Once upon a time in an Environmental Engineering Lab about 3 hrs away… Equilibrium began at MIT with a desire to make clean water for people in need at such places like Haiti, Bangladesh, Vietnam, USA, and many others. At MIT, we learned to master concentrations of stuff in water (to put it simply). In these early applications, we used this mastery of water science to take bad stuff out of water.
While this was happening, we were falling in love with craft beer, the craft beer community, the craft beer experience, and the bonds and memories that craft beer creates. We realized that craft beer was really in the business of experience and community. To put a twist on an old saying, we believe the right craft beer turns ordinary moments into extraordinary experiences. It’s true… Beer has the power to bring people together. We then realized beer is also concentrations of stuff in water… and given our training we’re really good at that. So… we decided that we wanted to try and create some of the best beer in the world through science, and with this beer we would create memorable experiences and community.
Our new passion led us to run our watery mastery in reverse and put delicious stuff into water: Beer! Our first batches were created in co-founder Pete Oates’s house… with less than state-of-the-art equipment (yes that’s a shower head; and no this stove did not survive the years of recipe development).
We realized the styles of beer we liked to drink had Massive Intense Tastes (yes… we’re very clever) but also had round flavor profiles without edges and were easy to drink. So, the question became, how do you achieve the right balance between these concepts? Equilibrium!
In 2009 we decided to open a brewery. We went heavy on the science and still continue to do so as beer is incredibly complex. We were brewing 6 batches a day to get the right distribution of compounds in the glass which triggers the cascade of “wow this is really good” which then brings people together and creates memorable experiences.
In 2015 we purchased Henry Street in Middletown NY, which became our base of operations:
We honed our techniques here until we were ready to share our beer with the world. On 2/4/17 we had our first Bottle Release of There and Back Again aged on Apricots and Peaches:
We had our first can sale on 6/9/17 releasing two of our core beers Photon and MC2:
Our typical Saturday release became a gathering point where people would bring incredible beers from across the world that they would generously share with like-minded people. This was and continues to be an incredible point in our timeline because the shared love of beer and comradery around release days spawns into its own community and a culture that cultivated bonds that will last forever.
We quickly outgrew our “rustic” taproom on the second floor of Henry Street and when the opportunity presented itself to create an incredible taproom, beer garden, BBQ program, and a better retail experience a few blocks over. We acquired the old TD Ameritrade Bank at 4 South Street in March of 2019.
After record pace construction, we were able to open this beautiful facility in December 2019
And it was a pleasure to welcome everyone to our new home!
All of the love of beer, science, and hard work of many many people has paid off. At the time that this was written (05/10/22) we are currently ranked in the top 5 for regional breweries in the world and ranked in the Top 10 for most check-ins.
Our story is very much being written. We have done our best to navigate Covid but we’re happy to say we’re finally back open! You can often find us hanging out in the taproom drinking beers and sharing stories. If you see us, please stop by and say hello and since you know our story, tell us yours!