http://www.bizjournals.com/boston

Workers are currently renovating the former M.A. Peacard Co. sheet metal factory in Dorchester, preparing the building for a new use: as an innovative brewery and startup space aimed at craft beer entrepreneurs.
When it’s finished next spring, the space at 1246 Massachusetts Ave. will be transformed into the Dorchester Brewing Co., a full-service brewery that will offer a space for beer entrepreneurs to create their own brews.
Workers are currently renovating the former M.A. Peacard Co. sheet metal factory in Dorchester, preparing the building for a new use: as an innovative brewery and startup space aimed at craft beer entrepreneurs.

The 25,000-square-foot space will also feature a 2,000-square-foot tasting room and a collaborative workspace open to brewers — and the local startup community.

The contract brewing facility will allow brewers who don’t have their own brewery to have access to a place that can produce and package their brews (Dorchester Brewing charges the beer startups for production and packaging).
“What Zipcar did for cars, we’re trying to do for brewing,” said Dorchester Brewing Co. CEO Matt Malloy, a former Zipcar executive who also worked as head of communications and marketing at EdX, the Harvard-MIT online education.
“I love the idea that you don’t need a brewery to have a brewery,” Malloy said, adding that there are “very few” commercial breweries in Boston, including Harpoon Brewery and Trillium Brewing Co. in Canton and Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood. “We’re going to be right in the middle,” he said.

Todd Charbonneau, the former head brewer at Harpoon for ten years, will oversee production at the facility and help the brewers in their quest for booze perfection.

Malloy said the brewery — founded by longtime Dorchester residents Travis Lee, Malloy, Charbonneau and Holly Irgens — has raised a total of $2.3 million, which includes a city loan worth $125,000 and $150,000 in state loans. Malloy wouldn’t disclose the details about the private investors, only to say that “there are a handful investors” and one is from the U.K.

Malloy said the goal is to employ 15 to 30 Dorchester residents at the brewery. And potential brewers are already interested in setting up shop.
“We’ve had over 15 brewers that have shown interest in us,” he said. “They love the proximity. We’re in the heart of Boston.”