Wormtown brewmaster claims Purgatory space

Roesch launches Murder Hill brand

Ben Roesch recently made a small batch of a West Coast IPA inside the same Park Avenue brewhouse that propelled his career.

The brewery, now home to Double Down Brewing Co., had been where, nearly 14 years ago, Roesch grinded away producing batch after batch of “Be Hoppy,” the rocket fuel he created for Wormtown Brewery’s ascent.

This trip offered merely a half-pint of nostalgia, though, because Roesch did not brew another tank of Wormtown’s flagship West Coast IPA.

Instead, the IPA he brewed with Double Down will eventually pour from a draft line at Roesch’s new brewery in the Blackstone Valley.

For the first time in his 23 years in craft beer, the brewmaster will open a brewery on his own terms, with his wife, Adrienne, as co-founder.

Two months ago, Roesch departed Wormtown and with Adrienne created Murder Hill.

They will take over Purgatory Beer Co.’s 2,400-square-foot brewery and taproom within the historic Linwood Mill in Whitinsville, a village of Northbridge, purchasing all of Purgatory’s brewing assets.

“Making beer is not an easy profession, physically or mentally, but it’s still something I like doing and want to make a living at,” Roesch said. “Now that it’s a family business, it’s not only added motivation to be successful, but also doing so in way that’s good for us as a family.”

The actual Murder Hill exists only as a nickname the family gave to woods atop a hill near their home. The brewery’s logo bears its spirit animal, the crow, embracing its resourcefulness and smarts.

The intelligent black birds – the collective noun for which is a “murder of crows” – roost in the woods around Roesch’s house.

“I hear them outside right now,” he said.

Focus on local ingredients

With larger, more sophisticated maltsters in New England and a Massachusetts farm producing world-class hops, Roesch said there has never been a better time for the state’s brewers to purchase and promote local ingredients.

Roesch aims to take advantage of the availability of Northeast grains by sourcing a majority of the malt for his brews from Valley Malt in Holyoke,

“the first modern malt house east of the Mississippi,” and Blue Ox Malthouse in Lisbon, Maine.

And for hops, whenever possible, he plans to purchase from Four Star Farms, which grows eight varieties of hops on its 17-acre farm in Northfield.

Murder Hill is at least four weeks or more from opening as it waits to secure its licenses. In the meantime, Roesch has been collaborating with other

PHOTO COURTESY BEN ROESCH Ben and Adrienne Roesch are opening Murder Hill, a new brewery in Northbridge. Ben Roesch, the former brewmaster and co-founder of Wormtown Brewery, loved the idea of starting a family business, including their daughter, Babette.