Photos by Little Outdoor Giants

Redemption Rock Brewing in Worcester started with a home brew kit. It’s the origin story of almost every brewery or brewer: the plastic buckets and the glass carboy; the brew kits and books; the insulated cooler rigged into a mash tun; the days and nights cleaning, sanitizing and filling bottles; and the wait for the bottle to condition. Dani Babineau and Greg Carlson started brewing in 2010 and decided they didn’t just like brewing at home, they wanted to make it their lives, even if it took a long time to realize that dream—and they wanted it to be different from other breweries they’d seen. They wanted to open Redemption Rock, they just didn’t know what to call it then or what that dream would look like. They’d have to wait until 2019 to see it through, but they always knew they wanted to have fun making beer and they wanted it to be on their terms.

“We were really looking to shake things up a little bit and kind of have more fun with it [starting a brewery], and stand out a little bit more,” Babineau says.

Babineau and Carlson began drawing the plans for their future in 2013 when Babineau started studying entrepreneurship in graduate school at Babson College. Babineau was burnt out from architecture, which she studied as an undergrad, and a graduate degree in how to start a business gave her the perfect place to develop the proposal for the brewery she and Carlson envisioned.

They wanted it to be something other than what everyone saw in what was then the middle of the craft beer boom (which has slowed, but never abates). It seemed like everyone you knew wanted to open a brewery at that time. And they all wanted to do the same thing: hazy double IPAs and bombastic stouts with adjunct flavors and countless months in various hardwood barrels that once aged liquor. Then, aesthetically, there were the hanging lights, dark wood and old industrial spaces with cement floors and uncomfortable chairs. Carlson and Babineau wanted something different. They saw the beer industry up close as outsiders by volunteering at as many beer festivals as they could—and there were too many to count, before the neverending pandemic began in early 2020. They put their plan into motion and started to build their dream. Redemption Rock opened in January 2019.

With Babineau’s background in architecture, she wanted the brewery to feel like something new, fresh and welcoming to any beer drinker, not just CRAFT BEER drinkers. The taproom is spacious and bright with a huge mural on one wall, there are comfortable picnic tables set on Astroturf. The lighting and the warmth makes it feel like a Southern California Airbnb in a way: “Here is a place you can stay for a long time” kind of vibe. But it also mixes in the Scandinavian feeling of a coffeehouse with clean lines and white walls and, of course, coffees and teas, which are served and taken seriously. There are meat and cheese plates, soft pretzels and kombucha. Carlson and Babineau wanted to “merge places where people like to spend a lot of time and feel very comfortable in rather than copying and pasting the same kind of brewery aesthetic that everybody else happens [to have],” Babineau says.

The beer list isn’t too extensive, but it’s welcoming and has something for everyone. Carlson’s brews include IPAs, of course, but also an excellent Irish Dry Stout, a Hefeweizen, saisons, cream ales and seasonal beers that fit into the strict beer calendar. They want to welcome anyone in. For Redemption Rock, the joy of beer isn’t in being the coolest or the most traded, but it’s about inviting someone in and including them.

“We love bringing in people who are nervous about craft or feel like they don’t belong,” Babineau says. “We have a lot of people who apologize to us because they’ve never had craft beer before and we’re, like, ‘No, this is fun. Let’s help you find something, let’s get you excited.’”

Redemption Rock is located at 333 Shrewsbury Street, Worcester, MA. Entrance on Putnam Lane. Current hours: Sunday, 11am–9pm; Monday–Tuesday, 2–9pm; Wednesday, 11am–9pm; Thursday–Saturday, 11am–11pm.

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This story appeared in the Winter 2022 issue.