Trillium Brewing hopes to open in six months in Fort Point neighborhood

By Cara Bayles, Town Correspondent

JC and Esther Tetreault, the founders of Trillium Brewing Company, hope to open their start-up craft brewery in Fort Point within six months.

The Brookline residents saw great progress in the long road to opening when their 2,300 square-foot space on Congress Street was granted a variance from the zoning board of appeals last week. They still must reapply for a building permit, get design approval from the Fort Point Landmarks Commission, and earn state and federal permits to sell and distribute beer.

Esther Tetreault, who runs the business operations for the company (her husband is the creative force behind the company, and documents his brewing experiments here), said that Trillium’s Innovation District neighbors have been supportive of the project.

“A lot of people have reached out to us. It’s been amazing. It’s an energetic and exciting community right now,” she said. “We hope to be able to collaborate with local restaurants, doing beer pairing dinner, and we want to use as many local materials as we can.”

The business plan for Trillium is currently to maintain a local presence. The craft brewery will keep production “small scale” (about 200 gallons per batch of beer), and distribute mostly to local restaurants and liquor stores.

Most of the space on Congress Street will be used for fermenters and barrel-aged beer, but the plans include a small tasting room through the alley entrance, where customers will be able sample special release beers and buy growlers.

“It’s important for us to stay connected, and reciprocate the support we’ve received,” said Tetreault. "We want to maintain a local connection."

E-mail Cara Bayles at carabayles@gmail.com.