By 4 p.m. on Thursday, July 9, a steady stream of customers was coming into the Two Weeks Notice Brewing Co. taproom to show support.
Reminder Publishing photo by Chris Maza
WEST SPRINGFIELD — Two Weeks Notice Brewing Co. has announced last call on its West Springfield taproom as it prepares to stop operations due to rising costs.
In that announcement, the business said it will continue brewing and distributing original beverages.
The brewery opened in 2017 at 110 Bosworth St., followed by the taproom in 2019. The company said in its closure announcement that the taproom will remain open “as long as we have beer left.”
Founder and head brewer Mark Avery began Two Weeks Notice after years of independent brewing in a journey that began on Christmas morning in 2011. The name comes from Avery’s wish to quit his desk job and pursue owning and operating his own brewery.
“It started with a simple homebrew kit that my wife bought me for Christmas after expressing, you know, wanting to homebrew at some point,” Avery said. “As I started brewing more and more at home, I started buying more equipment. A lot of people will say, ‘the bug bit me,’ with brewing and then around 2014, 2015, is when the big boom of breweries started to happen.”
Avery began entering homebrew competitions and winning, bringing the thought into his mind that he could take his craft to the next level.
“It took about two or three years to get Two Weeks Notice off the ground, we had a hard time finding a spot,” Avery said. “West Springfield actually reached out to us when they knew that we were looking to start a brewery somewhere here in Western Massachusetts. They’ve been great to us. It felt great to have somebody wanting to have a brewery in their town.”
The brewery first sold original canned batches out of a makeshift frame in a garage door before eventually expanding to the taproom in 2019. Avery said he knew he wanted a spot with music and events, and the taproom’s space was perfect for it.
The taproom would go on to put on events like Oktoberfest, St. Patrick’s Day parties, emo nights, open mic nights and wrestling matches. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Avery said sales continued through a drive-through window.
“We kept pushing forward, building events and building a community,” Avery said. “We got a bigger brew system and shifted more into distribution, so then our beer started getting sent all over the state of Massachusetts.”
Avery said it started to become tougher to break even due to utilities, taxes, payroll and the rising cost of raw goods, which led to the difficult decision to close the taproom.
“Since the announcement of closure, we’ve had nothing but an outpouring of support from our community,” Avery said. “I think that shows what Two Weeks Notice meant to a lot of people. It’s a very unexpected thing to happen because when you’re running a business, you don’t really see it and then you realized how much this place meant to a lot of people and it’s pretty humbling to see.”
He added the taproom’s closure will “hopefully save us on a lot of things and we’ll be able to right the ship on our end” as distribution continues.
“Hopefully someday the taproom reopens, we don’t really know,” Avery said. “We’re not saying that it’s never going to reopen, but we don’t really know with the way the beer industry is now. I wish we all had a crystal ball because I know a lot of people within the industry were waiting for it to turn around again … we’re kind of doing what we can to keep rolling.”
He said there are too many memories to count, and the regulars have all become family.
“We’ve become so close to so many people,” Avery said. “Good beer isn’t a good business plan, but providing a space that’s warm and loving for people and providing memories is. There’s people who have been commenting on all the posts, talking about their favorite things. I’m eternally grateful for being able to provide events and memories like that for people. That’s something I never really expected when I started homebrewing. I started seeing what it was doing to people and what it was providing for them, that’s always going to be the greatest accomplishment we’ve ever had here.”
This isn’t the end for Two Weeks Notice, and Avery said the business has always fought back and come out on top during tough times. He said the outpouring of support is “lighting a fire under my butt to right the ship even more and get this place back open for people that have supported us throughout the years.”
“It’s gonna be a very emotional time,” Avery said. “I know a lot of people that are gonna be coming here and there’s gonna be a lot of tears shed and a lot of laughs talking about the past. We hope to continue providing those times eventually at some point … I’m forever grateful to everybody that’s walked through these doors. I’m just very thankful.”
