Cory King, co-owner and brewer at Side Project Brewing, clearly remembers the queue of thirsty patrons that stretched from his Maplewood brewery all the way down Manchester Road. Hundreds of drinkers and collectors eager to get their hands on the hottest bottles of Beer : Barrel : Time, a barrel-aged stout or M.J.K., a triple barrel-aged barleywine.
But those days are long gone – and according to King, that’s a good thing.
“Before, you’d have to wake up early, drive here – maybe even sleep here – to get a bottle,” said King. “Covid forced us to move all of that online, where people could order from the comfort of home. When the pandemic ended, we wanted to stay with that approach.”
In many ways, craft beer was built by people waiting for hours in line. In the earliest days of the so-called Craft Beer Revolution, breweries like Side Project and South City’s Perennial Artisan Ales would quietly announce a special release of a beer via Facebook or Instagram and wake up the next morning to throngs of thirsty patrons queued up outside the brewery hours before opening. This line culture created community among beer nerds and fostered a shared enthusiasm for the product and the brand. But it also meant that only a select number of die-hards got access to the company’s signature labels. Now, as the overall industry slips into a bit of a decline, it’s more vital than ever for brewers to get their best beers into as many cellars and snifters as possible – especially these premium potables for which there is still solid demand.
Side Project took its releases online, eventually landing on e-commerce platform Shopify. And while King was already brewing at capacity, he installed a new bottling line that could spread the love in smaller 375-milliliter bottles along with the traditional 750-milliliter bombers so that more people could experience Side Project. And while the brewery still holds special events and bottle releases, like February’s Stout Week, to keep the essence of “line culture” alive, they’ve started marketing beyond social media to broaden their audience. The idea is to use the beer to get more people into Side Project’s award-winning bar service and expanded food options. “We’re still creative and energetic about making beer, it’s what pays everyone here and keeps us going,” said King. “But overall, we’re a hospitality company. Beer, wine, whiskey and food. I don’t want Side Project to just be a place where people come to stand in line.”
7458 Manchester Road, Maplewood, sideprojectbrewing.com
This article appears in March 2025.