During the height of the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an amendment that effectively ended the Nineteenth Amendment prohibiting the manufacturing and sale of alcohol. Repealing Prohibition would, Roosevelt believed, help spur job creation, and to a certain extent it did as Roosevelt himself encouraged the consumption of libations as he signed the Cullen-Harrison Act into law: “I think this would be a good time for a beer.”

About 70 or so years later, the idea has legs, and Mayflower Brewing Company, a microbrewery located in the Plymouth Industrial Park exemplifies it on the local level.

Mayflower has been brewing craft beer since 2007; five years later, the company has expanded it’s staff to 16, expanded its distribution area to include Rhode Island and western Massachusetts, and produced 5,820 barrels of beer in 2011. 

“It’s been a great year for Mayflower,” Sarah Richardson, Mayflower’s retail manager, said. ‘We added on a 100-barrel fermentation tank to the four 40-barrel tanks and four 20-barrel tanks we already had.  (We started in 2007 with just a few of the 20-barrel tanks.) And we were able to upgrade our packaging line to one that can package 3,000 bottles per hour. 

Last week, Mayflower announced that it would expand and adjust its retail, tasting and tour hours.

“Based on input from many of our loyal patrons, we are expanding and adjusting our retail, tasting and tour hours to give you more opportunities to come by and see us,” Richardson said.

Starting this week, Mayflower's hours will be as follows:
Retail Store:
Tuesday through Friday noon to 6 p.m.
Saturdays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Tasting Hours:
Thursdays and Fridays 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturdays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Brewery Tours:
Saturdays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.