ALTRUIST BREWING COMPANY

altruist – {al’-troo- ist} a person unselfishly concerned for or devoted to the welfare of others

Altruist Brewing is located in the little town of Sturbridge, MA, and is open Thursday through Sunday. Uniquely nestled in an old mill building overlooking the Quaboag River, it shares space with shopping plaza with a quaint coffee shop, an amish furniture business, and a multi-level flea market (where we picked up a pretty cool stein). Access to Altruist and their beer garden is around back with plenty of parking on site. You are greeted with a rustic, industrial feel, with proud lettering saying “Altruist Brewing Company”. 

Upon entering, there is the bar to your right, and ample seating all around. While there is the industrial decor all around, there’s plenty of artistic touches around including a mural blazoned on an entire wall of their logo, the perfect backdrop for the little stage set up for when there is live music. The daily tap list is stationed right at the entrance and also hanging above the bar. In the tap room you are surrounded by distillery barrels and brewing equipment, giving you a feeling that you are part of the brewing process. The founders of Altruist kept a true industrial look when designing this brewery and we loved it. 

Altruist offers about 13 beers on tap, and you can also get some hard kombucha (which Courtney was almost tempted to do as she loves kombucha). If you are looking for something non-alcoholic they also have seltzer’s, kombucha, and sodas ready to go to accompany their food menu. Grab a small bite, a hotdog, or sausage, and wash it all down with a signature ice cream float. One of the floats is made with their PB&J stout! You will definitely want to try that. 

After grabbing a couple flights, we migrated outside to the beer garden on a beautiful hot, sunny, summer day. There were about 6 bench style tables with umbrellas for patrons to sit at and Altruist offers more seating out-front, so finding a spot shouldn’t be an issue. With such a friendly bar staff, and the fun, gritty vibe, this was definitely a place that we plan to stop into when we are traveling through the area again. 

Courtney’s Line Up

• Venus
• Universal Donor
• Wallonia
• Johnny Fry

1. Venus - Blonde 5.5% ABV

“Light & Refreshing with a slight hop presence”

2. Universal Donor - Double New England IPA 8.2% ABV

“Dry-hopped with Simcoe and a double-dose of Idaho 7. This well-balanced DIPA has notes of melon and citrus with a dank finish.”

3. Wallonia - Saison 5.5% ABV

“Belgian-style Farmhouse ale, a light & malty beer with slight notes of fruit with a bit of spice”

4. Johnny Fry - Double Dry Hopped New England IPA 7% ABV

“Juicy & Hazy with fruity notes of citrus & melon”

Josh’s Line Up

• Force On Nitro
• Passion
• Pucker Face: Mango Dragon Fruit
• Sassy Cassie

1. Force On Nitro - Oatmeal Coffee Stout 5% ABV

“A light & creamy Oatmeal Stout with prominent notes of chocolate & coffee”

2. Passion - Gose 4.5% ABV

“Slightly tart gose, a nice light beer with lovely notes of passion fruit and guava, coriander, & a touch of pink Himalayan sea salt”

3. Pucker Face: Mango Dragon Fruit - Berliner Weisse 5.3% ABV

“Super-dosed with Mango and a touch of Dragonfruit give this Berliner Weisse a taste of summer”

4. Sassy Cassie - Peanutbutter Jelly Stout 9.1% ABV

“A dessert beer, mildly sweet with prominent notes of peanut butter and raspberry jelly on the back-end”

As always, us doing a beer tasting is an interesting experience as we both have wildly different tastes. Always take what we say with a grain of salt. It should also be noted that after this brewery trip, we have slowly started learning more “appropriate” terminology to better describe beers. However, we still appreciate our common man descriptions.

We highly recommend stopping in to visit Altruist if you’re ever in the area!