Local brewers hop onboard craft-beer train

BEER MARKET: Sean Larkin, president of the Rhode Island Brewers Guild and chief brewing officer for Revival Brewing, is also brewmaster at Trinity Brewhouse and the planned Brutopia in Cranston. / PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS
BEER MARKET: Sean Larkin, president of the Rhode Island Brewers Guild and chief brewing officer for Revival Brewing, is also brewmaster at Trinity Brewhouse and the planned Brutopia in Cranston. / PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS

How many craft beers can the Providence area support?
The answer, it seems, depends more on the number of shelves in its liquor stores and taps in its bars than the thirst of drinkers for newer, bolder local ales.
Thirty years since the Ocean State was left without a single commercial brewery, the number of craft beers that call Rhode Island home has reached a healthy baker’s dozen and shows no sign of slowing.
“We are growing and the market out there is great,” said Nate Broomfield, co-founder of Bucket Brewery, in Pawtucket, which opened its 3,400-square-foot brewery in a Pawtucket Avenue mill last summer. “People are receptive, and there is a lot of excitement about new local beers.”
Broomfield’s and Bucket co-founder Erik Aslaksen’s path from dorm-room brews and backyard batches to a tiny pilot facility and now a small 20-barrel-per-week factory is emblematic of the craft-beer industry across the country.
And like their counterparts nationally, Rhode Island craft brewers want to build the infrastructure for a thriving, self-sustaining local brewing ecosystem to serve the growing taste for hyper-local and creative new flavors.
This spring two Providence groups have separate plans for larger breweries in Providence capable of boosting more-established labels to larger markets and providing a platform for new, experimental and so-called “nano” brews to reach customers and gain exposure.
With backing from Narragansett Brewing Co., Isle Brewers Guild LLC, a group led by Jeremy Duffy of Providence public relations firm Duffy & Shanley, wants to build an $8 million contract brewery on Kinsley Avenue in the city’s Valley neighborhood.
Narragansett, the largest brand in Rhode Island and now 49th largest in the country according to the Brewers Association, has been on a long, winding mission to find a local facility.
In addition to Narragansett, which is now primarily brewed on contract at North American Breweries in Rochester, N.Y., the Isle brewery would serve a range of local craft brewers who either don’t have their own production facility or have very small capacity.
And not far from Isle’s proposed Kinsley Avenue site in Providence, Revival Brewing Co. has plans to build its own brewery on Westminster Street. Sean Larkin, chief brewing officer at Revival and president of the Rhode Island Brewer’s Guild, said if an agreement can be reached for a lease on the Westminster site, Revival will build a 10,000-barrel-per-year facility to make its own product plus occasional collaborations.
Also the brewmaster at Trinity Brewhouse, architect of some Narragansett craft brews and brewmaster of Brutopia, a brew pub under construction on Atwood Avenue in Cranston, Larkin has experienced the growth of the Rhode Island beer economy more than anyone.
“When Trinity started, we had six taps and the public was resistant because we weren’t the norm or what they expected,” Larkin said. “And when I started Revival sales were modest, but once the reputation of the beer grew and people realized the same brewer was working on projects from Narragansett, I got calls from Connecticut and New York. Now we are in Massachusetts and Connecticut.”
Of the 13 beer brands in Rhode Island, six are microbreweries: Newport Storm in Newport, Gray Sail Brewing of Rhode Island in Westerly, Foolproof Brewing in Pawtucket, Bucket Brewery in Pawtucket, Ravenous Brewing in Woonsocket, and Proclamation Ale in South Kingstown. Only Newport Storm is more than 3 years old.
When Brutopia opens later this year, the state will also have five active brew pubs: Trinity Brewhouse in Providence, Union Station Brewing Co. in Providence, Coddington Brewing in Middletown, Mohegan Café and Brewery on Block Island and Brutopia in Cranston.
Narragansett and Revival, as they seek to open their own facilities, both contract with other breweries to make their beer.
There are also new breweries planned by Tilted Barn Brewery in Exeter and Whaler’s Brewing Co. in the Wakefield section of South Kingstown.
With so many new beers and breweries popping up in Rhode Island and elsewhere, one might expect Americans are drinking more beer than ever.
But total beer consumption over the last several years has been flat or slightly declining by volume with small local brewers and craft beers taking over market share from the large national brands that have dominated the market for decades. In Rhode Island, the filling of empty mills and factories with stainless steel tanks and brewers is a welcome sight, but it’s unclear if industry fragmentation can continue or whether another wave of consolidation will one day return.
“Could there be a craft-beer bubble? That may happen, but it will depend on the quality of the beverage itself,” Larkin said.
Jennifer Perreira, associate professor at Johnson & Wales University and creator of its beer curriculum, said mass-market beverage companies are now working to harness and co-opt home brewers, indicating that the craft movement is still on an upward trajectory.
“There is a certain point where there is market saturation, and you would think with all the craft breweries opening up that they would be competing against each other and struggling to stay afloat,” Perreira said. “But this is also tied into the local movement where people are willing to pay more and consume less if they are buying a better product.”
Seeing the explosion of craft-beer innovation and its culinary elevation to something close to wine, Johnson & Wales is in the process of beefing up its brewing curriculum, which traces its roots to a 1996 donation of equipment by mass-market beer manufacturer Coors.
Even among New England states known for restrictive alcohol-control laws, Rhode Island can be especially challenging for beer entrepreneurs.
The state keeps a strict three-tier system of producers, distributors and retailers that prevents beer manufacturers from selling beer directly to customers either by the glass or by the bottle.
The fact that the two out-of-state breweries Rhode Island beer-makers most frequently contract with are so close to the state line – Cottrell Brewing Co. in Pawcatuck, Conn., and Buzzards Bay Brewing Inc. in Westport – could be a sign of a better business climate across the border.
“I have friends who say, ‘Why don’t you move to Connecticut or just over the line in Swansea where it is easier?’ ” Larkin said. “But I don’t want to do that. I love Rhode Island and have seen things change here for the better.” •

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