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Date: 7/21/2021
EAST LONGMEADOW – The craft beer craze that has exploded over the past decade has reached East Longmeadow in the form of Brew Practitioners, a new brewery at 45 Baldwin St.
Owners Tanzania Cannon-Eckerle and Joseph Eckerle operated a brewery for six years in Florence. While the business was shut down due to COVID-19 this past year, the couple decided to find a larger home for the brewery.
“Timing was everything,” Cannon-Eckerle said. The lease on the building was up and the two needed to renew their brewer’s licenses at the same time. They decided to go ahead with their idea to expand into a larger footprint.
Originally, a site in Agawam was considered for the location, but parking and zoning issues made it clear that it wasn’t the right choice. That’s when the owners found a site in East Longmeadow for the brewery to call home. The Baldwin Street location is a low brick building with two docks and plenty of room for the 3.5-barrel brewing operation.
“We’re one of the smallest breweries in the state, which we’re actually pretty proud of,” said Eckerle. “It was good because we’re able to move and adjust pretty quick.”
The ability to adjust means that Brew Practitioners can experiment with new flavors. Cannon-Eckerle explained that there is a “practice tap” at the brewery where customers can experience new flavors. “If they like it, it stays. If not, we get rid of it. Several of our regular flavors have come about that way,” she said.
The couple plans to have 10 beers on tap by early fall, though they hope to be open by mid-August. The brewery will carry six “classics,” traditional beers that range from blondes to pale ales, from stouts to ambers. There are also a number of specialty beers that will be available, such as Pink, a pink lemonade blonde beer that Cannon-Eckerle said is especially popular this time of year.
“Hazy beers are still the craze, especially in New England,” Eckerle told Reminder Publishing, “so we have some of those on tap, but we also have more traditional beers. He also spoke about carrying East Coast IPAs and West Coast IPAs. While many people don’t know there is a difference, he said, they are happy to educate their customers on the details.
For Eckerle, the brewmaster at the company, knowledge about beers comes from almost 20 years of home-brewing. Cannon-Eckerle gave her husband a home-brewing kit as a gift, because, “he was drinking really bad beer.” She had learned about beer working at a brewery in college. “Understanding the culture and the characteristics made me grow to love it,” she said. The two also learned about the craft during a 10-day beer trip to Munich, Germany, and Prague in the Czech Republic.
Brew Practitioners will be offering food to pair with the beer. Cannon-Eckerle said that a business owner and friend from Florence will be providing the food via a pop-up inside the brewery. Customers can have their food and drink inside or take it out to a patio at the back of the property. While there won’t be live entertainment to begin with, the couple said they are open to it if the community shows a desire for it.
“We think we’re going to have a positive impact on the community,” Cannon-Eckerle said. Eckerle added, “We want to be neighbor-friendly. We’re very community-oriented.” Cannon-Eckerle went on to say that their goal is to provide a laid-back place where people can go to enjoy quality beer.
“Sometimes, at the end of the day,” Cannon-Eckerle said, “you just want to make sure you’re drinking a good beer.”