Night Shift Brewery is opening its latest venture today, March 20, on Boston’s Lovejoy Wharf where they will open a new 12,000 sq. ft. tap room and scratch kitchen and introduce a coffee bar with custom roasted coffee beans.
The Everett brewery announced its plans to locate in Boston last year, and have been going thought he process ever since. Co-Founder Michael Oxton said they have had a soft opening over the last several days, and the weekend saw very strong crowds coming to enjoy the brewery on the waterfront near the TD Garden.
“It’s feels like a really big step in our company’s evolution,” said Oxton this week. “Everett will always be our first home and we’re not turning our eye away from Everett at all. We have some really big events planned for Everett in the coming year. It’s great to make this expansion, though, and have a Boston zip code. We’re trying some new things there. We’ll have 30 different draft lines and it’s all about the beer. Half of our recipes on our new menu have beer in them as well.”
The brewers at the new tap room have experimentation on the mind, he said. Already, they are ordering Lithuanian Farm Yeast and Norwegian Farm Yeast to use in the brewing process. The ingredient list at the moment includes a Mint Chocolate Stout, a wine grape/beer hybrid and something with the ever-mysterious Saskatoon Berry.
“I have no clue what that is and that’s why it’s awesome,” said Oxton.
The opening of Night Shift’s Lovejoy location will also be the stepping off point for new venture into coffee and coffee roasting.
“We added coffee now and will be roasting our own beans very soon in Chelsea with our own roasting equipment,” he said. “We’re trying to get it up and running and we expect that very soon. Right now we are contract roasting it with a company in Rhode Island, but we’ll be doing it ourselves very soon.”
Like having a discriminating palate for beers, Oxton said he and his colleagues at Night Shift also have a taste for good coffee. They had always wanted to try making their own, and with the new venture, they thought now would be the time.
He said it’s something they will grow slowly, introducing it in Boston and seeing how the public perceives it.
However, the plans are to eventually introduce it at the Everett taproom as well.
“We’ll be starting it off at Lovejoy, but we’ll be looking to add a coffee bar in Everett too,” he said. “That’s the goal.”
A ribbon cutting and celebration is set for the expansion Wednesday morning, and they will be open from here on out.