Brewery announces New Hire and Expansion Plans

PRESS RELEASE / November 6, 2020 (Lancaster, MA) – Today, Bull Spit Brewing Company owner Keith P. Kopley announced plans to open a production facility in a new community by the fall of 2021. Expansion plans come as the Brewery completed their first year with great success, even amidst a national pandemic.

“We have had great success in year one. Our initial startup brewing system has done its job but now we need something to help sustain current accounts and foster future growth” said Kopley, President at Bull Spit Brewing Company on Kalon Farm.

Bull Spit Brewing Company opened its doors to customers in June of 2019 through its various events held on the Kalon Farm property in Lancaster. Kalon Farm is the parent company to both Bull Spit Brewing Company and Hillside Cellars, Kopley’s wine line. Then in 2020 the pandemic hit and shut down the breweries in house operations. “We made the decision to aggressively self-distribute our product to interested businesses within a 20-mile radius of the Brewery. We wanted to maintain the local, back yard feel to our potential accounts” said Kopley. “We were surprised at the support we got from local businesses.” Kopley continues. Kopley along with brewery leadership approached and partnered with local restaurants to offer a to go beer option with food, sort of a one stop shop for people getting meals to go from local restaurants.

In July, the brewery decided to dive into all of the guidelines coming down from the state in order to open up their outdoor area. “We purchased a Food Truck so we could prepare and serve a basic yet satisfying menu classifying us in the restaurant category so we could open back up to our customers” Comments Becca Higgins, General Manager of Bull Spit Brewing Company and Kalon Farm. “Our goal was to cross promote our country store and the brewery and our menu was the perfect place to do that” continued Higgins. Following all local and State guidelines for reopening the brewery started welcoming guests back into their outdoor hospitalityspace. “It was a slow start as people were cautious about getting back out, but once word got around that we had a relaxed, safe and socially distanced space that was family friendly our customer base grew significantly” says Higgins. “It was a learning curve for the staff on the most efficient way to execute all of the safety guidelines, but we came up with a system that we felt was most efficient” continues Higgins.

With the newfound success of the outdoor space and continuously growing outside sales accounts the 7 barrel start up brewing system was starting to feel the stress. Head Brewer, Chris Fontaine formerly of Berkshire Brewing and Lefty’s, states that they had to start contracting out some batches of beer in order to fill demands. “We don’t have enough tank space to meet all of the needs currently. We have 8 full time beers plus rotating seasonals and specials. We had no choice but to look into contract brewing some of our beer at other breweries” says Fontaine.

With all of the scrambling to meet needs Kopley decided it was time to start looking for another property to put a bigger brew system in. With a new building and a bigger brewing system comes the addition of staffing. “We were lucky to get such an experienced brewer to start us off. It actually took a lot of stress off of us as we knew the quality of product Fontaine put out, and obviously our accounts and customers felt the same” says Kopley. “The question at hand now was who are we going to get to brew in our new facility” continued Kopley. “It all came down to timing” said Dave Higgins. Higgins was looking for a move after a successful 17-year run as Lead Brewer at local Regional Brewery Wachusett Brewing Co. “My passion is brewing. I love the process of creating new recipes, the brewing of the beer and eventually watching people enjoy a product I created” says Higgins. “I believe my time with Wachusett set me up to be where I am today, I look forward to helping Bull Spit Brewing reach the next level in an overly saturated market, Challenge Accepted” exclaims Higgins. “Bull Spit has seen impressive growth in a tough first year of business, I’m excited to be a part of their continued success” continued Higgins.

Currently Kopley is in negotiations for land and existing buildings in a neighboring community. “We see great potential in this community” said Kopley. “We are excited at the potential the land and buildings hold for us and to date the community has been very welcoming with our conceptual ideas” continued Kopley. Bull Spit Brewing has a very aggressive timeframe with this new production facility. Their goal is to have the production side of the expansion operating by late spring and have already been talking to other breweries on ways they can help them see the same success they saw.

For more information on the brewery you can visit their website bullspitbrewing.com or like them on most social media outlets. They have a product locater map on their website that lists all of the places you can find their beer, they also sell retail to go beer and growlers right out of the brewery in Lancaster located right on Rt. 117.