The Company
Harpoon Brewery is an American microbrewery, with plants in
Boston, Massachusetts and Windsor, Vermont. Founded in 1986, the
brewery was the first company to obtain a permit to manufacture
and sell alcohol in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in over 25
years. In 2000 it purchased the former Catamount Brewery plant
in Windsor. Harpoon has played an important part in the rebirth
of the microbrewery system in the United States.
The brewery is best known for its Harpoon India Pale Ale. It
brews five other year-round beers: the original Harpoon Ale, the
award-winning Munich Dark, UFO Hefeweizen, UFO Raspberry
Hefeweizen, and Harpoon Brown, its latest creation. It also
brews "1636 Brew" for the Harvard's Cambridge Queen's Head Pub.
Harpoon has four seasonal beers, such as an Octoberfest lager
and Celtic Ale, a beer made in the style of an Irish red for St.
Patrick's Day. Another line of beers from Harpoon is its '100
Barrel Series' series, which consists of a number of one of a
kind batches produced at its brewery in Windsor. A few of the
more popular 100 Barrel Series have been reissued as the 'Encore
Series', again in limited quantities.
Note from Harpoon Founders Dan Kenary & Rich Doyle
We started the Harpoon Brewery in 1986 because—like today—we
loved beer and wanted more good choices. While traveling in
Europe after college, we drank many wonderfully diverse, fresh,
local beers. We also saw firsthand how important local breweries
were to their communities. After our travels, we asked each
other, "why not bring great beer and that sense of community to
New England?" That was the genesis of the Harpoon Brewery.
Twenty years later we still revel in making great beer and
sharing that joy with our friends and neighbors. The success
that we have had running Harpoon is due entirely to the
wonderful employees who brew, package, warehouse, sell, deliver,
and market our beer and you, the people who drink Harpoon. We
hope that our sense of gratitude is reflected in both the
quality of the beer and the spirit of fun and enjoyment
surrounding our beer and breweries.
At Harpoon, we have always worked hard at two things: brewing
great beer and welcoming our customers to our breweries. Our
beer styles were created to provide you, our beer-drinking
friends, with fresh, fun and interesting choices. We draw on
numerous brewing traditions to make our beers, but we always add
our own “interpretation” of how the styles can be best matched
to our – and your - tastes.
We invite all of you to visit our Boston brewery, where it all
began, and our beautiful brewery in Windsor, Vermont. You will
see a commitment to brewing excellence and receive a warm
greeting. In addition, please visit us during one of our
seasonal brewery festivals – which have grown very popular since
we held our first Octoberfest in 1990. Directions to both
breweries, schedules of tastings, and festival information can
be found in other parts of this website.
Thank you for appreciating great beer and for your continued
support.
Cheers!
Rich and Dan
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