Allagash surpasses Shipyard as Maine’s largest brewer

Photo / Tim Greenway Luke Truman, left, and Rob Tod of Allagash Brewing, which has surpassed Shipyard Brewing as Maine’s largest brewer, based on annual production in barrels. Find the full list in the March 9 print edition of Mainebiz.

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By Renee Cordes

Portland’s Allagash Brewing Co. has surpassed cross-town rival Shipyard Brewing Co. as the state’s top brewer in the latest Mainebiz ranking.

The list, which is based on data from a 2019 survey, ranks brewers according to annual production in barrels. Allagash comes in at No. 1, with 100,000 barrels, followed by Shipyard, with 74,119 barrels; Maine Beer Co., of Freeport, at 25,000 barrels; Baxter Brewing Co., of Lewiston, with 17,714 barrels; and Sebago Brewing Co., of Gorham, with 13,000 barrels.

Allagash also made craft-beer site RateBeer.com’s list of the world’s best brewers in 2019, coming in at No. 34, while Maine Beer Co. was No. 26.

Allagash, founded in 1995 by Rob Tod, now employs 150 people and sells beer in 17 states plus the District of Columbia. In Pennsylvania, it’s expanding to the western part of the state this month.

“We have been doing business for the last 10 years or so in the Philly and five counties area,” Tod told Mainebiz during a recent visit. “It just made sense to fill out the state of Pennsylvania, which we’re doing pretty methodically.”

Though Allagash used to have much wider distribution, selling 3,000 or 4,000 barrels in 30 states, it’s scaled back since then to focus on quality over quantity.

“The beer is fresher, and our distributors are a hundredfold better supported by us and our sales force,” Tod said. “We’re more relevant, more effective and more efficient, and the customer is getting a better beer, because we’re not a mile wide and an inch deep.”

Asked about product innovation at Allagash HQ, Tod said that a lot of it comes from a 10-gallon pilot brewhouse for testing ideas from employees. This year alone, he expects the brewhouse to be used more than 100 times.

“Instead of feeling pressure to innovate, we almost feel pressure to make all of the ideas a reality here,” he said, pointing to successes like Two Lights, which blends beer and sparkling wine.

Tod, a James Beard Award winner whose company became a Certified B Corp last year, said there are so many ideas even he doesn’t get to try them all, adding: “If you are a brewery, you need to innovate.”