USA, CT: Trillium Brewing’s Connecticut location officially in the works

Another Trillium Brewing location is officially in the works — but this one will require a bit of a drive, Boston.com reported on September 12.

The Boston-born company has plans to open a farmhouse brewery in Connecticut, according to a blog post published last week by the company’s co-owners, Esther and JC Tetreault. The husband-and-wife duo announced that they bought “a beautiful farm” in North Stonington this summer, one that’s less than a two-hour drive from Trillium’s two Massachusetts breweries in Fort Point and Canton. They’re hoping to use the property to achieve one of their “biggest goals”: the Trillium Farm and Brewery.

“Our intention is to brew estate-grown beers, establish an agriculture program to feed our restaurant and breweries, and create a destination for you to share experiences with us, family, and friends,” the Tetreaults wrote.

Jonathan Tompkins, the brewery’s director of marketing, says the draw of the Connecticut farm and brewery will be to provide customers with “a unique experience both in beer and food, set in a beautiful pastoral landscape.”

“The natural beauty of North Stonington is picture perfect, and the area is steeped in agricultural history, which together create a perfect sanctuary away from everyday life,” Tompkins told Boston.com in an email Tuesday.

Rumored since 2016, the Connecticut farmhouse brewery “has been in the works for many a season,” the couple acknowledged. In a 2017 interview, Esther Tetrealt said the couple had been looking for property for years and even had the “architectural plans for a theoretical farmhouse” before they found their original location in Fort Point on Congress Street. In May, she told Boston Business Journal that the idea is for the farm to be home to “sheep and goats and pigs” plus grain and fruit for the breweries and soon-to-open Fort Point restaurant.

“We always dreamt of building our future and a New England farmhouse brewery not far from the venue where we were married in a pastoral region of CT,” the couple wrote in last week’s blog post.

While Tompkins says the company is hoping to utilize the farm’s fields “sooner rather than later,” he said it will take a “significant amount of time to get to our final vision.” In other words, don’t expect an opening date anytime particularly soon.

“For as long as it took us to find our perfect farmland, it will take just as long to build the brewery, prepare for events, and develop the agriculture program of our dreams,” the Tetreaults wrote in their blog post, adding that their “imminent focus” is on the upcoming restaurant and brewery slated to open this fall in Boston.

The 5-year-old company is in the midst of a growth spurt of sorts. In addition to the recently expanded Canton brewery and seasonal Boston beer gardens on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway and in Roslindale, Trillium is planning to move from its small Fort Point brewery to a two-floor restaurant, taproom, and retail space around the corner at 50 Thomson Place, which will have increased brewing capacity and a roof deck. The company announced that it was hiring for the new location last week. Despite the move, Esther told Boston Business Journal that the company is planning to keep its Congress Street location as an “innovation space” to test small-batch beers.

According to the Tetreaults, the Connecticut farm brewery is part of an idyllic vision of bringing together all parts of the business.

“We’re excited about the ability we finally have to connect all of our experiences in time,” they wrote. “[T]hink fresh produce from the farm for dinner on the roof deck in Fort Point while drinking Congress Street IPA packaged that morning in Canton.”

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