Rising Tide Brewing sees strong growth in part thanks to Portland tasting room
Photo / Tim Greenway
Heather and Nathan Sanborn, co-owners of Rising Tide Brewing, in the brew house in Portland.
The year 2012 was a landmark for Rising Tide Brewing. The company started to expand its physical plant and fermentation capacity, and was pumping out 10 barrels of beer per week. It also was when Heather Sanborn, then a lawyer, joined her husband Nathan's brewing company, which they co-own. And perhaps most importantly, it was the first full year a new law allowed on-site tasting rooms to operate and charge for their beer.
There are now about 42 operating tasting rooms in Maine, according to the Maine Brewers' Guild. Heather Sanborn, who also serves as president of the guild, says Rising Tide plans to greatly expand its tasting room in 2016. The current tasting room at its brewery in Portland's East Bayside neighborhood accounts for one-third of total revenue.
Rising Tide's total sales grew 262% from 2012 through 2014, making it Mainebiz's fastest-growing company in the small category, with 25 or fewer employees.
The company operates its brewery and tasting room in 5,500 square feet in Portland and its warehouse in 8,400 square feet in Westbrook.
The brewery was financed by the Sanborns, who then took out a loan from Bangor Savings Bank. It set up a proof-of-concept operation in 2011 and installed equipment in 2012.
Initially, it produced 29 barrels in 2010, which rose to 149 barrels in 2011 and 2,505 barrels in 2014. Projections for 2015 are about 3,800 barrels. A U.S. beer barrel is 31 gallons, equivalent to about 250 pints or 13.7 cases.
Though the tasting room was not part of the original business plan, its success has the company planning to double its space plus add bathrooms to accommodate drop-ins and bus and bicycle tours. Sanborn aims to keep her market local instead of competing head-on with larger craft brewers and giant beverage companies like Heineken, which in September bought 50% of Petaluma, Ca.-based craft brewer Lagunitas Brewing Co. for an undisclosed amount.
Heineken is not the only giant brewer eyeing the faster-growing craft brewing market. Maine's breweries alone sold $92.6 million worth of beer in 2013 and employed nearly 1,500 workers, according to a May 2014 Maine Brewers' Guild economic impact study, which also noted that Maine's brewers plan to double production by 2018. However, the study included only the 35 breweries in operation in 2013; there are almost double that number today, and 80 anticipated by the end of 2016.
“We're seeing a trend where larger brewers like Anheuser-Busch InBev, Heineken or other conglomerates are looking at reasonably small craft breweries to diversify their portfolio and get into the segment of the market that is growing most quickly,” Sanborn says. “I don't anticipate it will impact us because our strategy is to grow close to home.” She says the company already is growing extremely fast in Maine, and sales are up 30% alone this year, not counting the tasting operation.
Sanborn says becoming a successful brewer in Maine requires blending an appreciation for the highest-quality of beer with business sense, experience and working with the bank, regulators and the city of Portland.
She says 2015 revenue is on track to be up 45% over 2014. The tasting room revenue is projected to be up 52% over 2014. The room is operating seven days a week for both of those years.
Projections for 2016 are very conservative, Sanborn says, “because that helps me sleep better at night. We're forecasting 20% growth over 2015 in total revenue with 30% growth in our tasting room revenue.”
Correction: This article has been changed to correctly identify the number of tasting rooms in Maine.
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