The crush of enthusiasm for Vitamin Sea’s beers shouldn’t come as a surprise. Before the brewery was even really a brewery—when it was Dino Funari, his brother-in-law, and friends making beer in a Massachusetts basement—it already had a reputation. The crew brewed and packaged beers with a manual can seamer, leaving cans in a blue cooler on Funari’s front lawn for friends to pick up. Word spread on social media, and soon strangers from up and down the East Coast were messaging the guys, asking to take beer from the cooler. It appeared inevitable that Funari, Peter Kiley, Joshua Sherman, and Richard DiBona would go pro.
Since Vitamin Sea Brewing opened south of Boston in February 2019, plenty has changed—but the hype hasn’t. (Actually, the blue cooler is still around, too, displayed on a shelf at the brewery.) Even during the pandemic, while its tasting room has been closed to the public, Vitamin Sea continues to move its entire weekly can inventory on the two days per week it offers to-go sales. IPAs, pastry stouts, fruited sours, and other heavily flavored creations fly out the door, destined for fridges near and far. Before the taproom’s closure, lines formed early on Fridays and Saturdays before the brewery opened at noon; some days, 1,500 customers cycled through.
Funari occasionally allows himself to enjoy the success, but his general attitude is one of humility and self-criticism.