Ben Garry, Author at Old Planters

March 28, 2022 By Ben Garry in Uncategorized Comments Off

Rhino Relay 2022

When we created the Rhino Relay, our efforts were focused on direct community relief from the COVID 19 pandemic at a time when most of us were feeling helpless. In 2020, donations went directly to front line workers at Beverly Hospital and in 2021 we focused on the small business community here in Beverly. The goal of the relay has always been to meet the need of the moment and regain a sense of empowerment when feeling powerless, this relay will be no different. This year, we will be thinking more globally by raising funds for the citizens of Ukraine who have been impacted by an unnecessary and unprovoked war. While we recognize that this war is happening thousands of miles away from Beverly, Massachusetts and the United States, we are ALL feeling the impact in different ways. So let’s come together once again as a community and do our part for a worthy cause. Donations will be given to World Central Kitchen to help feed refugees of the war in Ukraine. #ChefsForUkraine.

This year’s race will also look a little different in the sense that we no longer have to social distance. We encourage all teams to have a home base where participants can start and end their leg of the run. However, having a homebase is definitely not required, you may run your leg of the race from wherever you would like. Horns up!
Use the hashtag #rhinorelay and share on social media

The will take place on April 23th 2022 from 8am to 8pm you can sign up here

You can also donate directly here: rhinorelay.com/donate

January 4, 2022 By Ben Garry in Uncategorized Comments Off

The 100 Series- Barrel Aged Project

Please help us welcome the latest edition to our beer lineup, “The 100 Series”. The 100 Series will be a limited Barrel aged beer that we release only a few times every year. For each batch we will hand bottle and cork one hundred 750ml bottles and the rest will be kegged and available on draft for 10oz pours in the taproom.

For our first batch, we were gifted a couple Buffalo Trace bourbon barrels from our fellow brewing friend, Bob Canon. If you have been to the taproom lately you have probably seen these barrels displayed near our bar. For 6 months now, these barrels have been holding a 10.6% abv stout and we are loving the results. The final beer boasts flavors of dark chocolate and roast with notes of oak and bourbon. This beer is insanely smooth and will be ready very soon! So stay tuned for an announcement on pre-orders coming shortly.
#oldplantersbrewing #232rantoul

January 4, 2022 By Ben Garry in Beer-Descriptions, News, Releases, Uncategorized Comments Off

Endangered Ale Beer Collaboration

In collaboration with True North Ales and The Ipswich River Watershed we have released our version of ENDANGERED ALE, a limited-edition American Pale Ale. The beer is aggressively hopped with Simcoe, Amarillo, Chinook, and Ekuanot to provide flavors and aromas of pine, bright citrus, and tropical fruit.

The Ipswich River, the source of brewing water for ten other local craft breweries, and 350,000 residents in the watershed’s thirteen cities and towns, was designated one of the Most Endangered Rivers in the country by the national group American Rivers (endangeredrivers.americanrivers.org).

To learn more about the conservation efforts that IRWA has directed to support our river, visit ipswichriver.org/endangered/#state-solutions.
#oldplantersbrewing #232rantoul #endangeredale #ipswichwatershed

March 2, 2021 By Ben Garry in News Comments Off

Mass Beer Week 2021

As you may know, Massachusetts beer week is coming up soon (March 6th-13th) and we wanted to take a moment to tell you how we plan on celebrating over at OPBC. If we didn’t know before COVID, we certainly know now that the beer community is stronger when we work together with a common goal in mind. And it’s with that spirit in mind that we are happy to announce two great collaboration projects that we’ve started with some of our local brewery friends.

Over the course of March we will be releasing two amazing and ongoing collaborations with our friends at Wandering Soul and Channel Marker Brewing Co. We are very proud of these beers and can’t wait to share them with you soon. See below for more details:

Sons of Beverly/Rantoul Originals: Episode One

For a while now, we’ve had ongoing discussions with the crew over at Channel Marker Brewing about doing a collaboration at some point. Once the pandemic hit it made things difficult to align schedules, but we finally got it done. In the end, we decided to create an ongoing collaboration where we trade off brewing at both locations with the goal of creating various beer styles and the flexibility to experiment along the way.

For our first “episode” we chose to brew a West Coast IPA as an ode to a style that greatly contributed the craft beer movement over the past decade. We modeled this beer after some of our favorite West Coast IPAs that we’ve had the pleasure of enjoying over the years. This particular brew will be clocking in at 8% abv and is dry hopped with CTZ, Centennial, and Simcoe hops. So you can expect to enjoy all the amazing qualities that come with a great West Coast IPA including: amazing hop aromas, notes of pine/citrus, and a clean bitter finish. Stay tuned for an exact release date!

Old Soul (Version 2.0)

Our next collaboration project this month is Old Soul version 2.0. A couple months back we collaborated with our friend Matt Smith from Wandering Soul Beer and created a New England IPA dry hopped exclusively with Nectaron hops from New Zealand. We loved the results so much that we decided to make this a continuous collaboration where we spotlight one hop variety for each batch.

For version two, we chose to focus on Strata hops. Originally known as X-331, this was the first hop released from The Oregon State Aroma Hop Breeding Program. This variety has dank flavor and aromas with undertones of Strawberry, Passionfruit, and citrus. We are very excited to share this with you in the month of March as a part of Mass beer week. Stay tuned for our exact release date!

December 31, 2020 By Ben Garry in News Comments Off

2020 Top Five

Our first thought for this blog post was to gripe about 2020 and give our Top Five list about how 2020 negatively impacted our business. It would be so easy. But on second thought, it felt selfish. With so many businesses closing or closed, how could we utter a single complaint? Instead, we decided to highlight our special moments, spread some love, and express gratitude. So without further ado, here is our “Top Five List of Positive Things That Happened at Old Planters Brewing Company During 2020” (we know, it’s a catchy/concise title that rolls off the tongue.)

Positive Thing #5

We had music, art, and, exercise in the taproom

Before COVID hit, we had: Iron Village, The Energy Barre, RECK Fitness, Sweat Fixx, and The Moon and The Mat for Sunday exercise classes inside the taproom. These classes were great, we can’t wait to do them again! We also had numerous local artists and bands come through and share their talents, they’ll be back in 2021!

Positive Thing #4

We had food trucks and pop-ups throughout the whole year

Whether it was pre-COVID or not, we had a bunch of food trucks/pop-ups come to hang with us. During our outdoor seating phase, we LITERALLY could not have operated without the consistent support of our food partners. So it’s with much love and respect that we give thanks to: The Castle, Butter Ur Biscuit, Empanada Dada, Crepe Du Jour, Chicken and Rice Guys, Rusty Can, JaJu Pierogi, Po Boys and Pies, Sacred Cod, La Fronters Sabrosa, Rolling Gyros, Pop-Over Grove, Just Wingin’ It, Bonetown Burgers, and The MELT Food Truck, Cheese Please Mobile, Big Pig BBQ, and Boston Hill BBQ.

Positive Thing #3

We were deemed essential!

Luckily, when the pandemic hit we were deemed essential by Governor Baker. During the lockdown, this time allowed us to continue operations and work on our shift from on-site drinking to beer to-go. While this wasn’t in the plans, we took it in stride and figured out our process. We will always be grateful that we were able to operate during the lockdown and that the best customers/community came by for some beer!

Positive Thing #2

Collaborations with our Beverly friends and beyond

Throughout 2020, we were fortunate enough to collaborate with some of our friends on some great beers. Much love to all our co-conspirators including Crave, FRANK, Fat Tuna Charters, Loma Brewing, and Wandering Soul. We also collaborated with some other local businesses on various projects including Crossfit Variance, Inner Cycle, Cape Ann Botanicals, Beantrust Coffee, The Cheese Shop of Salem, and Oceanside Sailbags.

Positive Thing #1

We were able to give back during tough times

As we all can agree, 2020 was an absolute dumpster fire for so many reasons. And with that dumpster fire came a lot of problems, stress, and pain for so many people throughout the entire country. As a small business standing back and witnessing this landscape, we were honored/proud to do our small part to try and ease some of that pain. Here is a list of the various charitable projects we were involved in during 2020:

Pink Boots Society Beer Collaboration
All Together (Worldwide Beer Collaboration started by Other Half brewing)
Black Is Beautiful( Worldwide Beer Collaboration started by Weathered Soul Brewing)
Pete Frates Beer Collaboration with Loma Brewing & Kevin Youkilis
Rhino Running Club Virtual Relay

(Charity recipients included: Behind You Inc., NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Pete Frates Family Foundation, ALS TDI, and Beverly Hospital)

Author: Ben Garry