WORCESTER, Mass. - “The mission statement for Bay State has always been," Chip Jarry said, "‘distinctive and drinkable’.”

Serving ‘distinctive and drinkable’ beer for 5 years now, Bay State Brewing Company opened in Worcester on February 29, 2020 just before everything shut down.

“It's been a long road," Shawn Rich sid. "We opened up 16 days prior to COVID, so we had a little battle at the beginning there”

“Essentially it was like playing basketball, except we wore left shoe out because every day we would pivot," Jarry said. "We took whatever mandates came down, whatever requirements from the state or the feds, and we dealt with them one by one by one.”

From shutdowns to social distancing, owners Shawn Rich and Chip Jarry said it’s been about taking things in stride. Now with looming tariffs on steel and aluminum posing another potential hurdle for the brewery, they said they’ll take those in stride as well.

“Beer is a game of pennies. If we were in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the impact would be huge, and it would be almost critical," Jarry said. "But on our scale, it really isn't much of an impact at all.”

Jarry and Rich said the biggest impact on their business has been their customers. Being located within the Worcester Ice Center has helped them grow within the hockey community they both love.

“Chip and I both have big backgrounds in beer and hockey, and to blend the two has been great," Rich said. "People from all over the place, the country, coming here for tournaments and whatnot. And they come in here, they see a brewery, and they're just very surprised to be like, ‘Oh, you got a brewery at the hockey rink?’.”

Serving their first beer a year before the WooSox opened Polar Park, they said it’s been great to be a part of the city’s growing Canal District.

“We were fortunate enough just to step in it. And all the development took place around us, I think it's fantastic," Jarry said. "It's just a huge revitalization of the city, and we were just fortunate to be part of it.”

And now the beer makers are celebrating 5 years during Mass Beer Week with a new Kolsch and thanking their community with something ‘distinctive and drinkable’.

“Kolsch is a beer that originally came from Cologne, Germany. It's a very, very nice light ale, replicates a lot of pilsners or other lagers," Jarry said. "And we're going to serve it in the traditional glasses. And we have the traditional rack.”

“It's all about little glasses and smaller glasses. And you get smaller trays and it's just nice to share with the guests," Rich said. "So, it's a lot more communal, which is kind of the opposite of where we started in COVID; it's more of a communal thing.”