READY TO LAUNCH

Part of the beauty of the relatively spore-like spreading of newly minted craft beer projects, brewpubs, and full-scale breweries opening the last few years is just that. There’s a lot more great beer out there. And more often than not, what’s actually out there accounts for only a sliver of what’s being conceived as the next tide, in whatever form it takes, comes in.

Speaking of which: Let’s talk Medford, Mass. And more importantly, Medford Brewing Company, the newest of the craft beer crop that has just started an early push for visibility on the scene. Founded by Nick Bolitho and Max Heinegg, the project has only recently gotten a web presence up and created the logo based around Medford’s rich historical maritime construction roots. An ocean-going vessel built around 1850, The President, is emblazoned on the logo (fun fact: “Medford-built” ships were considered to mean “the best” in the late 1900s). Now they’re putting the finishing touches on the first style of suds that will be hitting the market in late fall or early winter 2015. That is, provided Bolitho and Heinegg find a place to start making it in commercial quantities.

“We are very early on in the stages; right now we’re finalizing the flagship recipe, but also in the middle of trying to secure a contract brewery somewhere where we can actually brew the beer,” says Bolitho, who notes the labyrinthine nature of getting the appropriate legal paperwork sorted out being “all part of a big jigsaw puzzle you’re trying to put together, almost at the same time.”

Aside from navigating the legal maze of brewing beer in Mass, Bolitho says Heinegg—a seasoned homebrewer with over 20 or so homebrewing medals under his belt—is going the route most brewers do when bringing their vision for a new beer to life: He’s brewing it all in his basement. What that will be is still hush-hush, as both are keeping quiet on what their flagship style will be, but Bolitho says not to expect a heavy-hitting hop monster.

“There’s a lot of ‘extreme beers’ out there, and that’s not what I’m going for. What I want to achieve is good beer that’s got a bit more of a universal appeal,” says Bolitho. “If going into a bar or restaurant and you’ve got some ‘hop heads’ with you and normal people with you, I want [to create] a beer that hop heads as well as normal people are into. It’s a small target … the extreme ‘let’s get hoppy’ appeals to. What we’re working towards are more flavorful beers with a more universal appeal, that others would actually like, not just the elite hop head.”

“But I don’t want to alienate the hop heads, as I’m one of them,” he adds.

MEDFORD BREWING COMPANY. LAUNCHING FALL/WINTER 2015. FACEBOOK.COM/MEDFORDBREWINGCOMPANY