Producer: Able Ebenezer Brewing Company
Location: Merrimack, NH
Found at the Littleton Co-op: beer
Website: ableebenezer.com
Able Ebenezer was founded in 2014 by Army Veterans and friends Carl Soderberg and Mike Frizzelle. The duo found that in addition to having shared military experiences, they had both discovered their love of craft beer during their service. Carl started his life after the military at a biopharmaceutical manufacturing company in Cambridge, and Mike returned to his home state of California. Before long, though, Carl decided to pursue his actual passion of brewing – to no avail. After facing many rejections from brewing positions at established breweries, all the while perfecting his homebrewing, he convinced Mike to pack up, relocate, and open a brewery. While it was a big leap to make, Mike attributes their quick to action style to their time in the military, saying “the quickest way to get kicked out of the program is to be indecisive. You could make a mistake, as long as you made a choice and took action.” Their scrappy budget and head first attitude led to them doing many of the construction, plumbing, and design themselves. The name Able Ebenezer came as a tribute to NH Veteran Ebenezer Mudgett and the Pine Tree Riots of 1772 in Weare, NH he inspired that ultimately contributed to the Boston Tea Party and American Revolution.
The historical theme continues throughout the brews, including their flagship beers Burn The Ships and Victory Nor Defeat. As Carl told New Hampshire Magazine, “”Only one of us is actually from New Hampshire, so it was a big step for the rest of us to ‘burn our ships’ to come here and attempt to start a business.” Now, they find community in the rest of the NH craft beer scene, and accolades from the Small Business Association to countless voters’ choice polls.
Status of product availability at the Littleton Co-op, and labeling of producers (such as local, Black-Owned Business, NH-made, etc) and product status or ingredients (gluten-free, vegan, etc) is based on available information at time of publication. The food world is an ever-changing landscape and information presented here may not reflect the most up-to-date information available.
