Photo / Courtesy Oxbow Brewing Co.
Oxbow Brewing Co. will be acquiring Rising Tide Brewing Co. later this year.
December 5, 2024
Craft brewer Oxbow to acquire Portland-based Rising Tide Brewing
Photo / Courtesy Jared Mckenna
Tim Adams of Oxbow Brewing Co. plans to acquire Rising Tide Brewing Co. later this year
Oxbow Brewing Co. said it will be acquiring Rising Tide Brewing Co. later this year.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The two breweries said they’ve been friends and collaborators since their respective starts in the early 2010s.
Rising Tide is based in Portland's East Bayside neighborhood, at 103 Fox St. Oxbow is based in Newcastle and has a "blending and bottling" site in Portland, at 49 Washington Ave., and a beer garden in Oxford.
Heather Sanborn, Rising Tide’s co-founder, said she’s planning to exit the beer business to pursue a career in public policy. She is a lawyer and when she served in the state Legislature helped pass laws that replaced Prohibition-era regulations. She was a 2015 Mainebiz Woman to Watch.
Her partner and Rising Tide’s co-founder, Nathan Sanborn, will continue on as Rising Tide's director of brewing operations.
"Heather has been an instrumental figure in Maine's beer scene, both with her industry-changing policy work on behalf of the Maine Brewers Guild and with the wonderful beers and community she and Nathan created at Rising Tide,” said Oxbow's founder and president, Tim Adams.
The breweries said they share similar brewing philosophies, but their beer portfolios are different. Rising Tide focuses on traditional American and European beer styles, while Oxbow specializes in farmhouse ales and lagers.
Oxbow
Oxbow Brewing is a small “farmhouse” brewery at 274 Jones Woods Road in Newcastle. It was established in 2011. There’s a brewery and a tasting room. The brewery is in a converted barn and focuses on making “farmhouse” ales with a “European influence.”
Oxbow beers use spring water drawn from an artesian well adjacent to the brewery. The tasting room next door has a rotating selection of the brewery’s offerings, on tap and in bottle, as well as light snacks and merchandise. The aesthetic features barrels, the bar’s rough-cut pine interior and outdoor picnic tables.
The property also has a three-bedroom passive-solar house and logging roads and lead into a backwoods, which are marketed for hiking, mountain biking and winter recreation, such as cross-country ski.
Behind the house is the Oxbow farm and fruit orchard where fruit is grown and honey is produced to use in the lines that feature estate ingredients.
Fifty miles southwest of the brewery, at 49 Washington Ave. in Portland, Oxbow has a blending and bottling facility. The beer production space houses over 200 oak barrels and dozens of stainless steel tanks. The vessels are filled with mixed-fermentation or “sour” beers that require extended aging and conditioning times. Approximately 25% of production at the 10,000-square-foot warehouse is dedicated to Oxbow’s bar and other distribution points.
The venue is also used for art shows and community events, from a fly-tying class hosted by a local tackle shop to live hip-hop nights. The facility shares a stone patio with a restaurant called Duckfat.
In 2019, Oxbow opened a beer garden at 420 Main St. in Oxford, 45 minutes northwest of Portland. The facility consists of restaurant, bar and event space in a renovated 200-year-old barn.
Oxbow has 55 employees and produces 5,000 barrels yearly, with distribution on the East Coast from Maine to North Carolina; Chicago, Colorado, Texas and California; a Japanese export market and occasional drops to other countries, Adams told Mainebiz.
Rising Tide
Rising Tide is a family-owned brewery at 103 Fox St. in Portland’s East Bayside neighborhood
The wife-and-husband team of Heather and Nathan Sanborn opened Rising Tide in 2010.
Before opening the brewery, Heather was an attorney and Nathan was a stay-at-home dad and freelance graphic designer, according to the website.
“Known for his elaborate dinner parties and delicious home brews, Nathan realized his passion for beer,” the website says.
Rising Tide opened on One Industrial Way, a location with multiple other breweries. The company grew and, by 2012, Heather left her job as a lawyer to come on full-time at the brewery as the director of business operations as the brewery relocated and expanded to 103 Fox St.
Photo / Courtesy Rising Tide Brewing Co.
Heather and Nathan Sanborn co-founded Rising Tide Brewing Co. in 2010.
During the move, production grew from a one-man and one-barrel system to hiring its first employee and a 15-barrel brewhouse. Over the next seven years, Rising Tide continued to grow, acquiring a warehouse and opening and expanding a tasting room.
In 2017, Heather was elected as a state representative and later as a senator.
The company added a private events program with dedicated space in 2018.
Rising Tide has 25 employees and produces 3,000 barrels, with distribution primarily in Maine and Massachusetts.
Covering the bases
As of a couple of years ago, Maine Island Trail Ale, or MITA, was Rising Tide’s best-selling brand. It was introduced in 2013 to raise money and awareness for the Maine Island Trail Association, a Portland-based nonprofit dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of coastal Maine's wild islands.
Commenters on Oxbow’s Facebook page were enthusiastic.
“Cool to see owners of a great local company 'selling out'.... to an owner of another great local company,” said one. “Keeping it in the family. And well done Nathan and Heather!!”
Said another, “Wow! 2 amazing Maine breweries joining forces! As long as the MITA session sticks around I’m very excited!”
"The pendulum is swinging back to traditional beers, and between Oxbow and Rising Tide we've now got those bases fully covered,” said Adams.
As from Heather Sanborn’s departure, Rising Tide name, facilities and workforce will remain intact, Adams said.
Why was the deal of interest to both sides?
“Heather wanted to pursue a different career and the Sanborns no longer wanted to be brewery owners,” said Adams. “I am a big fan of Rising Tide beer and fully believe in its potential and look forward to using our resources and network to help grow the brand.”
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