Massachusetts Breweries History: Ipswich Brewing
Ipswich Brewing was opened in 1992 by Paul Sylva and Jim Beauvais.
The Ipswich Brewing Company was purchased by Rob Martin, one of
its employees, in September 1999. Martin renamed the brewery to the
Mercury Brewing Company and has actively sought to diversify Mercury's
beers in an effort to make the operation succeed in a more competitive
craft-beer marketplace. Ipswich Ale is still produced at the former
Ipswich Brewing Company but now is just one beer in a long and
varied line of contract-brewed products turned out by Mercury Brewing Company.
In addition to Ipswich, Mercury brews three main product lines,
under the Dornbusch, Stone Cat and Space Coast labels, as well as
private-label beers for restaurants and pubs. Dornbusch Gold and Alt are
the most interesting beers in the Mercury stable. They were created by
native German brewer Horst Dornbusch, an Essex resident, and were contract-brewed
by Ipswich and New Hampshire's Smuttynose Brewing Co. for several years
in the mid- 1990s. When Dornbusch looked recently to reintroduce his
products, he turned to Mercury.
Ipswich Ale remains Mercury's best-known product. It is contract-brewed,
as the Ipswich line of beers was purchased in early 1999 by U.S. Beverage,
a Chicago-based beer- marketing firm. Mercury brews all of the Ipswich-label
growler products, as well as kegs and 12-ounce bottles of Ipswich stout,
dark ale and porter. The other 12-ounce "shelf-stable" (i.e., filtered)
Ipswich products - pale ale, India pale ale and extra special bitter -
are brewed by Clipper City Brewing Co. in Delaware.
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