Beer

Brockton Beer Company’s brand new taproom opens this week

Here's a sneak peek at the brewery's first brick and mortar location.

The team behind Brockton Beer Company is getting ready to open its taproom. Courtesy

By Gary Dzen, The Boston Globe

June 1, 2022

BROCKTON — On Thursday, June 2, Brockton Beer Company is scheduled to officially open the doors of its downtown Brockton taproom for the first time.

It’s a grand opening more than two years in the making. And while there’s reason to celebrate, during a visit with a reporter last week, the brewery’s co-founders are too busy putting on the finishing touches to be overly reflective.

“P’s finishing up some plumbing,” says Eval Silvera, referring to another co-founder, Pierre Alexandre, who’s been running in and out of view with a pencil tucked behind his ear.

The founders — Alexandre, Silvera, and his wife, LaTisha, Ed Cabellon, and Rowan Olmstead — met when their children were all of kindergarten age in Brockton schools. Mostly teenagers now, the kids stayed together through soccer, and the group of parents parlayed those relationships into friendships in a manner familiar to anyone whose kids have grown up in the same town together.

“We’re super excited to bring our whole vibe as founders,” says LaTisha Silvera. “One of the reasons why we started the brewery is to extend our Friday family game nights to everyone else.”

Board games are a featured accessory of the new space, which occupies part of the ground floor of a mixed-use development at 121 Main Street in Brockton. Visitors will be able to grab a game and play —Ticket to Ride is the Silvera’s favorite — while sipping their beers. On the walls are posters from movies like Netflix’s “Don’t Look Up” and the Annie Murphy show “Kevin Can F*** Himself,” both filmed in town. Those of a certain age will recognize that the brewery sits on the site of the former Kresge’s department store.

The location is a big part of why Brockton Beer Co. decided to put down roots here.

“Some of the stuff that we’ve worked so hard for — like we might be able to employ people in Brockton to serve craft beer — now we’re doing it in our home,” says Eval Silvera. “Our staff is predominantly from Brockton or has ties to Brockton. Some of them live upstairs, which is a really cool commute.”

Several Brockton Beer employees really do live upstairs, in the new apartments there. Nearly 750 new housing units are planned downtown, according to Mayor Robert Sullivan. Brockton City Hall is across the street from the brewery, and on a recent visit Sullivan stopped by to check on the brewery’s progress.

“I just had to take a sneak peek,” he says.

While housing units are a focal point of the Brockton revitalization plans, Sullivan says “amenities” like the brewery are also crucial for the downtown.

“As mayor and a lifelong Brocktonian, and as a beer lover, I’m thrilled,” says Sullivan “The location downtown, this is really a catalyst for more to come.”

Brockton Beer Co.’s new taproom is in the heart of downtown.

Two years ago, with the pandemic disrupting nearly every aspect of the beer and restaurant industries, Brockton Beer’s founders were unsure they’d ever open a brick-and-mortar brewery. At that time, in an interview with Boston.com, Alexandre talked about how difficult it was to secure financing, and how he felt lenders were asking his group to prove more than others. The team that makes up Brockton Beer Co.’s founders is an outlier in the state: Currently, the Massachusetts Brewers Guild lists nine of the more than 200 breweries here as being owned by people of color.

The funding eventually did come, in the form of loans from MassDevelopment, Mainvest Investors, Neighborworks, and the Brockton Redevelopment Authority.

“When you add in our families’ personal contribution, it took a village to get us to this point and we’re extremely grateful for everyone’s support,” says Cabellon, Brockton Beer’s CFO.

The ability to get the brewery off the ground means a lot to the other founders as well.

Cofounder Eval Silvera sits in the new taproom space.

“There was an article the Globe published recently about people being priced out of Boston,” says LaTisha Silvera.” And people were buying homes here in Brockton and looking at it as a community because it is a minority majority community. And to be able to have businesses like ours, like J.J’s [Caffe], like Sodades [Barber Shop], like Luanda [Restaurant and Lounge].

“We’re here. We’re ready to extend the community. It’s good to know that there are places ready to receive you and nice places to go to.”

The beer should be good, too. Brewer Julian Miller, formerly of Essex County Brewing, is now the head brewer in Brockton. And while the initial lineup of seven taps will feature standards like an IPA, light lager, and a porter, expect Miller to craft some seriously good small-batch brews for the site.

For now Brockton Beer Co.’s taproom will be beer only, but food service is planned for later in the summer. Initial hours starting June 2 will be Thursdays and Fridays from 4 to 10 p.m. and Saturdays from noon to 10 p.m.