peterson.

“There’s a lot of stuff that we want to be able to do. There’s a lot of outdoor spacing things we want to do. I want to build a big beer garden like I’ve seen in the local area in terms of the ideas I have for it,” he added. There will be no kitchen, but Peterson said the owners liked the idea of having food trucks for more variety.

Peterson said, “We plan on utilizing food trucks. There’s not a whole lot of places to eat in Belchertown and I think the variety that having rotating food trucks come in will be a really big win for Belchertown.”
He acknowledged that the Belchertown Cultural Council does a Food Truck Friday on the common once a month from June to August and liked the idea of it based on its popularity.

The journey for Peterson started in 2014 after he moved to Belchertown and went over to his neighbor, who was a homebrewer.

He said, “I always enjoyed craft beer, but I never brewed it at that point. Going over there during the process I thoroughly enjoyed it but I was also asking a bunch of questions to my neighbor on the process, but he didn’t know a whole lot about it.”

From there, Peterson said he wanted to learn everything there was about home brewing, which eventually led to him making his own beers.

He brought his products into work where everyone “seemed to be receptive to it,” according to Peterson.
After sending out his beers to competitions in New England and receiving medals for his entrees, he thought about looking into a future with crafting beers.

After bringing up the idea to Eldridge, he was immediately on board and they started working on licensing their product.

Peterson added, “Technically a shed on my property in Belchertown has been a licensed brewery. We would do small batches here and there, but the goal has always been to open a taproom in town. We always thought Belchertown was a really prime location for a brewery. I have grown to be fond of living here and the town in general.”

Peterson and Eldridge thought it would be a good idea to do some contract brewing first to build their brand while pursuing a loan for a tap room.

They did some contracting out of Brewmaster’s Tavern in Williamsburg, Berkshire Brewing Company in Deerfield and White Lion in Springfield.

“Hindsight, it was probably a bad idea. It was not very profitable doing the contract thing number one and number two, it was a lot. We were self-distributing by throwing a pallet of beer in the back of my truck, driving all over and even going all the way out to Worchester and stuff,” Peterson said.

After finally securing a place and a loan, the journey has led to a place for Arcpoint Brewing Co. to call their own.

“It’s been a long time coming. We are honestly just excited to really get back to what drew us into the brewing and beginning which is sharing the beer with people. It’s no different than cooking a good meal and sharing it with someone and them lighting up and enjoying it. That’s what we get out of brewing beer and serving it to people,” Peterson said.

18 August, 2023