Wormtown brewer partners on Charlemont distilling venture
Photo | Sam Bonacci
Wormtown Founder and Brewer Ben Roesch (left) with Managing Partner David Fields
Distilling has been in Wormtown Brewery founder Ben Roesch’s blood since his days working on the spirits program at Nashoba Valley Winery in the mid 2000s.
Now, more than 10 years later, he is taking his years of experience in the beverage industry and teaming up with Andrea Stanley of Valley Malt in Hadley and fermentation expert Patricia Aron to form Backroads, a Charlemont-based distillery.
According to Roesch, the company will utilize Stanley’s access to malted barley and ship it to Wormtown’s brewhouse in Worcester, where they will be processed as unfermented beer and then shipped to a contract distillery in Plymouth where the liquid is fermented.
From there, the spirits will be taken to a Charlemont garage to be aged in barrels.
A finished product would then be available in three to five years. However, the group is hoping to produce gin using local botanicals, which can be on the market in a few months, Roesch said.
The company is hoping to win approvals from the Charlemont Planning Board later this month and will then file federal distilling applications.
He described the company as a passion project between the three friends to remain a part-time venture.
“We wanted to just bring something out that would be on the side, but it’s also something we’re passionate about,” Roesch said.
Much like Wormtown, the distillery would source only local ingredients, staying true to Roesch’ mantra and the brewery’s motto: “A piece of Mass. in every glass.”
The spirits category has interested other Wormtown partners and leaders enough to sign onto the project, and Roesch himself teased the market could be something that Wormtown takes a serious look at in the future.
For now, though, the two businesses are separate.
“It’s really just the three of us personally wanting to do something together that we’re passionate about: local grain, local farmers and growing stuff,” he said. “We have the opportunity to do something unique.”
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