USA, MA: Somerville's Aeronaut Brewery plans to open in spring

Somerville is close to having its own commercial brewery: an actual industrial space, in Somerville, with actual fermentation tanks and a canning line, Somerville Patch reported on January 21.

Aeronaut Brewery, which plans to open this spring, recently received its federal permit and hopes to receive state permits soon, according to Ben Holmes, CEO of the venture.

Other Somerville-based breweries, such as Somerville Brewing Company (a.k.a. Slumbrew) and Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project, conduct their commercial brewing operations outside Somerville, but Aeronaut will brew suds in the city.

Holmes recently gave Somerville Patch a brief tour of the facility, which was under construction, and he said Aeronaut will be making some important announcements in the middle of February.

Aeronaut was founded by three Somerville residents: Holmes, Dan Rassi and Ronn Friedlander. A fourth member of the team, Steven Reilly, will be joining soon, and brewmaster Mike Labbe is also contributing his expertise.

The founders, many of them now finishing up graduate programs, all come from the world of science, Holmes explained. Friedlander studies microbiology at Harvard and MIT. Rassi is in the field of computer science and engineering. Reilly, now at Yale, is a biologist, and Holmes, a graduate student at MIT, has a background in physics but currently works in genomics.

Indeed, in addition to brewing beer, Aeronaut also has plans to provide lab space and serve as an incubator to start-up companies.

22 January, 2014