On Saturday, in the Fort Point Channel neighborhood in Boston, it’s not unusual to see a line of people outside the Trillium Brewing Company. They’re waiting for their opportunity to get the latest release—an IPA, a pale ale, a sour, or a porter—from this tiny Congress Street brewery that does not distribute or even offer samples. It’s a sight that Cofounder and Brewmaster Jean-Claude Tetreault says he never imagined. “I’m still—I don’t know if surprised is right—but I’m amazed people show up and wait for any of the beers we make. [But] that’s why you make beer—so people enjoy it.”
Trillium is a brewery that seemed to be in planning forever. Tetreault and his wife and partner, Esther, found the location at 369 Congress Street, in 2010. But licensing issues kept pushing the opening of the brewery, first to 2011 then 2012, and finally, they opened the small brewery in 2013.
Even then, it wasn’t easy. The city of Boston would not let Trillium provide samples of their beers—a routine practice for breweries, including the other two breweries in Boston—the Harpoon Brewery and Boston Beer Company. But Trillium persevered, and except for a licensing snafu that forced their closure for about a month in 2014, they have been going strong. Tetreault and his team have brewed 125 beers in their first two and a half years. And, they’re not just quick, throw-them-together type beers. As of the writing of this article, Trillium had twenty-seven of the top 100 beers brewed in Massachusetts, according to Beeradvocate.com user reviews.