The brewery at Great Awakening Brewing in the historic Mill at Crane Pond in Westfield. (GREAT AWAKENING BREWING PHOTO)
WESTFIELD – For the owners of Great Awakening Brewing Co., July 23 was a long time coming.
For more than a year the owners have been preparing to open at 77 Mill St., and this week they finally began selling their brews for curbside pickup.
Orders for cans began at 3 p.m. online at greatawakeningbrewing.com with curbside pickup Saturday from 12-5 p.m.
Co-owners Mark Netzer, head brewer, and Andy Grenier, business lead, are longtime friends with a love of beer.
Netzer and Grenier grew up together in Westfield and are excited to bring their shared vision to reality this week. Grenier said the passionate Great Awakening team is made up of long-time friends who supported them every step of this journey.
“We are beyond excited to see this dream turning into a reality,” Grenier said.
Initially, the brewery will offer a broad and diverse selection of rotating Craft Beer Cans, typically available for pickup one day per week.
“Our debut lineup includes our Purist Coconut & Lime Sour, PreCITRAtation single hop IPA, Sky Guy American Double IPA brewed and an Imperial Stout,” said Grenier. “Customers can also purchase a variety of Great Awakening glassware designed to pair with our beer offerings, as well as branded t-shirts and tank tops.”
Great Awakening Brewing is opening for can sales to pickup curbside at its 77 Mill St. brewery. (GREAT AWAKENING BREWING PHOTO)
For now, all orders must be made through the website for curbside pickup. If a customer does not order online ahead of time, they can use their phone to order online from any remaining inventory, but craft beer supplies are limited so Grenier encourages customers to head to the the website to order ahead of time.
Netzer and Grenier said the coronavirus pandemic set them back quite a bit.
“COVID has definitely been an eye-opening experience,” said Grenier. “To align with COVID guidelines and trends, we pivoted our business model to kick-off with Craft Beer Can sales by purchasing a semi-automated canning line. Shifting to can sales gets our craft beer out to the local community while we build out our kitchen, which is required to open our taproom in accordance with Phase 3 Opening Guidelines.”
Grenier said an unexpected silver lining to COVID was that the industry pause gave them time to fill a few oak barrels for aging, including a huge 130-gallon sherry barrel.
“We’re already excited about the flavor profile the beer is developing in there,” he said.
Once the kitchen buildout and food licensing is complete later this summer, Great Awakening will welcome the public into its 12,000 square-foot taproom and brewery in Westfield’s Historic Mill at Crane Pond.
Business partners and best friends Mark Netzer and Andy Grenier, owners of Great Awakening brewery of Westfield. (HOPE E. TREMBLAY/THE WESTFIELD NEWS)
“In the meantime, we’ll continue introducing weekly Craft Beer Cans to order online for curbside pick-up,” said Grenier. “We’re excited for customers to soon enjoy our broad and diverse selection of Craft Beers on tap while enjoying the scenic Little River Dam sights and sounds.”
Follow Great Awakening on Instagram and Facebook @greatawakeningbrewco for the weekly Craft Beer Can Release information and updates on the Taproom opening.
