Worcester Business Journal

12 Worcester Business Journal | October 1, 2018 | wbjournal.com F O C U S T H E F O O D & D R I N K I S S U E Craft liquor Breweries have been all the rage, but local distilleries making spirits are on the ground floor of a new boom L ocal breweries have mul- tiplied so fast in past few years, it can be hard to keep track of all the latest additions. Yet, it isn't beer, but hard cider and spirits – rum, vodka and the like – Americans are drinking more of. Beer consumption in the United States fell by almost half a percent – more than 10.6 million cases worth – from 2012 to 2017, according to IWSR. e industry publication projects beer consumption to fall by another 1.2 percent in the next five years. Spirits, on the other hand, rose by 2.5 percent in the last five years. e biggest growth by percentage in alcohol is hard cider, a still very small segment of the industry grown by 20 percent since 2012. "e local trend has gone through food and now wine and beer, and now cra spirits is taking off as well," said Justin Pelletier, the chief operating offi - cer at Nashoba Valley Spirits in Bolton and a member of the family owning the facility. $1M liquor expansion Nashoba Valley Spirits is a relatively old player in cra spirits as a 15-year- old distillery. When the Pelletiers bought the farm and its winery in 1995, they weren't sure what to do with a surplus of apples. e family began experimenting with different products and in 2003 began selling its first apple brandy. Sales have been taking off, spurring Nashoba Valley Spirits to embark on a $1-million expansion early next year to triple is capacity to make vodka, gin, brandies, whiskeys and liqueurs. "e local trend is a main reason for that," Pelletier said. "People are really passionate about purchasing their products locally." Since reaching a low in the mid- 1990s, spirits have gained an ever larg - er share of the alcohol market, taking from both beer and wine, according to e Beer Institute. Last year, the num- ber of distilleries rose by 16 percent to 1,835, the American Cra Spirits Association said in its annual report in September. ere are signs further growth is on the horizon. Cra spirit producers doubled their business investment from 2015 to 2017, the American Cra Spirits Association reported. Dreaming of fruit brandy Massachusetts has 29 distilleries, according to the association, but they are still relatively few and far between in Central Massachusetts. In Petersham, retired lawyer Jerry Friedman started Beaver Pond Distill- ery in 2014 not entirely to pick up on drinking trends but because it fulfilled a longtime passion. Friedman first tried eau de vie, a type of fruit brandy, four decades ago on a trip to Europe and kept his dream on hold during his career. "I finally decided I was done with that, and I would like to have some fun," Friedman said with a laugh of his recent retirement. Beaver Pond Distillery's eau de vie and other brandies are available in few stores, mostly around Petersham and Boston, near Friedman's home in Newton. Friedman isn't in the industry to necessarily make it big. "I'm doing this because I'm enjoying it," he said. The hard cider founding fathers Hard cider commands just 10 per- cent of the volume of spirits, but with BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer PHOTO/MATT WRIGHT PHOTO/COURTESY Nashoba Valley Spirits' Chief Operating Officer Justin Pelletier in Bolton. (Right) An apple brandy from Beaver Pond Distillery in Petersham.

• Cover