Devil’s Purse on tap
Isle Brewers Guild welcomes new craft beer maker
PAWTUCKET – What started as a hobby between a pair of friends with an interest in home brewing quickly grew into an obsession and that passion eventually morphed into the business plan for a brewery, which will soon be calling Pawtucket its second home, as Devil’s Purse Brewing Co. has joined the Isle Brewers Guild craft beer cooperative on Main Street.
Devil’s Purse co-founder and Cape Cod resident Matt Belson said that he met fellow founder Mike Segerson seven years ago after the pair were introduced by their wives. The duo became fast friends and what linked them was their passion for creating home-made beverages, as Segerson had experience in the wine industry as a vintner and Belson had a home-brew kit that was collecting dust in his basement.
There was no lack of trialand-error to start their homebrewing hobby, as Belson recalled that first batch coming out “terrible.” However, he said, “we stuck with it and they progressively got better. Soon we started making beers we enjoyed.”
“It became an obsession to a point where we were brewing all the time, running over to each others’ houses when the kids were in bed to brew,” Belson said of the quickly growing hobby between the two. “A few months into it, we started talking about opening a brewery on Cape Cod, but we found out we needed a lot of information to fill in the gap.”
Belson and Segerson toured the country, visiting breweries and trade shows around New England and the United States, building their knowledge about brewing and the business side of owning and operating a brewery. Once they established a business plan and zeroed in on recipes, they began their search for a space to call home, eventually finding an industrial space in Dennis, Mass. They signed the lease in summer 2014, equipment was delivered a few months later, and test batches came in February 2015. Devil’s Purse officially opened for business on Memorial Day weekend in 2015.
There were growing pains to start, as Belson said that “getting up and running is obviously a great hurdle and a big challenge, but once that happens, you have to start brewing beer and hopefully making beer that people want to drink and enjoy.”
“We’ve been tremendously humbled with the response to our beers, not just the local community but also tourists, second home-owners, the following and growth of people being aware of our beer has just exploded,” Belson said. “We’re really grateful and humbled to see where we are now.”
“We could not have envisioned the explosive demand and growth that’s happened with us since we opened after a couple of weeks,” he continued. “The demand for our beers has far outstretched our capacity to make enough.”
With demand outgrowing space, Belson and Segerson had to start looking at future plans, and that’s when they were introduced to Isle Brewers Guild. They first met last summer and Belson said there was much that appealed to the people at Devil’s Purse.
“They’re awesome people and have really brought together a talent pool of brewing and industry experience, it’s a state-of-the-art facility, it’s an incredible space,” Belson said of the IBG property on Main Street. “From a business standpoint, it really allows us to scale up production of some of our beers on a much bigger scale without having to deal with the additional cost of purchasing new equipment and trying to physically expand or having to find another location.”
At The Guild, Devil’s Purse will brew two of their most popular beers: Handline Kölsch and Surfman’s Check ESB. Additionally, by brew- ing in Pawtucket, it will allow Devil’s Purse the chance to do something they’ve never before done: package their product.
The Handline Kölsch and Surfman’s Check ESB will be packaged in 16-ounce cans, a first for Devil’s Purse. Traditionally, their beers have only been available at bars or restaurants on draft or on site in Dennis by filling growlers, but the partnership with The Guild now offers a new opportunity.
“For the first time, we’ll be able to truly meet the demands locally, on Cape Cod, the south coast, South Shore,” Belson said. “Now with our sister brewery, we’ll certainly be looking to expand into Rhode Island and Massachusetts and beyond.”
Belson said that he sees a tremendous opportunity with the partnership at the craft beer co-op.
“It’s increasing production and expanding our packaging offerings. By brewing those two styles in Pawtucket, it frees up capacity here and we can focus on brewing more of our limited and specialty beers. We’ve increased capacity without the expense of more equipment,” he said. “Right now, this is the big item on the agenda, this is our big goal right now, we’re going to focus on the first batches of beers coming out of IBG.”
“It’s new across the board, a new facility, a new relationship, we’re looking forward to working with each other and once we have that rhythm going, we’ll expand and do some more interesting beers and possibly add some more styles,” he said.