From Worcester to Murder Hill: Wormtown brewmaster unveils new taproom-brewery

Ben Roesch recently made a small batch of a West Coast IPA inside the same Park Avenue brewhouse that propelled his career.

The brewery, now home to Double Down Brewing Co., had been where, nearly 14 years ago, Roesch grinded away producing batch after batch of “Be Hoppy,” the rocket fuel he created for Wormtown Brewery’s ascent.

This trip offered merely a half-pint of nostalgia, though, because Roesch did not brew another tank of Wormtown’s flagship West Coast IPA.

Instead, the IPA he brewed with Double Down will eventually pour from a draft line at Roesch’s new brewery in the Blackstone Valley.

For the first time in his 23 years in craft beer, the brewmaster will open a brewery on his own terms, with his wife, Adrienne, as co-founder.

Two months ago, Roesch departed Wormtown and with Adrienne created Murder Hill. They will take over Purgatory Beer Co.’s 2,400-square-foot brewery and taproom within the historic Linwood Mill in Whitinsville, a village of Northbridge, purchasing all of Purgatory’s brewing assets.

“Making beer is not an easy profession, physically or mentally, but it’s still something I like doing and want to make a living at,” Roesch said. “Now that it’s a family business, it’s not only added motivation to be successful, but also doing so in way that’s good for us as a family.”

The actual Murder Hill exits only as a nickname the family gave to woods atop a hill near their home. The brewery’s logo bears its spirit animal, the crow, embracing its resourcefulness and smarts.

The intelligent black birds — the collective noun for which is a "murder of crows" — roost in the woods around Roesch’s house.

“I hear them outside right now,” he said.

Focus on local ingredients

With larger, more sophisticated maltsters in New England and a Massachusetts farm producing world-class hops, Roesch said there has never been a better time for the state’s brewers to purchase and promote local ingredients.

Roesch aims to take advantage of the availability of Northeast grains by sourcing a majority of the malt for his brews from Valley Malt in Holyoke, “the first modern malt house east of the Mississippi,” and Blue Ox Malthouse in Lisbon, Maine.

And for hops, whenever possible, he plans to purchase from Four Star Farms, which grows eight varieties of hops on its 17-acre farm in Northfield.

Murder Hill is at least four weeks or more from opening as it waits to secure its licenses. In the meantime, Roesch has been collaborating with other breweries, such as Double Down, so he can have beer available when he opens next month, both on tap and to go in crowlers.

“It will enable us to open up with a full tap list and keep me busy running around the state doing these collab brews,” he said.

They have called these beers “Side Piece Projects,” including a New England IPA brewed with Seven Saws Brewing Co. in Holden, and both a black lager and a cedar-aged wheat lager made in collaboration with Cambridge Brewing Co., where Roesch once worked part time as he veered from a potential career in forestry.

Murder Hill won't look to hire any staff, Roesch said. He and Adrienne will handle everything as a team.

Housed in a former 19th-century cotton mill, Murder Hill’s 50-seat taproom needs few if any renovations, Roesch said, owing to the upkeep and prior buildout by the former tenant, Purgatory Beer Co.

In good hands

Brian Distefano and Kevin Mulvehill’s partnership spanned 15 years. It started with the pair home brewing together, a mutual interest they discovered while dropping their children off at the same day care.

The friends became business partners, and the brewing became professional in 2017.

Purgatory got a strong start but later struggled through the pandemic. The stress that those times caused on the two friends and their families compelled them to start thinking about their exit from the brewing industry.

“The idea through this whole adventure was to have fun until it starts to become more work than it’s worth,” Distefano said. “We had a couple offers during the pandemic to buy the brewery. We weren’t ready to do anything at the time, but they were the catalyst for us.”

Purgatory’s destination taproom, sitting amid the Blackstone Heritage Corridor, looked as natural in Northbridge as one of Purgatory Chasm’s myriad rock formations.

Distefano will always remember in 2019 when Purgatory hosted fundraisers to keep Northbridge’s hockey team afloat, and the team would go on to win the Central Mass. Division 3A title.

Along the way, he and Mulvehill were honored to host weddings and celebrations of life. They watched their bartenders grow up, graduate college and start families.

Distefano and Mulvehill’s friendship will survive Purgatory’s end, and the two may even take up home brewing again. Both agree they found in Roesch the perfect brewer for the taproom and brewhouse they invested over seven years of their lives into.

“You’ve got this guy who’s a staple in the Massachusetts brewing community,” Distefano said. “He helped start Wormtown, for crying out loud.”

Till next time, not goodbye

Roesch has left Wormtown, the largest brewery in Worcester, on good terms and remains in touch with CEO David Fields. In fact, Fields and Wormtown were close to buying Purgatory with the idea that Roesch would run it as separate outpost.

Roesch, however, wanted the opportunity to break out on his own. Fields did not try to change his mind.

“This is Wormtown’s 14th year now. It’s been an incredible evolution, and the people that Ben trained, coached and taught are an amazing group,” Fields said. “Our perspective, selfishly, is we’re in great shape. Selflessly, I’m so excited for Ben and Adrienne, both because it will be a really cool opportunity for him to own his brewery and taproom, and he gets to do it alongside his partner in life.”

Through Roesch’s time as brewmaster, Wormtown expanded twice, surpassed 20,000 barrels brewed and opened Worcester's first distillery.

“The thing I’m going to miss the most about Wormtown is the people,” he said. “Thankfully, I’ll have an opportunity to see them in their taproom, and they’ll be able to see us in our taproom. It’s not an end. It’s a till next time, not a goodbye situation.”

For updates on Murder Hill’s progress, including when it sets an opening date, visit https://www.murderhill.com.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Wormtown brewmaster takes over former Purgatory Beer brewery space