River Styx in Ashburnham, MA

Interested in River Styx as I spend a couple weekends a year in Ashburnham, hope for good things

 

Saw that same mention in the Telegram today. Sounds like they're a not quite yet licensed nano as far as I can tell. Would be awesome to have more decent breweries in the north central MA craft beer desert! Honest Weight and River Styx seem like signs of life, though I still wonder when will the 100k people of Fitchburg and Leominster area finally sprout one damn brewery? I work in Leominster and its lack of a decent (i.e. any) nano or brewpub is a very compelling reason to leave that stupid city immediately at the end of every work day. I'd happily detour to Ashburnham if it's any good!

 

Apparently they also make bourbon barrel aged maple syrup. Not sure if they have license to sell that either yet though

 

Hi All. I am happy to read about some interest in River Styx Brewing! My husband and I own River Styx Brewing, LLC. We have released one small batch of Bourbon Barrel Aged Maple syrup and I believe some limited quantities are still available in the Ashburnham Wine and Spirits and Ashburnham Hardware store. When we did our initial release over the summer I was under the impression that all licensing was in order but since then I have learned about an additional retail license that we still need to obtain. I am submitting the paperwork next week so when we release our syrup batch next year we will have all the required licenses for sure.

We produce our bourbon barrel aged syrup once a year as part of our Maple Bourbon Barrel Aged Cronus Lord of Time stout recipe. Our process for MBBA CLOT starts with a new American oak barrel. We add unaged Kentucky whiskey to the new barrel and age it until it becomes Kentucky Bourbon. We empty the bourbon for personal use and immediately add 100% Vermont Maple syrup. We age the syrup until it has just the right amount of bourbon flavor, then we empty the barrel and bottle the bourbon syrup for annual release. Next we add our Cronus Lord of Time stout and age the stout in the Maple Bourbon Barrel. For now, this beer is only available for personal use but we are currently working to obtain licenses so we can sell our beer to the public. Some other beers we currently produce are Triton’s Trident IPA and Apollo’s Arrow IPA. You can find both and Cronus Lord Of Time on Untappd. We are working to finalize a few other recipes including a new double IPA named after Zeus.

If you follow us on social media you can stay in the loop with our progress towards obtaining the licenses to sell beer. In the meantime I will also share our basic plan for here for anyone who is interested.

Our first hurdles are focused around zoning. Our plan is to start small as a 1BBL Farm Brewery with self-distribution to local liquor stores and pubs. We would operate the 1BBBL from the lower level of our home and it would not be open to the public. If our beer takes off and demand is there, we will quickly grow to a freestanding brewery with tasting room and hopefully full pours. We are currently working to obtaining 2 variances so we can operate as a 1BBL Farm Brewery from the bottom level of our home. This is where our home brewery/test brewery is currently located. At this point I have submitted plans for the brewery to Board of Health and the Zoning Department in Ashburnham and next week I will gather proper paperwork to officially submit the request for the variances. If approved, I will proceed with TTB and ABCC and if all goes well we will obtain our Farm Brewery license at that point. If rejected at any stage we will pursue other options. One way or another we will find a way to pursue our passion for making and sharing our quality craft beer recipes with all of you. Please follow us on social media and stay tuned for updates.

River Styx Brewing on Facebook and Instagram
@RiverStyxBrew on Twitter

 

Good luck. I had pulled up the T&G's article looking for things to check out tonight/tomorrow... I'm originally from Fitchburg and here right now so that could have been an easy trip up the road.