Night Shift’s Huge New Boston Brewery Will Be Filled With Coffee and Food

From its humble beginnings as a homebrewing operation, to its first home in a small warehouse in Everett, to its more recent life as a massive production and distribution operation with an extremely popular taproom, Night Shift Brewing (87 Santilli Hwy., Everett) has come a long way since its founding in 2012. Now, the brewery stands poised to add yet another piece to the puzzle: a 12,000-square-foot brewery and taproom in Boston proper, as previously reported. Read on for more details on the new project.

The forthcoming facility at Lovejoy Wharf, located on the border of Boston’s West End and North End, will give Night Shift an opportunity to brew more innovative beers in a space that will accommodate hordes of people.

“In terms of customer space, it’s going to be larger than ever,” co-founder Michael Oxton told Eater.

Oxton, who started Night Shift with Mike O’Mara and Rob Burns, said that the Lovejoy brewery will have more than 300 seats, and during warmer months, there will be waterfront patio seating overlooking the Harborwalk. Of the 12,000 square feet within the new facility, about 25 percent will house brewing and production, while the other 75 percent will accommodate a kitchen, a taproom and seating area, and a cafe and retail space.

Night Shift Brewing [Official Photo]

Night Shift’s production manager Anna Jobe will manage the Lovejoy brewery’s 10-barrel brewing system, which has a capacity of about 2,500 barrels per year. There will be plenty of room for experimentation and innovation, and the brewery’s employees will get the chance to test recipes and leave their fingerprints on Night Shift’s beers.

The taproom will have 30 tap lines, with the majority of beers brewed on-site, kegged, and only poured out of the Lovejoy location, which Oxton said would be highly innovation-driven, supplemented by the brewery’s core brands like Santilli and Whirlpool.

“Every aspect of the brewing process can really be toyed with, from yeast cultures, to herbs and spices, to just processes in the actual brewing — how we ferment it, what temperatures we use,” Oxton said. “We’re also gonna do sort of a rotation for the rest of our brewers so each person gets a turn working in that space.”

Though there will be some barrel aging, Lovejoy won’t do any canning or bottling on site.

“In some ways it’s liberating because we’re exclusively focused on the tap lines in that space in terms of what we’re producing there,” Oxton said. “There’s no limitation on what we can do.”

Expect to see a full lineup of beers, including sours, saisons, IPAs, and some new offerings that “play around with some funky yeast cultures,” Oxton said.

Night Shift Brewing [Official Photo]

Night Shift’s Lovejoy brewery will also embrace a new dual-purpose cafe and beer trend among several Boston breweries, with its own coffee program for espresso, cappuccinos, lattes, and more, according to Oxton. With a full kitchen, Night Shift will work with RealFood Consulting to develop a food menu for the new brewery.

Though it’s a large expansion, the Boston brewery brings Night Shift full circle to where Oxton, O’Mara, and Burns began.

“Our whole brewery started as us homebrewing in the kitchen, using culinary inspired beer recipes, and now we’re going back,” Oxton said, with foods that complement the beers. “The goal of the space is really to put the spotlight on the beer, and great food should be the supplement.”

Oxton said there will be sandwiches, salads, and a few soups — a simple, one-page menu of “familiar items but an elevated, creative take or twist on them.”

Night Shift has partnered with Helios Design Group and Cafco Construction to build out the space, holding onto a bit of its history as a submarine part manufacturer and Schrafft’s candy production site while bringing in modern touches.

The current timeline for opening is October or November of this year, and it will likely operate seven days a week from the morning until 1 a.m. Stay tuned to Night Shift’s social media for progress updates.

• Night Shift Brewing Coverage on Eater [EBOS]
• Night Shift Will Open a Brewery and Taproom in Boston [EBOS]