Page 25 - BusinessWest May 27, 2024

Beneath the Surface
Some of the brewery’s beer selections — 1939 Amber Ale, Cellar Hole Series, Lost Town Stout, etc. — pay homage to the history of the Quabbin.
“The name itself, Vanished Valley, is the tip of the cap to the Quabbin Reservoir and the people that sacrificed for the benefit of others,” Britton said. “We try to keep the names of the beers as Quabbin-esque as possible. Sometimes it’s hard to do, and we just come up with other ideas. But the brand itself commemorates the Quabbin area.”
At any given time, Vanished Valley makes, pours, and dis- tributes — to liquor stores and other restaurants across Mas- sachusetts, from New York to Cape Cod — an array of IPAs, ales, stouts, and more, he added.
“We are very IPA-heavy, but that’s not to say that we don’t appreciate and still produce the classic brands, like a good lager or a pilsner. Some of our bestsellers in-house are actu- ally our light beers. But when we distribute, the more popu- lar ones are the IPAs.”
Britton explained that Vanished Valley straddles two dif- ferent models.
“When you’re thinking about a brewery, you can be one
of three different types of breweries. You can be a contract brewer, where you hire someone to brew your beer for you, and they send it out, and that’s it. Look at Jim Koch’s story with Sam Adams; that’s how he started. Then there’s a straight manufacturing-like brewery, where all you’re doing is pumping liquid out the back door and putting it on the shelf in the store.
“Then there’s us. We’re a brewpub,” he went on. “We wanted to have the food element, but we didn’t want to give up on the opportunity for mass distribution. So we built the brewery to be a distribution model, but the retail side of the house is a straight brewpub. So I don’t need to produce a ton of beer for here, but I need to produce a ton of beer for the market. We wanted to go at it from both angles.”
As for the food element, Vanished Valley serves a broad menu of appetizers, soups and salads, wood-fired pizza, burgers and other handhelds, and, of course, barbecue plat- ters featuring pulled pork, brisket, chicken, and St. Louis- style ribs. Dinner hours are more crowded than lunch, and Thursday through Sunday draw the biggest crowds.
“We have a beer garden out there in the warmer weather, with a massive tent,” Britton said, adding that Vanished Val- ley now allows groups to rent the space for weddings and large parties. “We have music out there; Manny built an amazing stage for our bands. We have a firepit ... all the stuff that makes for a better environment.”
Inside, the brewery has also hosted events from a murder mystery dinner to a bonsai tree event to charcuterie board design, as well as events featuring outside vendors, like a chili cookoff.
“We rent this for smaller parties, too: birthday parties,
anniversaries, retirement parties, stuff like that. We try to be a one-stop shop for as much as possible,” Britton said. “It’s hard to do sometimes, but compared to other brewpubs and breweries in the region, we are very, very diverse.
“I think we’re doing really well compared to a lot of other breweries in the industry,” he went on. “There have been some closures in the state, and we’re not going to be one of them. But you constantly have to tailor things to the custom- er, and that’s a constantly moving target. So one of the bigger challenges is staying fresh.”
Lager Than Life
Despite some shifts in the market, Britton said, Vanished Valley is doing well on both the brewpub and distribution sides.
“Our first struggle was dealing with the holy-grail beers
— you know, what’s the next best thing? That’s what the craft-beer fanatics want — the search for the white whale, or whatever they want to call it. We were one of those whales initially, and we gained a lot of loyal customers, but there were some falloffs of people that wanted to find the next best thing.”
Another challenge has been the rise of ready-to-drink cocktails. “That sector of the industry is really doing a num- ber on craft beers,” he said. “And now you have CBD-infused seltzers and stuff like that. So our distribution has gone down a little bit because of that.
“But our overall growth in sales has continued every year because of what we do here in the retail area with the res- taurant,” Britton added. “If we were a straight production brewery, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation right now. But on the restaurant side, the amazing custom- ers we get here — from a local standpoint and people from out of state — have helped us stay afloat as a small, local business. We’re still very young. We’ve been going at it since 2017, but we’re still young.”
Vanished Valley also makes an effort to give back to the community, such as a beer produced to honor veterans every November, with proceeds donated to veteran organiza- tions. The brewery also sponsors golf tournaments and gets involved with events like Ride to Remember, which honors fallen heroes.
“This is our backyard,” Britton said. “We all grew up here, and we’ve got to take care of it.”
Despite the challenges throughout the years, he added, Vanished Valley has continued to grow — from three employ- ees just a few years ago to more than 30 today.
“We’ve done really well for ourselves. We’ve made a home for a lot of great customers that we appreciate so much. And the town has been nice to work with; they appreciate what we’re doing here from an economic standpoint. It’s just been a fun ride.” BW
“We wanted to have the food element, but we didn’t want to give up on the opportunity for mass distribution. So we built the brewery to be
a distribution model, but the retail side of the house is a straight brewpub.”
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