Owners Michael Bedrosian and Rachel Rosenbloom at the grand opening of Seven Railroads Brewing Company.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
PALMER — After years in the works, Seven Railroads Brewing Company opened for business on Feb. 23. Owners Rachel Rosenbloom and Michael Bedrosian have been living in Palmer since 2016 and first approached the town in November of 2021 on opening a brewery.
“Our grand opening was fantastic,” said Rosenbloom. “We were ecstatic with how many people came out to celebrate with us and try our beer.”
Their lineup for the opening was the Telegraph West Coast IPA named after Palmer, Washington, which was originally a telegraph station on the Northern Pacific Railway. The Eager Beagle Brown Porter, an English brown porter named after their beagle Barley who was in the tap room greeting everyone because they are a dog-friendly brewery. They also served up Palmer Pils, a German style pilsner, Old Exit 8 IPA, a New England IPA, Palmerator, their Doppelbock which is a German double bock style beer and their English Dark Mild on cask called Tally Ho Lads. While the drinks flowed, Fry’d Guys food truck served up delicious goodies such as kabobs, sliders and pickle chips.
Palmer resident Janelle Tarantino heard about Seven Railroads through Facebook posts and went to the grand opening.
“The beer was excellent,” Tarantino said. “We had the Old Exit 8 and the Telegraph IPA. It’s a cool space with beautiful, aged floors and record music player which was neat to see.” She continued, “I think the brewery and tap room brings a great option to the town to bring people in and for locals to hang out for a while.”
Bob Watts who lives in Georgetown in eastern Massachusetts attended the opening. Rosenbloom and Bedrosian are close friends of his daughter, Lexi, who lives in Chicopee.
“We’ve followed the progress of the brewery since it was just an idea,” he said. “The grand opening was wonderful. The place was jam packed. I sampled the Eager Beagle porter and the Palmer Pilsner. Both are outstanding, very smooth and very tasty.”
He went on to say, “Seven Railroads will be a regular stop when I visit Lexi for sure. It was a friendly crowd, a happy and appreciative mix of geezers like me and young adults like my daughter enjoying fine craft brews.”
Rosenbloom and Bedrosian have been homebrewing for years. The first beer the couple ever brewed was in their one-bedroom apartment on their little stove in a big stew pot and brought their home brews to local home brew competitions and home brew clubs. With their homebrews well received, the pair started to think this is something they could do. Rosenbloom also honed her skills by professionally brewing for five years at Fort Hill Brewery in Easthampton.
“We just want it to be the neighborhood place to come, have a beer and hang out with your friends,” Rosenbloom responded. “There’s not a lot of other options in Palmer right now. We’re trying to make more options for people in the area to come hang out and also bring people to Palmer.”
Palmer is known as the town of seven railroads, and it is the nickname of the town. Rosenbloom and Bedrosian wanted a name that represents Palmer and thought Seven Railroads was the perfect name.
Right now, they want to operate the tap room considering how long the road was and everything the couple had to do. Although Seven Railroads does not sell food, Rosenbloom said they will have local food trucks as often as possible.
“The fact that we’ve been talking about this together for so many years. It’s all coming together,” Rosenbloom explained. “Brewing means a lot to us because we both enjoy great beer and enjoy seeing people loving our beer. It’s something that makes people happy and it’s a lot of fun. We’re not looking to be a huge enterprise. We just want to stay your local friendly tap room.”
Seven Railroads Brewing Company is located at 1235 Park St. and is open Thursday through Sunday. Hours are 4:30-9 p.m. on Thursday, 4:30-10 p.m. on Friday, 2-10 p.m. on Saturday and 12- 6 p.m. on Sunday. Seven Railroads Brewing Company can be found on Facebook and Instagram at @sevenrailroads.
