Details on Night Shift Brewing, Launching Early Next Month

Co-founder Michael Oxton gives us the scoop on the new Everett-based nanobrewery.

As soon as next month, Night Shift Brewing, a new nanobrewery, will be joining the local beer scene. Based in Everett, the group consists of Michael Oxton, Michael O’Mara, and Robert Burns, three guys who got their start running an extensive home brewing operation — just for fun, at first — out of Somerville (you may remember this piece in the Dig about their experience then).

It’s always exciting to see a new brewery launch, and we are particularly excited about Night Shift, which features some unusual beers created in collaboration with local purveyors. I recently chatted with Oxton to get some more details on the new nanobrewery — ahead, find out more about their three debut offerings and forthcoming brewery tours.

The Night Shift team signed the lease on a space in Everett in July, and construction on the space has just wrapped up, Michael Oxton told me. Brewing — which, true to the name, takes place at night — began this week on five beers (three flagships and two newer seasonal brews). While Oxton is tight-lipped on the newbies, we have some deets about the three others: Trifecta, Bee Tea, and Taza Stout.

Trifecta is a hoppy, fruity Belgian pale ale that’s brewed with vanilla bean and three trappist yeast strains. “One of the yeast strains is fruity, one is really spicy, and one is really earthy,” Oxton says. “Instead of using one yeast strain which is traditional, we decided to use all three and get all those flavors in there.”

From left: Michael Oxton, Michael O'Mara, and Robert Burns. (All photos courtesy of Night Shift)

Bea Tea, an orange blossom, honey, and green tea-infused wheat ale, is definitely the most unusual of the trio. “We had brewed this beer that had the honey in it, and it was really sweet, and we wanted to dry it out a little bit,” Oxton says of the decision to incorporate organic green tea. “Green tea and honey is already a drink; why not make it a beer and give it a beer profile and more complexity?” The tea comes from Somerville-based MEM Tea Imports.

Lastly, there’s a chocolate stout featuring Taza Chocolate, a company that’s also based in Somerville (and is spotlighted in our February issue). It’s brewed with a Belgian yeast strain, which Oxton says gives it a lighter quality than typically thicker stouts. “It’s light in body and really really full of flavor, because we have roasted malt and chocolate cacao nibs in there, and we also put chicory root and ginger into the boil,” Oxton says. “It drinks like a lighter beer, even though it’s got the flavor and intensity of a chocolate stout.

A peek inside the Everett brewery.

As for the most important part of all of this — where and when to try it — Oxton says to keep tabs on the brewery’s blog and Facebook page for updates on the bars and liquor stores that will be carrying their products (bars will serve drafts, liquor stores will carry 750 mL cork-and-caged bottles). Additionally, beer geeks will be able to tour the brewery, and taste the beers, in the coming weeks.

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