Turtle Swamp closing doors Aug. 19th

Ah that’s too bad. I went there when they first opened and then again a couple weeks ago when I was down in the area. They had some decent beers but didn’t seem (to me) that they experimented very much.

 

I don’t want to dunk on anyone who’s closing their business, I feel bad for them as people. I would think they are closing almost entirely because JP informally boycotted them. They never recovered after the lawsuit, which made it appear that they were opposed to the development of low income senior housing next door. (There are two sides to the story, ymmv.)

Seeing a handful of comments about their beer quality elsewhere, but honestly I thought it was good enough to be a nice neighborhood option. But part of being a thriving neighborhood option is being beloved by the neighborhood, and they lost any chance at that virtually overnight.

 

I'm sure that's part of it. But I honestly never even heard of this lawsuit. I saw their beers in stores, but never heard anything about them here on these boards. There's simply too much beer out there for me to take a flyer on any brand.

And the tap room wasn't even remotely near anything I go to. If they were even say, near Dorchester Brewing, I'd probably have swung by.

For example, I heard good things about Long Live. And they were within walking distance of Dorchester Brewing (which I enjoy). So I checked them out.

Trillium (not saying Turtle Swamp is Trillium) got a ton of flack years ago for the whole wages issue. Didn't seem to affect them long term. People tend to have short memories.

 

It is a short walk from Sam Adams and The Haven (awesome Scottish bar). In fact that’s why I went a couple weeks ago, had a dinner at The Haven, and also hit up Sam Adams.

 

Sam Adams in JP likely isn't a draw for as many people as it used to be since they have the tap room right in Faneuil. There's endless places to go right in the city before or after your visit. JP simply isn't easy to get to for a lot of people.

At least there's a T stop by there too though, albeit really far down the Orange Line. I've thought about going to that Sam Adams location to check out that tap room many times, but it's a long train ride from Medford. That being said, if I had made the trek out there I totally would have swung by Turtle Swamp just to check it out.

Good to know about the Haven though! Thanks!

 

I think that's kind of the things with these smaller places. I could be wrong about the expectations of the owners, but I get the sense that places like Turtle Swamp, Winter Hill, Distraction etc are designed mostly with serving their immediate community in mind. (Granted, I would understand an argument that Dorchester is close enough to be the immediate community of JP, but I digress.) I think there's room for places that aren't competing with Trillium or Notch or Lamplighter for patrons from all over greater Boston, but just making the gamble that enough people in JP or Winter Hill will choose them often enough over going 15-25 minutes across the city to be successful.

In Turtle Swamp's case, they royally pissed off a significant portion of JP and got dropped from most local bars and restaurants that carried them. For sure the points you raise weren't a good sign for them either, but I think they could have been fine even without doing much business outside the small radius. Probably an interesting topic in the big picture, not just Turtle Swamp.

 

All good points.

I do think of other breweries that are no way near Boston that do well in MA. Specifically Beverly and even more so, Amesbury.

Each of those spots has four or five breweries within walking distance of one another. In the case of Beverly they often do coordinated tap room crawls between each other.

This is probably what made Industrial such a destination (despite being 5 miles from Old Port) beyond Allagash.

 

My wife and I have friends who live near Turtle Swamp, so they shared some TS beer with us a few times. I wouldn’t say the beer is gross, but it is definitely south of good.

 

Thought this was an interesting perspective from an employee on TSB and the whole NIMBY situation. https://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/153428r/comment/jsht0vo/

 

I don't really have a dog in this fight. I am aware of other things that TSB mishandled. I know the city of Boston is terrible at communication and often just spring stuff on residents without notice. I never made it there. The NIMBY narrative definitely didn't encourage me to go, even though one of my best friends lives in JP.

 

They do a good job with British styles. I live near and go often so I’m bummed. They were put in a difficult position with the senior housing.

Drawdown Brewing should be opening soon a couple blocks away.

 

Article about TS in the Globe today: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/20/business/turtle-swamp-brewing-closing/

 

Damn, and on my and my mothers birthday too