Yet they kept their minds open and were willing to evolve. Their initial concept intentionally avoided IPA to embrace Belgian styles, mixed fermentations, culinary ingredients, and corked-and-caged bottles. Rob has generally been most responsible for pushing our innovation and ensuring our business stays constantly nimble.” “I’d say that the mix of ‘startup mentality,’ constant tinkering, tweaking, testing, and focus on quality control in his past roles definitely contributed to our initial and ongoing success with Night Shift. Oxton says that his friend’s knack for iterations-like software, constantly improved and updated-became part of Night Shift’s DNA. He later worked in engineering jobs at various software companies. In college-at Bowdoin in Maine, where Burns studied with Oxton until 2007-he started his own online computer sales business. Burns, who is Night Shift’s president, was a software engineer and entrepreneur. Oxton’s background was in English and communications O’Mara’s in finance. Oxton and fellow cofounders Rob Burns and Mike O’Mara launched Night Shift in Everett, Massachusetts, in 2012, sharing an industrial building with fellow startup Idle Hands Craft Ales. So, operating until we can’t be operating is the current plan of operation.” From Bullets to Cannons “It’s just obviously more limited than it has been in the past. “But we’re more than willing to follow the guidelines to keep everyone safe.” Better-than-expected patio weather late into the year helped that side of the business. “It’s constantly interruptive,” Oxton says. When they get word of a COVID-19 exposure-whether it’s staff or customers-they shut down, clean, and quarantine. Their taprooms in Everett and at Lovejoy Wharf in central Boston have occasionally had to close. “On all other fronts, it’s been tricky and stressful.” So, I think we’re in fairly small company, in terms of people who can say that we’re having a generally good year on the business front. “And draft is down, but retail is way up. “We’ve had constant interruptions to taproom operations, but on the wholesale side, business is up,” Oxton says. They expect to produce more than 50,000 barrels in 2021. In 2019 they produced about 39,000 barrels this year it will be a bit more than 40,000, after leaning into packaged beer and hard seltzer. However, despite everything, Night Shift still managed to increase production, slightly. It led them to call off plans for a new $10 million brewery and taproom in Philadelphia. The pandemic year of 2020 has been a trial. Let’s fire our cannon, so to speak, and bring this out in a bigger batch.’ Maybe do a variety pack, get printed cans, and make it a bigger deal, and send it out to wholesale accounts.” And then after a while, it’s like, ‘Okay, customers clearly are into this we have something going on here. “I think of this as firing bullets, right? You’re just trying to get out small little ideas and test the market and get user feedback. “I’ve been using this phrase a lot recently, so I’ll just use it now,” says cofounder Michael Oxton. If it does work, they embrace it and go big. If it doesn’t work, they keep tweaking until it does, or they move on. They try it out on a small scale, with a leading role for innovation brewer Anna Jobe. Here’s how it works for them: They get an idea-maybe it comes from the founders, maybe it comes from the team. Visitors to the Night Shift website don’t see “Our Beers” out front they see “Our Products,” and the drop-down includes coffee, hard seltzer, hard cider, wine, and coffee. What began not quite nine years ago in Boston’s north suburbs as a 3.5-barrel kit in an industrial park has blossomed into a wide-ranging drinks company, including a distribution business that now moves more than 1 million cases per year. The story of Night Shift is one of constant testing and branching out into new realms. What’s happened since then, however, is anything but common. Stop me if you’ve heard it: Three homebrewing buddies start their own brewery. How Night Shift Brewing came into existence is not a unique story among independent breweries.
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