WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM | AUGUST 20 - 26, 2021 | 19
NEXT DRAFT
Double Down Brewing Co. to open at Peppercorn’s in Worcester Matthew Tota Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
WORCESTER – Once the smell of mashed grain and boiling wort supplanted the sweet aroma of ice cream in the back of Peppercorn’s Grille & Tavern, there was no looking back. In a decade, two breweries have made their mark inside the tiny backroom, briefl y home to the restaurant’s ice cream shop. Wormtown Brewery, there from 2010 to 2015, established itself as one the state’s fastestgrowing brewers before leaving for Shrewsbury Street. Flying Dreams Brewing Co. arrived next and began racking up industry awards. It needed more space to serve guests, moving to a taproom in Marlboro. When Flying Dreams left last fall — and with the uncertainty of the pandemic — I worried it marked the end of Peppercorn’s long run as Worcester’s brewery incubator. Thankfully, I was wrong. Next month, the city’s newest brewery will open in the fabled Park Avenue brewing space, helmed by two people who know the industry well. Christian McMahan, former president of Wachusett Brewing Co., and Tom Oliveri, owner of Peppercorn’s and co-founder of Wormtown, teamed up to create Double Down Brewing Co. — a nod to their doubling down on a 20-year friendship. They hope to open at 455 Park Ave. sometime mid-September. McMahan, who spent three and a half years at Wachusett before leaving in November, envisions Double Down as a direct-to-consumer brewery,
The Double Down Brewing Co. team includes, from left, co-founder Christian McMahan, brewer Brian Wells and co-founder Tom Oliveri. The new brewery, located in space at Peppercorn’s last occupied by Flying Dreams, is set to open in September. CHRISTINE PETERSON/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE
meaning it will likely never distribute its brews; you can only buy the beer at its brewery, which he hopes will join the ranks of Central Massachusetts’ other stellar destination breweries.
“There are some destination breweries around, but no one has really done that in an urban environment,” he said. Also appealing to McMahan, taproom breweries usually don’t worry about shelling the
extra penny for ingredients on a new beer that may not sell in distribution. “In some ways, direct to consumer frees us from limitations. We can do anything with ingredients and absorb the cost
because we’re not looking to hit a price point on the shelves,” McMahan said. “We just want to make a great beer. That’s pretty freeing.” See DRAFT, Page 22
