USA, MA: Brick & Feather Brewery closes Turner Falls location

Although Brick & Feather Brewery has closed its brick-and-mortar location on 11th Street after nine years, owner Lawrence George isn’t giving up his passion for brewing, Greenfield Recorder reported on December 12.

Come 2025, George will work with Berkshire Brewing Co. in South Deerfield to brew some new beers in smaller batches while continuing to brew customer-favorite IPAs and pale ales out of Castle Island Brewing Co. in Norwood.

The decision to close the Turners Falls brewery was not sudden. Several factors went into the decision, including an increase in competition and changing consumer habits.

George, who had previous experience with breweries in New Jersey, Boston and California as well as Berkshire Brewing Co., said that when he decided to open his own business in October 2015, Brick & Feather was one of only a handful of breweries in western Massachusetts.

“The brewing scene here in western Massachusetts in 10 years has changed so much, mostly because of just how many there are now. I think there were five breweries in Franklin County and there’s now like 18,” George said.

Another contributing factor was a decline in in-house purchases, he added.

“Our brewery was designed to sell our beer here in town, and we sold almost all the beer we brewed right from here in this room for six years,” George recounted. “Then, somewhere in the middle of 2021, all that changed, and we were no longer able to sell that same volume of beer. People just weren’t coming, buying less.”

George noted he recognizes that residents are struggling financially amid an increasing cost of living. To compensate for fewer in-house sales, George began using Craft Collective to distribute his beer to businesses in Turners Falls and Greenfield. Despite the effort, though, the profit wasn’t there.

“When we’re selling beer at those lower price points, we end up losing money,” he said. “Because we’re not big enough, we’re not efficient enough to competitively brew beer [and sell it] at a price that it has to be in a grocery store.”

With all of these factors at play, George decided to close the Turners Falls brewery, announcing the news on Facebook on Oct. 22.

Reflecting on the time and energy he has put into the 11th Street business over the past nine years, George said that while he loved having a brick-and-mortar location where residents could enjoy Brick & Feather’s beer, he wants to enjoy brewing beer and invest time in that pursuit again.

“I want to be able to just focus more on brewing, which is what I love, which is why I did this to begin with,” George said. “I’m actually really excited at how things have developed for me to keep growing.”

To continue pursuing his passion, George said he had a recent conversation with some of his former colleagues at Berkshire Brewing Co. who offered him the chance to continue brewing his lagers and British beers using some of their equipment. He also plans to continue to supply the pale ales and IPAs to locations across the region where he’s sold them before.

Although George has found a way to keep Brick & Feather going, he said there was a point where he felt like throwing in the towel — that is, until he received a massive outpouring of support following his announcement of Brick & Feather’s closure.

“We got such an amazing response from our customers about the announcement and I was so moved by it. The stories people were telling me about how we affected their lives, I never would have imagined,” he said. “That was what drove me to continue and want to continue brewing the beer.”

12 December, 2024