After long journey, White Lion Brewing establishes facility in SpringfieldDate: 11/12/2020 SPRINGFIELD – Almost there. As Ray Berry stood in White Lion Brewing Company’s nearly completed taproom at Tower Square as customers walked in to purchase cans for the first time, he contemplated the six-year journey that led him to this point.
“It feels like multiple chapters of life,” Berry said with a grin. “Sometimes it’s numbing, really. When we set out on this journey, we thought that in three years we would be in a position to open up something. And three years turned into six.”
With several delays, potential landing spots and a worldwide pandemic to overcome over the years, White Lion finally opened the brewery doors to customers with its inaugural retail event on Nov. 7, selling their beer to go, including Lions of the Sea, an exclusive collaboration with Weymouth’s Vitamin Sea Brewing.
In spite of setback after setback, Berry and head brewer Mike Yates persevered with a lot of the credit belonging to those that surrounded them, according to Berry. “Key partnerships,” he said, were instrumental in spreading brand awareness and creating enthusiasm for the goal of establishing a craft brewery in downtown Springfield.
"It was really a lot of dedication, assistance from various players out there, people buying into our story and still supporting us along the way, and a level of commitment from various entities in the city of Springfield,” Berry said.
The result is an 8,000-square-foot brewery on the ground floor of Tower Square with an additional 3,000 square feet of space below. While the majority of the square footage is occupied by the 15-barrel beer production operation and a kitchen, once COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, the taproom’s capacity will allow between 100 and 125 patrons. Berry added the brewery has access to the courtyard inside Tower Square as well, allowing for the possibility of special events.
“We’re not limited to just these four walls,” he said.
Berry added the company would be making an announcement on its food partner later this month.
Inside those walls, Yates has a brewing system with two 15-barrel fermenters and two 30-barrel fermenters and its own canning unit, giving the company the ability to churn out “a few thousand barrels of beer,” he explained.
Even more than the volume, Yates said he is excited to have full control of the brewing operations again. Previously, White Lion had brewed its beer on a contract basis with Brewmasters Brewing Services in Williamsburg.
“It’s been a great partnership, but I’m excited to get my hands on the controls again,” he said. “We’re going to be making all of our house lineup of beers as well as introducing quite a few new styles. A lot of hazy IPAs that people are clamoring for.”
Yates explained that by the nature of contract brewing, the company was a bit restricted in its ability to be flexible and creative with various styles of beer.
“It’s really exciting. I’ve been at this for a long time and to be back in the driver’s seat with the ability to create a lot of new styles is exciting ... I’ve been storing up a lot of ideas over the years and we’ve got a lot of great things in store,” he said. “Ray’s very creative. He always wants to do something a little crazy and I’m a little more classic in my styles, but between the two of us, we always come out with something that comes out pretty good.”
Yates added, “The fact that we can brew it and can it right here gives me complete control to make sure the final product is top shelf and I think that will be reflected when it’s in the stores.”
When asked if the adversity faced earlier in the process of identifying a location and building it out helped the company pivot again when the COVID-19 pandemic spurred restrictions, Berry didn’t dismiss the idea. In fact, he said the distribution model they created and was able to expand with direct-to-consumer delivery helped keep them sustainable. He also credited the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission for being flexible along with them.
“It helped. We got to a point where we felt we went through a number of hurdles … and because of our distribution model with our products on the ground and in stores and in restaurants and we were able to sustain,” he said. “There was a lot of forward thinking in the regulatory environment around breweries to go door-to-door delivery and that helped tremendously, especially when there were so many uncertainties, and that allowed us to keep pushing forward piece by piece by piece.”
While in-house retail sales are now taking place, Berry said he isn’t putting a timeline on when the taproom will open for service, given the current pandemic climate.
“We have our goal, but we have to pay attention to the ever-changing COVID environment and regulations change on a monthly basis,” he said. “You don’t want to get into a situation where you open up and there’s a major surge in numbers and you have to dial back – that’s a major blow. We’re just being very cautious and moving forward following the regulatory guidelines.”
He added, “There are a lot of unknowns. We were in the middle of construction when things started to go south. If it weren’t for the pandemic and if it weren’t for the pause, we would be operational. We would be up and running right now – food, taproom, everything.”
Moving forward, Berry said White Lion will have a “bifurcated model.” White Lion Distributing will continue to deliver its products to restaurants, bars and retail locations, along with a growing portfolio of beer from other breweries including Florence’s Brew Practitioners, Belchertown’s Arcpoint Brewing and Worcester’s 3cross Fermentation Cooperative.
Meanwhile, White Lion will also produce exclusive beers that will only be found in their taproom, including perhaps additional collaborations, Berry and Yates indicated. In addition to Vitamin Sea, White Lion has collaborated with Trillium Brewing Company in Boston on a Black is Beautiful stout and West Springfield’s Two Weeks Notice Brewing Company as part of the All Together project to support the service industry.
“In the trade, collaborations are very healthy because it exposes the consumer to like breweries from different regions,” Berry said.
Berry said he’s grateful for the support he and his growing team have received throughout the process and that he’s proud that they never wavered from their goal of establishing themselves in the city’s downtown corridor.
“We started as an idea. It really was just an idea. You start to have those conversations with people and you get some support and some feedback and it just started to take on a little bit of a life of its own. The idea turned into a brand, then brand turned into a story and it was always key from day one to incorporate the community,” he said. “Once you have the community embrace and understand what you’re trying to accomplish, it makes the pathway a little bit easier. From day one, we’ve been about community. We look at this as not only do we have our story and our brand, but this is a community brewery. We want folks to feel welcome from any walk of life. That’s the principle that this brand is built on. It’s a space that everyone can come to and be a part of.
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