E-Malt.com News article: USA, CT: Overshores Brewing Co. to open collaborative brewing space

Overshores Brewing Co., Connecticut’s first and only dedicated Belgian style brewer, announced the launch of a new type of brewery on June 1 that will add momentum to Connecticut’s growing enthusiasm for small batch, hand crafted ales and lagers while giving a leg up to new and innovative brands, Brewbound.com reported.

The new concept, dubbed ‘The Beeracks’ aims to be Connecticut’s first truly collaborative brewing space where multiple independent breweries operate under one roof. Much like other kinds of cooperatives where expenses and equipment are shared by small artisans, The Beeracks embraces individual creativity and seeks to bring consumers a direct line between the beers they enjoy and the person behind them.

Started in 2014, Overshores began by carving out a niche for itself making Belgian inspired ales distributed on a small scale throughout Connecticut and other New England states. Like many similar small to mid-sized breweries, Overshores produced a few outside brands on the side under contract as an added source of income but inspiration came when the contract brands asked if they could start hosting can releases and events of their own at Overshores’ brewery.

Overshores founder Christian Amport described the inspiration for the concept, “It started out slow but opening up the brewery and letting both outside people as well as our own staff brew for themselves and create and build their own brands here has been electric.”

The brewery started taking on more and more brewers to the point where the sense of community outweighed the fact that Overshores happened to be the initial brewery operating in the space.

Founder of Armada, John Kraszewski points out, “With their own individual brands to inspire them, the team ends up making products that are more authentic and honest than saying well, you work here, so what you come up with has to have the parent company brand on it.”

Being a brewer of Belgian style ales, an admittedly esoteric subcategory of craft beer, Overshores says that it never considered contract brands as direct competition to their own beer. Owing to different brands appealing to different segments and consumers, it actually has opened more doors than it has closed.

The Beeracks concept also turns the traditional brewery employee hierarchy on its head. Generally, the boss starts a brand and everyone works under that framework, all employees ideas are owned by the company, and when employees leave, they leave their recipes behind. “Not here,” says Amport. “Everybody here has a direct connection to their beer. Armada is Johnny, Hoax is Sean and Austin, Overshores is me, Erector is Justin, Soundview is Lenny, Hulls is Chuck. That’s the way it should be.”

A launch party is scheduled for Saturday, June 9th at 12pm at the newly renovated brewing space at 250 Bradley St. in East Haven, CT. The event is free to the public, featuring live music and food from Bull and Swine BBQ. Must be 21 to drink, minors must be accompanied.

The Beeracks taproom is open regularly Thursday 4-9pm, Friday 4pm-10pm, Saturday 1pm-10pm and Sunday 1-6pm. With eight tap rotating tap lines, visitors can purchase tasters or full pours of an ever changing selection of hand crafted ales from The Beeracks brewers. Also available are freshly packaged cans and bottles for purchase to enjoy in the tasting room or to go.


05 June, 2018