3cross Fermentation Cooperative is Massachusetts' first community-owned brewery. Our 5,500 square foot space in the basement of 26 Cambridge Street houses a spacious taproom, a small nano-brewery setup and lots of space for expansion. While beer is the core of our business here at 3cross, we have plans for a variety of other fermented foods and drinks in the future. Since the business is owned by you, our customers, we keep our focus on serving our local community. It's unlikely that you'll ever see 3cross beer sold too far from Worcester.
Our name references the classic spoke lacing pattern for a bicycle wheel and you'll find elements of bicycle lore and culture throughout the brewery. Since we're cyclists as well as beer lovers, we aim to make 3cross the ideal place to end your next ride. Of course, we also aim to be the perfect place for anyone to enjoy a fresh, local beer.
A cooperative is a democratically owned and controlled business that exists to serve its members needs and aspirations. Cooperative businesses are owned and run by and for their members and a share in the profits and decision making.
Here at 3cross, the business is owned both by its workers and its consumers (that's you!). Each group elects representatives to the Board of Directors to help steer the business, with input from the membership as a whole. Unlike a traditional corporation, each member has an equal vote in the affairs of the cooperative, regardless of the amount of their capital investment. In the case of really important decisions (like changing the business's core mission), all members have an equal say in the final outcome.
Beyond having a say in the direction of a business you patronize and having an opportunity to serve on the Board, members will receive a 20% discount on merchandise purchases along with the special perks below.
Once a year, we'll hold our Annual Meeting to elect the Board of Directors and vote on important decisions. It won't be just a meeting though, there'll be plenty of time to socialize and celebrate another year!
Once a quarter we'll randomly select a member to help design and brew a beer of their choosing. They'll be free to have as much involvement as they like - from simply selecting a style to actually putting on some brewer's boots and cleaning out the mash tun. Once the beer is ready, it will be available for members to purchase at cost.
In years when the business has profits remaining after necessary reinvestment, members will receive a dividend in proportion to their purchases with the coop. Some portion of this dividend will be in cash and some portion may be in the form of increased investment in the coop.
Since we have a no tips policy here at 3cross, we donate any cash left on the bar each month to a designated charity. As a member you'll be able to suggest and vote on which charity that money goes to.
The first step is to fill out our membership application here on our website. Please note that memberships are for a single person. If you would like to join the co-op as a couple or family, each individual will need to fill out the application. Once you've completed that you'll just need to make a $150 equity contribution. We'd prefer to have you come in to the taproom to do that (we want to get to know you!), but we understand that's not possible for some. If that's the case, we'll send you a link to make your equity contribution online by credit card.
Find 3cross beers on draught at these fine establishments in Worcester.
Find cans of 3cross beer at these stores in the Worcester area.
3cross isn't just about brewing beer and supporting our local community. We also want to make sure that we steward our natural resources for the enjoyment of all. Brewing beer can have a significant environmental impact due to large water, electrical and fossil fuel requirements. Here's what we're doing to try to minimize or mitigate our impact on the planet.
Working together with 1% for the Planet, we have committed to donating 1% of all of our sales to non-profit organizations whose missions are in areas of critical environmental impact: climate, food, land, pollution, water, and wildlife.
So far, 3cross has donated to the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition (MassBike), the Regional Environmental Council and Worcester Earn-A-Bike. MassBike and Worcester Earn-A-Bike work within our city and our state to promote cycling as a fun and eco-friendly mode of transportation and recreation. The REC works to secure access to fresh, healthy food for everyone.
Via a partnership with the Mass Energy Consumers Alliance, 3cross offsets 100% of it's electrical usage with the purchase of Class 1 RECs from wind power generated in Massachusetts. By doing this we're helping to make the local electric grid greener, faster.
Breweries generate a lot of waste in the form of grain solids that have been used, but still contain nutrients. We give our spent grains to local farms to use as feed for livestock, keeping them out of the landfill.
When making decisions regarding which products we purchase to run our business, we always consider environmental impact. All of these decisions are important, from little things like paper goods (we purchase 100% recycled) to more impactful ones like our malted barley (the bulk of which is malted without the use of fossil fuels).
Our name references the classic spoke lacing pattern for a bicycle wheel and you'll find elements of bicycle lore and culture throughout the brewery. Since we're cyclists as well as beer lovers, we aim to make 3cross the ideal place to end your next ride.
Sure, we have gift cards available for sale in the taproom.
Sure, you can purchase a pack of our labels on our webstore.
We fill our own 750mL and 2L glass and stainless steel growlers. We will also fill blank dark glass swing-top or stainless steel vessels of the same size as ours that have a factory marking indicating their volume. Sorry, but MA state law doesn't allow us to fill growlers with the branding of other breweries. We think this goes without saying, but all growlers must be clean. We do not have the facilities to clean growlers behind the bar.
Once you've enjoyed the beer contained within, we recommend immediately rinsing thoroughly (2-3 times) with very hot water. Then, allow it to air dry upside down with the cap off. Leave the cap off until it's been filled again. Never use dish soap to clean a growler.
We're a very small operation but are commited to giving back to our community. We have established two avenues for charitable giving:
Unfortunately, we aren't able to make donations to other organizations at this time and due to the volume of donation requests we receive we are not able to respond to requests that do not fit these criteria.
Sure! Please contact us for a list of currently available kegs.
We work with Atlas Distributing to service our retail partners in Central Mass and White Lion Distributing in Western Mass. If your establishment is within their distribution area, please contact them. Unfortunately, we do not have the capacity to distribute outside of this area.
Not at this time. We will post any available positions here on our website.
You may send information about your product or service to solicitations@3cross.coop. If we are interested we will respond promptly. Unfortunately, due to the number of requests we receive of this nature, we are not able to respond to requests that are not a good fit for our business. Please do not send emails to other email addresses within our organization, please do not send multiple requests, and please do not subscribe us to your mailing list. Any of these actions will result in us ignoring all of your communications and reporting your messages as spam.
Sounds interesting! Send us an email and we'll do our best to answer.
Thanks! Please check your email to confirm your subscription.
Have you checked out our FAQ? We receive many inquires and most of the common questions are answered there. Please give it a look. We're a small operation, so we are unable to respond individually to questions that are addressed in the FAQ. We need to spend our time making beer!
3cross Fermentation Cooperative
26 Cambridge Street
(4 Knowlton Ave for your GPS)
Worcester, MA 01603
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There was an error while submitting your application. Please try again later. Sorry for the inconvenience. If this error persists, please send us an email at info@3cross.coop
Your application has been received. Next time you're in the taproom let us know you've completed the application and we'll process your payment.
Your application has been received. We'll send you an invoice to pay your equity contribution soon.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, our taproom is currently closed. We remain open for the purchase of cans, growlers and merchandise. To minimize necessary interactions, please place an order before your arrival on our webstore for pickup curbside.
