January 20th, 2009
Brewery in Concord . Brewery Opening . Manchester Brewing Company
New Brewery – Manchester Brewing Co
Concord is brewing – Michigan man puts his beer on the shelf
By MEG HECKMAN
Eight years ago, Kevin Bloom’s wife gave him a homebrew kit as a present. The gift, and the bottles of hoppy liquid it produced, would change his life.
Pretty soon, Bloom was considering a career change. He loved beer and was tired of working as a real estate broker. Plus, brewing beer meant he wouldn’t have to wear a suit to work. Bloom signed on to work as an apprentice at a Michigan brewery and, last year, moved to Deerfield to start a microbrewery of his own.
The Manchester Brewing Co. opened in Concord (Yes Concord. More on that later.) last fall.
Bloom delivered his first batches to local stores Dec. 1 and demand has been steadily increasing.
An unprecedented recession isn’t the best time to start a new business, but Bloom is hopeful. Americans, he said, love their microbrews and they’re willing to pay. If, that is, the beer tastes good.
“I can’t sell beer for what Budweiser does,” he said. “The only thing we can compete on is taste.”
The stock market was still strong when Bloom began making plans to leave Michigan, where he and his wife had lived for many years. New Hampshire appealed to Bloom because of its liquor laws, especially as they pertain to microbreweries. He learned the craft of beer-making in Michigan and had hoped to stay, but that state’s approval process involved too many lawyers for his liking.
“New Hampshire is the best place if you want to shoestring it,” he said. “Which is what we’re doing here.”
Last year, Bloom incorporated as Manchester Brewing and started looking for digs in the Queen City. Nothing seemed quite right, so he started asking around Concord. What he found was a storefront in a battered strip of offices and garages on Old Turnpike Road.
His only sign is a computer printout taped to the window. Inside, it’s chilly, just 50 degrees, the temperature the yeasts prefer. A network of shiny steel drums and hoses fills three small rooms. About 200 gallons of Bloom’s ale pop and gurgle in a steel vat. Cases of beer cram the front hallway. Pictures of the company’s other labels hang from the walls. He tried to change the name to Concord Brewing, but that name (and several variations) were already taken by a business in Massachusetts.
Bloom greets visitors at a tall pub table surrounded by honey-colored stools. His enthusiasm is enough to make you forget the dreary parking lot, the out-of-place name and the chill inside the brewery.
This guy loves beer. Pearls of brewing lore and industry facts lace his conversation, and he cracks jokes about the beer-making process.
“Brewmasters have a thing about keeping the yeast happy,” he said. “I have a friend who plays Jimmy Buffett for his yeast. I like Anthrax, Megadeth and Metallica. My yeast seems to do just fine.”
This quirky humor (and a love of 1950s magazines and pop art) is reflected in Bloom’s labels. All of which, he’s proud to say, were originally rejected by the federal office that regulates such things. The line-drawn pinup girl plastered on Censored Imperial Blonde was originally saying . . .
The first draft of Koncord Kombat Ale’s label included an American flag (right over the tanks driving across the State House dome). As Bloom learned, there’s a law forbidding the American flag to appear on beer labels.
“So we did a hammer and sickle instead,” he said.
Right now, you can find the ale and the blonde at local stores, including Barb’s Beer Emporium and the Concord Cooperative Market. A third brew, a marzen called The Devil’s Rooster, will hit shelves later this month. (Bloom had to retool that label because it didn’t include the word “beer.”) He’s working out arrangements with local bars and a beer distributor to widen his company’s reach.
Bloom is also working on an orange-infused Belgian concoction, Studly Monk, that he hopes to market in liter bottles later this winter. But first he’s waiting for the feds to approve the label.