Vitamin Sea Brewing, which is scheduled to officially open on Saturday, May 25, may not need much of an introduction to beer drinkers along the South Shore. In 2019, the year the company opened its first commercial location, in Weymouth, Boston Magazine readers named it the best brewery in New England. Later that year, Hop Culture, the online magazine, selected Vitamin Sea as the best craft brewer in the country.
Now it’s finally here in Plymouth, with a harbor-view location at 98 Water St. It’s the latest in a series of breweries to open in Plymouth, with the most recent one being Untold Brewing at the Cordage Park complex. Untold has already attracted a regular following, including among families with friendly dogs.
Like many craft brewers, Vitamin Sea owners Dino Funari, Rich DiBona – along with a couple of friends – started as basement brewers. But unlike most homebrewers, their beers rapidly became famous locally.
In Vitamin Sea’s early days, its beer was distributed through the simple practice of leaving filled cans in a blue cooler out in front of Funari’s house in Hull. Word of mouth soon resulted in demand that was far greater than production capacity. These homebrews were very good and highly rated. The first two Vitamin Sea beers listed on Untappd – the well-known beer rating site – were (ahem) Little Blue Pill, a Double Stout, and Au Jus, a Double IPA. That was in 2015 – four years before the location in Weymouth open its doors.
Since the opening of the Weymouth brewery and taproom, Vitamin Sea has settled on seven core beers that are regularly supplemented with experimental and seasonal offerings. Its core brews are:
Hazy Double IPAs:
- Double Summer (8.2% ABV)
- Au Jus (7.8%)
Hazy IPAs:
- Alone and Adrift (7%)
- Elusive (6.8%)
- Just Another T-Shirt Shop (6.8%)
- Greetings from Weymouth (6.8%)
- Kettle Charge (6.8%)
Vitamin Sea’s Water Street space takes up 4,000-square feet at street level – there are apartments above it – as well as a 3,000-square -foot patio overlooking Plymouth Harbor. The taproom has 24 taps, a large kitchen for its (soon-to-be) signature paninis, an area for retail merchandise and refrigerated cans to-go, and a reservable 40-seat function room. Those paninis alone might give Vitamin Sea an advantage over other local breweries that don’t offer much in the way of food. The location doesn’t hurt, either.
In cooler weather, the patio will have gas heaters to help extend the outdoor season. A limited selection of beers will also be available on the patio through a portable tap system. And, in keeping with its farmer brewery license, Vitamin Sea will brew small batches of experimental beers in Plymouth.
Vitamin Sea expects to employ around 20 people in Plymouth, with Alysse Kelly and general manager and Corylynne Byrne serving as the kitchen manager. The taproom and patio will be open seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 10p.m.
In Massachusetts, cans of Vitamin Sea beers can be purchased only at its two taprooms. Vitamin Sea on draft is available in restaurants across the South Shore. In Plymouth, VSB draft brews are often found at Salt and at the East Bay Grille in the Pinehills neighborhood.
For Vitamin Sea’s Funari, the decision to come to Plymouth was an easy one. His reasoning was worthy of a chamber of commerce press release: “Waterfront location. Pro-business. Newport vibe.”
Paul Boyd, a Plymouth resident, is a retired professor and faculty director of the MBA program at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. His research has focused on growth and success in the craft beer industry.