Trillium brings craftsmanship, love of beer to new Canton location

When you meet JC Tetreault, one of the first things you learn about him is that he doesn’t just like beer. He loves it. And it’s not just the taste of the hops and malt hitting his taste buds that brings a smile to his face. Tetreault is passionate about creating beverages that smoothly deliver a subtle range of flavors.

The entrance to the new Trillium Brewing Co. location in Canton (Courtesy of Fair Folk)

The self-described beer nerd said that he didn’t start brewing beer until he was in his late 20s and made a batch at his kitchen table. “It was an oatmeal stout,” Tetreault said. “It was terrific.”

He soon realized that he had more than just a passing interest in a hobby. “I fell off the deep end,” he said. “I bought all the books. I had a blog.”

He brewed all the beer for his own wedding, five gallons at a time over the course of a month.

Tetreault and his wife, Esther, opened Trillium Brewing Company on Shawmut Road in Canton last month. They continue to operate their original location, Fort Point at 369 Congress Street in Boston, which they opened in March of 2013. Fort Point has 2,300 square feet of space, of which 300 is used for retail business. With customers waiting in lines that were three blocks long to try selections such as the trademark Trillium Farmhouse Ale; PM Dawn, an American stout with cold brewed coffee; and Broken Angel, a Belgian strong pale ale, the couple decided to look for a more spacious second location.

They found it in Canton. “It’s accessible to a lot more people, it has a parking lot, and it’s off [Route] 128,” Tetreault said.

They signed a lease in 2014 and spent a year transforming a former warehouse and office building into an open and airy brewery. The 16,000 square feet comprise a brewhouse with rows of gleaming tanks, storage space, a barrel mezzanine, and two tasting rooms, one of which can be reserved for private events.

Tetreault said that most of the production staff has moved to the Shawmut Road brewery, and it is here that they concoct new brews, mixing malt, yeast, and other ingredients in the craft beer equipment the Tetreaults purchased from Diversified Metal Engineering, Ltd., of Prince Edward Island, Canada. Some of the beers are aged for a short time before they’re ready for sale. Others take longer, like the brew Tetreault is aging in oak casks that once held bourbon. That beer will age for two to three months, soaking up the bourbon flavor left behind in the oak.

The Tetreaults are both sticklers for details and very involved in every aspect of their business. JC turned to his friend Kevin Cimo, owner of the Boston graphic design firm Fair Folk, for collaboration help with the labels for Trillium’s bottles, which hold 750 milliliters of beer. Barrels are pictured on the label of bottles of beer that is aged in oak barrels, rum barrels, or oak casks. When workers were building the Fort Point Trillium, they found a small doll left behind years ago. A picture of a doll with eyes and mouth wide open is on the label of Sinister Kid, a Belgian strong dark ale. Double Pot & Kettle, an oatmeal porter that takes its roots from Tetreault’s first brewing attempt, features a steaming kettle hanging in an open fireplace.

The larger of the two tasting areas at Trillium intersects with a long corridor that starts at the entrance to the building. The corridor is wide and devoid of furniture, allowing for plenty of space for the customers who stop in to sample a brew.

Tetreault and his father, Denis, who is the facilities manager at Trillium, made the concrete bars in the tasting rooms. The larger room is open to the ceiling and surrounded on three sides by the mezzanine. Foeders, wooden barrels that are set on one of their ends and filled with beer, are interspersed with smaller barrels on the mezzanine, the wood overhead contrasting with the stone below. Tetreault ordered the foeders from Foeder Crafters of America, the only company in the United States that makes them.

Esther and JC Tetreault

There is no fourth wall in the tasting room. Instead, customers walk up to the bar and look directly into the production area. “People always love to come to the place where things are made,” Tetreault said.

In an email, Esther Tetreault wrote about her pride in the business. “There are really amazing people behind the beer,” she said. “Trillium has been open for less than three years, but we’ve managed to create a very well-known brand. To me, though, we’re still a small family-run business. All of our employees have become extended family, and they take so much pride in how they contribute to what Trillium has to offer. From the production team brewing the beers to our retail staff taking you through a tasting experience, everyone is passionate about craft beer and representing Trillium.”

Esther added that the time and effort made by the Trillium family to create the two locations stands out for her. “We built much of our Fort Point brewery by ourselves, and our whole team helped with the finish work in Canton,” she wrote. “Construction is still fairly fresh in my mind. When I walk through the front doors in the morning before we open for retail, I can still visualize JC staining the concrete floor, the production team skim-coating walls, retail staff on ladders painting walls, and JC’s dad on a scissor lift insulating piping. Actually, my father-in-law works with us at Trillium so I still see him every day … he loves that scissor lift.”

Trillium offers limited complimentary samples in two-ounce sizes for a variety of their beers. Customers can choose a pour that is served in a compostable plastic cup or in a small glass that they can purchase and take home. The selections on a recent evening included Trillium; Fort Point pale ale; Scaled Up, a double IPA; and Pier, a hoppy American wheat ale. In addition to the 750 ml bottles, Trillium sells beer in 32 oz. and 64 oz. containers called growlers.

Tetreault said that plants of all sizes and shapes fascinate him. The company is named after the trillium, a flower that is native to North America. He sees a connection with the trillium’s three petals. “It combines symbolism, symmetry, and balance in our business,” he said. “That’s what we’re working on with our beer.”

Trillium is located at 110 Shawmut Road, off Dedham Street. The tasting room is open Monday to Wednesday from 4 to 7:30 p.m., Thursday and Friday from noon to 7:30 p.m., and Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. For more information on both locations and to see a list of beers, go to www.trilliumbrewing.com.

This article was updated from its original version to correct a quotation from one of the owners.

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Posted by Mary Ann Price on Jan 22 2016. Filed under Business. Both comments and pings are currently closed.