David Fields, managing partner at Wormtown Brewery.
July 14, 2020
Q&A: Wormtown Brewery discusses expanding to Vermont during the pandemic
Photo: Grant Welker
Wormtown Brewery's location in Patriot Place in Foxborough
Last month, Wormtown Brewery in Worcester announced that it would begin selling its signature Be Hoppy IPA in Vermont, marking the fifth state where Wormtown is sold. Managing partner David Fields spoke with WBJ about what spurred that expansion, as well as how the company has adapted during the coronavirus pandemic.
How are things going at Wormtown?
It’s certainly interesting every day. We thought it was exciting to be in the world pre-COVID and what we didn’t realize was just how steady and consistent our day-to-day lives were. Everyday we show up and there’s a new challenge.
What’s it like running a leisurely-oriented business during a time of great uncertainty and stress in the world?
We’ve always said internally that we believe beer is the original social network. Long before Facebook decided they’re what brought people together, we liked to say bars and beer bring people together for social occasions. Being that that’s how we view ourselves, it’s a very unique and interesting time to try to still fill that need for people — to get together and be that deep breath at the end of the day where you might meet a few neighbors.
What has reopening the taproom been like?
It’s a little bit interesting, but don’t forget we had beer to-go. In a way, our taproom was always open. I guess the right way to answer that is opening the taproom right away for people to come back was exciting. It was stressful because you bear the burden of providing a safe environment and a respectful environment. It was exciting to create a whole new outdoor space, which we think came out really well. It’s still the same, getting people to come enjoy your space. The real interesting and engerzing component really came before that, and that was creating a to-go business from scratch.
I think throughout all of retail, we’ve entered a new experiential phase where we have to provide not only a higher level of service but one that’s interesting to that consumer. At the end of the day, we're a craft brewery. We were born out of creativity and innovation. We were drawn to opening our brewery because of that, so while it was painful and stressful, being given a blank slate to think outside the box and create was really interesting — and to watch how our team took on that task, that’s personally inspiring, to see all the cool, new ideas they came up with.
How has the Vermont expansion played out?
It opened up two weeks ago. I think I would preface that question, because I think it’s important for readers: If it was not for the coronavirus, we would not have made the decision to go into Vermont for another 12 or 18 months.
For us, it was a little bit different in that because of some loss of business, we had the capacity and wanted to keep people working. We were recipients of the Paycheck Protection Program loan, so we had that to help us explore those first. Ultimately, what it came down to was our distributor partner in Vermont made a very compelling case that was: If not now, then when? And when I was talking with him — and it was someone I’ve known for decades — I said expanding flies in the face of what I’m feeling right now, about what’s happening in the retail marketplace. It feels like now is not the time. We can’t send members of our team up to Vermont to sample our beer and tell them our story and share what we like to call "the love of Wormtown."
But he said there will never be a more important time than this summer to get your beer at backyard barbecue, to get someone to bring your beer to a pool party among their 6-10 closest friends, or to bring it to the beach, or to bring it on a hike, or to scale Mount Washington, or to bring to Lake Champlain or into the Green Mountains. Never again in history will there be so many people doing so many outdoor activities during the summer with their closest friends. That right there, he said, is a visceral moment to introduce your brand to Vermont.
What biggest manufacturing lesson do you think you’ve learned throughout the pandemic so far?
Keep it simple. We did a very bad job at that. We used to be very disciplined. We were always pretty hyper disciplined, almost maybe too much. We were so focused on what we did and how we did it that we lost sight of some of the other fun things we could be doing, but as soon as coronavirus hit, we completely opened the gates on the creativity and we sort of realized we were creating stress.
Is there anything new or exciting coming down the pipeline?
In the pipeline is our pilot brewing system in Patriot Place — it was finally coming online when coronavirus was just starting to be talked about. The pilot system started in January. A lot of those small-case releases, as you’ve been seeing us do on social media in the last two months, are really going to start ramping up.
This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by WBJ Staff Writer Monica Busch.
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