Wayland Residents Opening Community Brewery in Newton

Consider this: What if a $10 six-pack of beer actually set you back $15 when you figured in the taxes?

If you had to pay half as much in taxes as you paid for the actual beer you were buying, what would you do?

How about brew your own?

That very situation led to the growth of community breweries in Canada and Australia, according to Lee Cooper, a Wayland resident and, along with his wife, Karen, the owner of a community brewery coming soon to Newton Corner.

Hopsters Brew and Boards is scheduled to open Sept. 15 and when it does, Cooper said, it will be the only community brewery in the Boston-area and one of only two in the entire New England region.

So what is a community brewery?

At Hopsters, customers will come in and select from 30 recipes -- everything from pale ales to stouts -- and proceed through the steps of selecting their beer's ingredients, completing the two-hour process of brewing the beer (yes, there is a bit of down time in there and there will be food available) and returning two weeks later to bottle and label.

But there remains a lot to do before any brewing can begin, Cooper admitted standing in the gutted shell of 292 Centre St., a location that most recently housed raw food restaurant Prana Cafe.

Oh, and there's that $35,000 the Coopers need to raise via crowd-source funding site Kickstarter to bring their custom-built brewing system from Canada to Newton. 

But home-brewer and craft beer-lover Cooper isn't worried. 

"You open a door and a bunch of other doors open."

Not-so-joyful beginnings

The idea for Hopsters was born in 2012 when Cooper found himself laid off from his job. Rather than going back into the corporate world, he became even more intrigued with the world of craft beer, a world he's known as a home brewer for the past five or six years.

"With the resurgence of craft beers in the last couple of years, what we really want is to be a center for people to learn about craft beers."

But Cooper's corporate roots shine through at Hopsters. He worked in training and development, so he's familiar with what it takes to actually teach people about beer.

"People don't learn unless they're having fun," Cooper said. "This is very much for the community."

Full circle kind of place

The whole idea of community is, in fact, a central idea of Hopsters – along with farm, local, learning and fun.

There's also a certain symmetry to the project. 

Cooper explained that beyond wanting to bring the community in to see the full-circle process of brewing beer, the restaurant/brewery is also interested in the full-circle element of local farming.

Hopsters has partnered with Woods Farm in Dudley, Mass. The grain byproduct from the brewing process will be used by Woods Farm to feed its pigs and the pigs at Woods Farm will eventually find their way back to Hopsters... as someone's dinner.

"It's really true farm to table," Cooper said.

The "Boards" part of Newton Corner establishment's name refers to the platters on which Chef Joshua Smith, most recently with Tico in the Back Bay, will be serving up charcuterie, flatbreads, deconstructed burgers and other elegant food that lends itself to a board presentation.

While Cooper foresees corporate gatherings, parties and other group-style events taking place at Hopsters, he insisted it's something anyone can enjoy. The standard amount brewed will be three cases, enough to split among a few friends, but up to 30 cases can be brewed to accommodate a larger need.

And, so as not to leave out families, root beer and ginger ale brewing will be offered on Sundays.

"We want people to come in and get dirty and have fun," Cooper said.

More information about Hopsters is available on Facebook and Twitter. The restaurant/brewery's website is coming soon.