Democracy Brewing Company Wants to Be the First Co-op Brewery in Boston

A new brewery could soon join the fray in Boston, but this one will be entirely worker-owned. Democracy Brewing Company has it sights set on Andrew Square in South Boston, and its founders have launched an IndieGogo campaign to fundraise the cost of getting things up and running, Boston Magazine reported.

"We’re starting a cooperative, a brewery cooperative, which will be the first one in Boston, and that means a lot to me," co-founder and brewer Jason Taggart said in a video on the brewery’s fundraising page.

Taggart’s partner is James Razsa, who imagines the brewery as a community space, "where folks can really come there and build community. We’re gonna do organizing, we’re gonna do things there where folks actually get to expand their horizons."

"The people making the decisions are the people that are going to be working every day," Taggart said. "The ideal look and feeling of Democracy Brewing is the old-time Boston bar. We want it to be warm, comfortable; we want you to stay for a few beers. We will establish that community of people that care about beer, that care about the product that we’re making."

They expressed plans to have the brewery be a meeting and event space that people can rent out or visit to hear live music. The worker-owned, cooperative concept will be the first of its kind in Boston, designed to "be owned and run by their members, the people who work in them, and they operate for the benefit of these members," Taggart and Razsa wrote on their fundraising page. This differs from a model the employee-owned Harpoon Brewery uses, which involves employee stock ownership.

Taggart and Razsa want to open the brewery in the Andrews Square area of South Boston, and they are fundraising $30,000 for the hunt for a location and the legal fees necessary for opening a brewery. They have raised $5,899 so far, with 24 days remaining.

• Democracy Brewing Crowdfunds a South Boston Launch [BM]
• Democracy Brewing: Help Ferment Rebellion! [IndieGogo]
• Harpoon Is Now An Employee-Owned Company! [Official Site]