Merrimack Ales

A Message from founder Adam Pearson

We think of beer as a catalyst of sorts. Beer can help bring people together and a taproom provides a gathering space for people to meet and connect. We design our beers for ‘drinkability’ and they should be as easy to enjoy as they are flavorful and aromatic. We think that’s a big part of building the taproom as a gathering place. We are opening a taproom that has several things which we have found are important to consumers:

• Authenticity, by experiencing our beers at the source, as fresh and true as they were intended.
• Transparency, by being able to see the brewery, watch our staff in action, and to chat with our staff about how we brew and what we use to make our beers.
• Community, by giving people of similar interests a place to hang out, by connecting with area food vendors to provide great things to eat, and by partnering with other local businesses and groups to promote and support their efforts.

Since we opened, Merrimack Ales has distributed beer to a growing number of accounts – beer stores, bars, and restaurants. We felt it would be the best way to ‘get our brand out there’ so people could find out about us and visit the brewery. Those accounts have been great and we intend to keep those relationships and grow our distribution further, in order to make our beers available to everyone in the area.

The Market

• As of March 2019, Lowell is the 5th largest city in Massachusetts, at 111,346 people. There are 2 other small taprooms in the city, leaving a large number of unserved customers just in Lowell. With brewery visits a popular weekend activity, we see visitors from southern NH, most of MA, CT and RI due to our location ( Route 495) for people visiting breweries.
• Our branding draws on math and science related elements and we have attracted customers from the various universities and labs around the Boston & Cambridge areas.

Our Competitors

We face competition from:

• Other local, regional, national and international brewers for retail and tap space
• Other local MA and southern NH breweries for taproom customers. The most local taprooms are Navigation Brewing and Beer Works in Lowell, Oak & Iron in Andover, and True west Brewing in Acton.

• Tap Room Buildout: $49,220
• Distribution Expansion: $51,360
• MainVest Compensation: $6,420

Adam Pearson
Founder
As the owner and founder of Merrimack Ales, Adam runs the day to day operations, develops the recipes, and does most of the label designs, among other exciting things like mopping floors. Adam started home brewing in 2004 to have an outlet for experimenting and has been at it ever since. Before getting into brewing, Adam worked in aerospace/airlines industries repairing turbine engine and landing gear parts and spent a few years developing parts for silicon wafer/IC chip technology. After being trained in Lean Manufacturing and then Six Sigma, Adam changed career focus and helped establish improvement programs at Delta Air Lines, Bank of America, and Philips Healthcare. Now that attention to process and making improvements is being applied daily at Merrimack Ales. Adam is currently on the advisory board for the University of Vermont’s Beer School and has a BS in Ceramic Engineering from Alfred University.