Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Malloy.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Long story short is that I’m a tech nerd that helped to build a few global companies in Boston including turning Zipcar into the brand it is today as head of their Marketing and Sales efforts. After leaving Zipcar after eight amazing years, I had been mentoring startups at TechStars and had a huge passion for craft beer, the share economy and Dorchester, so the brewery was the perfect fit.
Today I’m a Partner and CEO at Dorchester Brewing Company…which means that I do everything from overseeing our brewing efforts along with our tap room to washing out the kegs! Basically I live and breathe craft beer all day. It’s awesome.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Is any road smooth? Building a brewery – an entirely new brewery concept in the craft beer industry – has been a monumental challenge. We worked long and hard to open up the brewery and create the space it is today. One struggle was the location and finding the right space. We had a different location in Dorchester for opening and those plans fell through, so we continued to forge on until the right one worked out.
In the craft beer industry, there are many legal and licensing requirements that you really need to spend a lot of time and effort getting right and lining everything up. Luckily, I work with a great team of individuals who moved this along – as well receiving amazing support from the local City of Boston and state officials.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Dorchester Brewing Company is a partner brewing facility with a public Tap Room serving partner and in-house brews on tap in Boston, MA. What that means is that we make our own house beers that we serve up in our own tap room as well as brew other craft beers for other growing beer brands. So, for DBco beers, we are not distributing our beers anywhere in liquor stores or restaurants. That means if you want to try out a DBco brew, you will need to come in and drink it fresh off the taps. We make beer for over 10 different breweries – You can find those great beers out in the stores and drink them at our brewery as well.
What makes us unique from other breweries is the partner brewing aspect we have a huge 25,000 sq. foot state of the art facility. We didn’t build that just for ourselves – we wanted to share the wealth. So, we offer up our facility and equipment – as well as all aspects of the brewing process – to our customers (partners), who are other craft beer brands. These breweries provide us with their recipe and we take care of all aspects of the process – material procurement, production and packaging. We even offer our partners marketing/branding opportunities and events in our Tap room.
Why partner brewing? The Craft Beer industry is exploding and there was a huge production need in the region. We’re already at capacity for our brewing partners less than a year after opening and have already had to order more tanks for fermentation space. We love the idea of a shared economy for beer. If brands are not able to build their own brewery or perhaps are in the process of building their own (like Down the Road, one our partners) or have run out of space in their own facility, then they can turn to us – our door is always open (except when we’re full!)!
What we are known for: I think we are best known for a few specific things. A really cool, relaxing environment in our tap room where everyone is welcome – whether you know nothing about beer and want to learn a thing or two, or you are a beer aficionado that wants to taste the best (we’re all very proud of our Head Brewer and brewing team!), our Tap Room is filled with fun games to hang out, lots of awesome events (puppy yappy hours, bands, food trucks) and overall is just a really chill, welcoming space that Bostonians have really embraced.
Another aspect that we are very proud of is the community of Dorchester. We built the brewery here very intentionally. I’m a long term resident of Dorchester, as well as business partner at the Brewery and we really wanted to support the economic development of Dorchester and frankly bring new people into the community that may have shied away from Dorchester before. We’re so proud to be celebrating the spirit of the community and love working with local businesses here – everyone has been really supportive and welcoming!
Finally, I most proud about the fact that we all care about making the best beer we can possibly make. No one wants to drink just good beer. People want to drink great beer. We strive to make the best beer for our partners. We take a lot of pride in being a true partner to the Brewing companies we work with.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
There are COUNTLESS other people that deserve credit for where Dorchester Brewing Company is today. I’ll try to hit everyone here.
When we were working on opening, we had amazing support from many many people in the Mayor’s office, Mass Office of Business Development, the City of Boston, State of Massachusetts and the local Dorchester Community. We really couldn’t have opened up and gotten to our one year anniversary if it wasn’t for them. They advocated for us and supported us throughout the opening and really made it all possible.
My Dorchester Brewing Company Co-Founders: Travis Lee, Todd Charbonneau and Holly Irgens. We worked together to really build the brewery and create this business for others to enjoy.
Todd Charbonneau is our Head Brewer and seriously makes the best beer I’ve ever tasted. He has a long, impressive resume that started with his love for beer and you can literally taste his passion. Every single beer I’ve ever tasted that he’s brewed has just been awesome.
And finally, the residents of Boston and Dorchester have just been so wonderful to us. We could not have done it without you. It’s so amazing to provide something that pulls a community together. Beer is about community. It’s so wonderful to see all the smiling faces. It keeps us all focused on making great beer and bringing more people to see what Dorchester has to offer.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1250 Massachusetts Ave
Dorchester, MA - Website: www.dorchesterbrewing.com
- Phone: 617-514-0900
- Email: holly@dorchesterbrewing.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dorchesterbrewing/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DorchesterBrewingCompany/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/dorchesterbrew
Image Credit:
The Pooped Pooch and 2 Dogs Treats (the dog image and night with the Jamaica Mi Hungry Food Truck)
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