Ipswich Ale Brewery, one of the oldest craft breweries in Massachusetts, will transfer most of its production as part of an expanded partnership with Newburyport, Massachusetts-based RiverWalk Brewing, both breweries announced last week.
“As the beer and beverage industry continues to evolve and present challenges, we are poised to pivot with our business and adapt to the ever-changing beer landscape,” Ipswich wrote on social media on Friday. “We are very pleased to announce a partnership with our friends up the street at Riverwalk Brewing in Newburyport who will be producing our beer for us going forward. Our current facility was designed for a capacity that is underutilized, and is the driving force behind our decision for this change.”
Under the new partnership, RiverWalk will produce and package Ipswich’s beer, as well as store finished beer and raw ingredients and manage inventory, RiverWalk founder and brewer Steve Sanderson told Brewbound.
Production of Ipswich’s beers at RiverWalk is expected to begin by mid-December. The arrangement is a stepped-up version of the contract brewing services RiverWalk provides its other partners.
“For the most part with our contracts, we brew a batch and get it out of here within a couple of weeks and then we brew another one,” he said. “We’re going to be providing more logistical support. Their distribution orders will be picked up from here. We’ll be warehousing more of their raw materials, packaging, things like that. Those are the main differences, because they’re not going to be maintaining a physical brewing plant anymore.”
Ipswich sales manager Chuck Freeman told Brewbound the brewery plans to maintain a small brewhouse in Ipswich.
“Ideally we can put a smaller system on our floor in early 2024 that will produce limited and small batch beers that could be served both in the Ipswich and Riverwalk taprooms,” he said. “The intent is to get away from chasing unrealistic sales and production volume for this size facility and getting back to focusing on the creativity and passion for beer in a business model that is sustainable for all Ipswich employees.”
The goal of the RiverWalk partnership is to “put the brand in a stronger position considering the dynamic shifts of the beer industry,” Freeman said.
Ipswich – whose full name is Mercury Brewing and Distribution Company and Ipswich Brewery Partners – was founded in 1991, long before hazy-IPA-producing craft breweries proliferated across New England, and has long been a trailblazer of sorts. The brewery struck a similar partnership with Newburyport Brewing in 2019 that allowed Newburyport to shutter its production facility as Ipswich handled its production, administration, sales and marketing.
Later in 2019, both breweries were acquired by local, publicly traded portfolio company Huntwicke Capital Group, based in nearby Topsfield, Massachusetts. Huntwicke closed on Ipswich in July 2019 and Newburyport in October 2019. Newburyport Brewing production moved to Dorchester Brewing in September 2022, Freeman said.
Longtime Ipswich owner and former president Rob Martin departed the company in February 2023 with a $1.86 million retirement package from Huntwicke, according to a company filing.
At its most recent peak, Ipswich produced 26,800 barrels of beer in 2015, according to data from the Brewers Association (BA). The brewery has recorded annual declines since then, posting a -19% decline, to 8,500 barrels in 2022, according to BA data. RiverWalk has committed to 4,000 barrels of production for Ipswich, Freeman said.
Conversations between Sanderson and the Ipswich team started more than a year ago, but ramped back up over the summer, he said.
“It really came about as we were comparing notes and talking about the challenges that we’re having that a lot of folks in the industry are having right now and what we could do to strengthen our positions and make sure that we could still fulfill the needs of the communities that we serve and, frankly, keep our overhead reasonable,” Sanderson said. “The more you talk about it, the more it starts to make sense, just finding a way to combine forces. We’re stronger together basically is the fact of it.”
Some of Ipswich’s brewing equipment will make the 11-mile move north to RiverWalk’s facility. RiverWalk will hire “at least one” of Ipswich’s 10 production employees, Sanderson said.
“They’re doing a really good job trying to take care of their people there,” he said. “If there are opportunities and it makes sense and we can bring folks over, we’re gonna look to do that as well.”
Contract production is an important part of RiverWalk’s business and the brewery has produced for fellow Massachusetts breweries Night Shift and Backlash in the past. RiverWalk tries to play an advisory role in those relationships whenever possible, particularly in the current business climate.
“We do our best especially with our contract partners to help them navigate this stuff,” Sanderson said. “It’s not just, ‘Hey, we’ll brew a batch for you.’ We’re looking at ‘You could probably save money if you can change from this yeast to this yeast’ or ‘Hey, maybe you don’t need a 60-barrel batch of this, why don’t we do a 30 instead?’ Because we want them to be viable and financially stable so they can keep working with us.”
RiverWalk and Ipswich’s expanded partnership is just one recent example of craft brewers teaming up to ease financial burdens in a challenging marketplace.
Earlier this month, Finestkind Brewing, the parent company of New Hampshire-based Smuttynose Brewing, announced it had acquired Brooklyn, New York-based Five Boroughs Brewing. Finestkind CEO Steve Kierstead said the company is interested in future acquisitions to grow the company’s platform.
In the Pacific Northwest, Great Frontier Holdings, the platform created in the merger of Ninkasi and Ashland Hard Seltzer parent company Wings & Arrow, acquired the Ecliptic Brewing brand.
In Colorado, Great Divide and Dry Dock announced the formation of a strategic partnership. Under that arrangement, Dry Dock’s beers will be produced at Great Divide’s facility, though both brands will retain independent ownership.