Seven Railroads Brewing Co. Aims to Be a Welcoming Space
Brews, Tunes, and Dogs
Rachel Rosenbloom says plenty of regulars come to Seven Railroads Brewing Co. for the beer, the fun, and the community connections.
When Rachel Rosenbloom and Michael Bedrosian thought about what customers might enjoy in a brewery, they considered the sorts of things they liked — from music to dogs to good old-fashioned conversation.
“We wanted there to be something else to do besides just going somewhere and drinking or having a meal — something fun to do,” Rosenbloom said of the environment at Seven Railroads Brewing Co., which the married couple opened two years ago in Palmer. “My biggest goal here was to make it comfortable, like a community, like you were coming and hanging out at my house — just something to help connect a lot of the people that live in the area that wouldn’t necessarily meet each other.
“I have a lot of regulars, and they’ve all become friends, and they do things together now. It’s been really cool to see that from the other side, seeing all the connections that have been made,” she went on. “It happens all the time. It’ll be someone’s first time here; they’ll sit at the bar, and they’ll strike up a conversation with one of my regulars that sits next to them. And they’ll end up being here for a couple hours, and they’ll be talking to everybody in a big group: ‘oh, a new guy — let’s make him feel welcome.’”
Then there’s the music scene at Seven Railroads, which includes live music every weekend and an open mic night every Thursday that has become very popular, thanks partly to a small cadre of musicians who show up to give brave singers something more than a pre-recorded backing track.
“There’s a drummer that comes every week, and he’ll drum for anybody. There’s a bassist that comes in every week, and he’ll play bass for anybody. And there’s a guitarist that comes most weeks, and he’ll join in and back people up,” Rosenbloom said. “When somebody wants to come sing, they’ll tell them what song they want to sing, and most of the time, they’ll either know it, or they can figure it out.
“We wanted there to be something else to do besides just going somewhere and drinking or having a meal — something fun to do.”
“Everybody’s really happy and welcoming,” she went on. “It was every other week last year, and after the last one at the end of the year, I announced that I was making it every week this year, and the whole room started applauding, so they were all very happy about that.”
For vinyl enthusiasts, Rosenbloom also hosts a record sale event every other month, with four or five vendors setting up shop while she plays (and sells) music from her own collection. “I have the whole list printed out so people can look through and choose something, or just listen to what I have. My collection is over 900, so they’ll never hear the same album twice.”
In other events, the brewery also hosts yoga — led by Ashley Bousquet of Beyond Yoga & Wellness, who specializes in Yin yoga and Vinyasa flow — the first Sunday of every month, as well as other fun wellness events, like Pilates and yoga with goats or puppies or pigs and bunnies. “They’re just wandering around being cute while people are doing yoga,” Rosenbloom said.
Which brings us to the dogs.
“We’re actually known as one of the most dog-friendly breweries in the area,” she noted. “I have a lot of regular dogs. A lot of people come in, and I know their dog’s name, but not their name.”
The owner of two beagles — one of them a rescue — she hosts fundraisers for Happy Life Beagle Rescue on their birthdays, and this past December, patrons could get their dog’s picture taken with the Grinch in exchange for a donation to the rescue. “For two hours solid, dogs were rolling in from all over.”
A truly dog-friendly establishment, Seven Railroads has a wall full of photos of patrons’ best friends.
In addition, she sells dog biscuits made by Tori’s Pet Services in Southwick. “She takes my spent grain from when I’m done brewing, and she makes dog treats out of it. I sell those here in the tavern, and I go through about a hundred a month.”
It’s just another way Seven Railroads emphasizes community and connection.
“You can see I don’t have a big-screen TV or anything else like that,” she said. “It’s all about sitting down and having a conversation with the person sitting next to you. And it’s just comfortable. You come in here, and it’s just like you’re hanging out at my house.”
A Taste for Brewing
Rosenbloom and Bedrosian’s journey into the brewing business began when he was in the Air National Guard.
“At one point, he was sent to Alaska, and there was a beer that he was drinking over there that he really liked. And when he came back here, they didn’t distribute in the continental U.S., and he was like, ‘why don’t we just try making it? Like, this seems like something fun that we could do,’” she recalled. “So we ordered a kit online and made a five-gallon batch in our one-bedroom apartment on the kitchen stovetop. That was the first beer we ever brewed.”
That was about 15 years ago, Rosenbloom said, “and it kind of sparked something. We really enjoyed the process and just decided to keep doing it and upgrading our equipment along the way and getting more into it.”
When they moved to a house with more space, they were able to make more beer, and started entering home brew competitions (one of which they won, while earning honorable mentions in others).
“We started saying, half-jokingly, ‘maybe one day we’ll open our own brewery,’” she went on, and a few things happened to push them in that direction. She was working for a print marketing group, but took a job with Atlantic Beverage Distributors, a beer, wine, and liquor distributor.
“That got me into the industry, and it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed that job a lot. I got to learn about that part of the industry — the sales part. From there, we just kept entering competitions and meeting more people in the industry. I got to know a lot of the local restaurants and bars and package stores because of that.”
From there, she got a job offer around 2018 to become an assistant brewer with Fort Hill Brewery in Easthampton. That’s where she learned about all the work that goes into brewing, production, selling, and packaging — to the point where she and Bedrosian were ready to set out on their own, opening Seven Railroads in early 2024.
“We’re actually known as one of the most dog-friendly breweries in the area. I have a lot of regular dogs. A lot of people come in, and I know their dog’s name, but not their name.”
They specialize in German lagers and English beers, but also offer IPAs — including their flagship IPA, called Old Exit 8, after the former name of nearby Mass Pike exit 63 — stouts, ales, and more.
“We also have British cask ale. Those are naturally carbonated in a cask or firkin, and you have to pump it out with a beer engine. A lot of people get really excited when they see that we have that.”
She also noted that she and Bedrosian doesn’t get too exotic with flavorings. “It’s kind of a pullback from the way that the industry was going,” she explained. “I get a lot of people that are glad my beer isn’t really gimmicky. I like to say I make beer-flavored beer.”
Seven Railroads distributes to three local package stores and a number of area restaurants, but focuses most of its business on the taproom on Park Street in Palmer. And while the brewery doesn’t prepare food, it sells locally made snacks, brings in food trucks when the weather warms up, and has a partnership with a charcuterie business that shows up for open mic nights and weekend music events.
“Most of my focus is on the beer and the atmosphere,” Rosenbloom said. “It’s been great providing a place for people to come hang out and meet other people in the community. Like I said, the biggest positive for me has been all the friendships that I’ve seen formed from that. There are certain people that will walk in, and the bar will be full of regulars, and they go, ‘Norm!’ That happens a lot here, and it’s awesome.”
Home Sweet Home
Breweries everywhere are dealing with a time of contraction in the industry (see the stories on pages 14 and 20 for more on that), but Rosenbloom is happy with the growth and success of Seven Railroads, which she partly attributes to the lack of other breweries in town.
“It helps that there wasn’t anything here. There are a lot of local restaurants and bars, but a brewery is a different sort of atmosphere than a bar. I feel like people go to a brewery with a group of friends to hang out and do stuff, versus going to a bar. It’s a good spot to go on a date or for a night out with your friends.
And for underage patrons, “I sell non-alcoholic beers and sodas here, and they’ll come here when there’s music playing, and it’s a fun night out. Lots of kids come to the yoga, for the animals, or the record sales. Those bring a lot of people in as well.”
In short, Rosenbloom’s dream of a gathering space that feels like home has been well-received in Palmer.
“We’re pretty thrilled — the community has accepted us wholeheartedly. Everyone’s so happy we’re here. The regulars are happy we’re here. It’s still kind of surreal sometimes to look at that. Like, I’ll be in here when the taproom’s full, and I look around and see everybody having a good time, and it’s still like, ‘is this actually happening?’ Because we talked about it for so long, and then we actually managed to pull it off, and it worked.”
