Expanding into coffee roasting represents Night Shift Brewery’s latest move beyond its core beer business. This week, the company revealed plans to roast coffee beans at its Chelsea corporate headquarters.
Michael Oxton, co-founder of Night Shift, outlined the initiative: the firm will install roasting equipment at the Chelsea facility to process beans for this emerging operation.
The unveiling coincided with Night Shift’s debut of its Lovejoy Wharf location in Boston, a venue that simultaneously marks the brewery’s entry into the coffee sector.
“We added coffee now and will be roasting
our own beans very soon in Chelsea with our own roasting equipment,” he said.
“We’re trying to get it up and running and we expect that very soon. Right now
we are contract roasting it with a company in Rhode Island, but we’ll be doing
it ourselves very soon.”
The venture stems from sensibilities Oxton shares with his Night Shift team—much like the expertise required to evaluate premium beer, they possess similar discernment when it comes to coffee. Exploring their own roasting operation had long appealed to them, and circumstances now seemed favorable to pursue it.
Oxton explained their strategy involves a measured rollout, beginning in Boston to gauge consumer response before expanding further.
Looking ahead, the company intends to bring the coffee line to its original Everett taproom as part of broader distribution plans.
“We’ll be
starting it off at Lovejoy, but we’ll be looking to add a coffee bar in Everett
too,” he said. “That’s the goal.”