Draft picks | Maine's newest tourism trail highlights craft beers
Photo/David A. Rodgers
Alan Pugsley, master brewer of Shipyard Brewing Co., at the company's Portland brewery, one of the stops on the Maine Beer Trail
Of all the microbrews on tap at The Liberal Cup pub in Hallowell, the “Ex-Wife Extra Bitter” in particular requires a little getting used to. It’s served English-style, warm and with just a hint of naturally occurring carbonation. And, like many an ex-wife, it’s far from sweet. The specialty beer, crafted in a brewery just feet from the pub’s rustic wooden bar, requires a more adventurous palette than your typical cheap draft.
It’s the kind of beer Maine’s craft brewers hope will now prove easier to find. The Liberal Cup, a cozy brew pub situated along the Kennebec River, is one of 14 craft breweries and pubs that are part of the newly launched Maine Beer Trail. Stretching from Eliot to Bar Harbor to The Forks, the trail publicizes the ever-growing contributors to the craft of beer-making in Maine.
The state ranks fourth in the nation in the number of breweries per capita, with one brewery for every 42,466 people, according to the Brewers Association of Boulder, Colo. Vermont topped the list, followed by Montana and Oregon. The beer industry in general, including brewing, distribution and retail, supported 5,277 jobs and $126.8 million in wages in Maine last year, according to data published by Beerservesamerica.org, which represents brewers and distributors.
Tourists may not associate Maine with beer, but Beer Trail organizers hope to make it as synonymous with the Pine Tree State as lobsters and lighthouses. “There’s renewed interest in microbrew beers and I think people in Maine are realizing the value of promoting Maine products,” says Fred Forsley, president of the Maine Brewers’ Guild and owner of Shipyard Brewing Co. of Portland. The volunteer guild, in partnership with the Maine Restaurant Association, organized the trail to inform both tourists and native Mainers about pubs and breweries in the state. Only the most devoted beer drinkers would make the trek to all 14 spots in one day, though. The trail’s better suited to a three-day weekend, with “one day to recover,” says Forsley, who owns three other trail sites in addition to the three Shipyard locations.
Much of Maine’s beer-brewing heritage traces back to the mid-1980s, with the founding of the D.L. Geary Brewing Co. in Portland. Alan Pugsley, now Shipyard’s master brewer, helped get Geary’s off the ground and has since been involved in many of Maine’s beer-brewing ventures. Today, the state boasts several well-known beers, such as Allagash’s Belgian brews, but smaller operators will particularly benefit from increased exposure, says Pugsley. “There’s a fairly diverse group. Everyone produces good-quality products.”
Getting the word out
The pubs and breweries listed on the trail each paid $500 to participate, which, along with a $10,000 grant from the Maine Office of Tourism, helped to fund brochure development and printing costs. A single print ad about the trail will be published in a Portland magazine this summer. The limited funds explain why, as a marketing venture, the trail effort is lean. The brochure, which includes a map and information about each location, is available on websites at the Brewers’ Guild and Maine Restaurant Association, and a link is expected soon on the Maine Office of Tourism website. Hard copies have been distributed to visitors’ centers and other locations. A press release announcing the trail’s kickoff was about the extent of the marketing push. The trail doesn’t offer any special discounts or promotions, but such incentives could be added as the effort moves ahead, Forsley says. For now, the theory is that better exposure will bring tourists to the barstools.
Not all of the state’s breweries and pubs are on the trail, beer aficionados may notice. Some chose not to participate because of their far-flung locations or limited hours, or just didn’t respond, according to organizers, who invited both Guild members and non-members. Andy Hazen, co-owner of Andrew’s Brewing Co. in Lincolnville, one of Maine’s oldest, said he doesn’t offer tours because only he and his son staff the business. “We’re hiding,” he says, though “if people find us, we don’t throw them out of here.” David Carlson, co-owner of Marshall Wharf Brewing Co. in Belfast, which offers brews like “Illegal Ale-ien,” says he was never contacted about participating, but praised the trail effort and Maine’s brewing community.
Beer trails have popped up in many states, including Vermont, where all 18 breweries in the state participate. A successful passport program, which rewards participants with merchandise for visiting multiple locations, made the effort a successful recruiting tool for the Vermont Brewers Association, according to Executive Director Kurt Staudter. The program convinced brewers unsure about joining the association to commit, and many credit it with attracting new business, he says. His advice to Maine organizers is to include all 30 or so of the state’s breweries. “Put everyone on there,” he says. The association produces and pays for the merchandise, which includes bottle openers and T-shirts labeled “Drink Vermont beer.” The passport program, started two years ago, includes a companion brochure that’s similar to Maine’s but also includes wineries. Customers were enthusiastic right off the bat, Staudter says. “There’s just such an enthusiastic craft beer community out there that as soon as something like this hits the streets it’s just off and running.”
The Maine guild is considering a similar passport program, possibly electronic, next year, according to Tami Kennedy, Shipyard’s communications director and a volunteer publicist for the Guild. The organization hopes to list all of the state’s breweries on the trail in the second year, though part of the challenge is that the Guild can be unaware of new or smaller breweries, like Marshall Wharf in Belfast, unless the operators contact them, she says. The total number of Maine breweries is a bit of a moving target. Some of them are actually just brands contracted by other brewers, such as Casco Bay Brewing Co., which Shipyard acquired in 2008. And there’s consolidation, including Atlantic Brewing Co.’s April purchase of competitor Bar Harbor Brewing Co.
On the trail
In Maine, the Winery Guild operates a separate wine trail. As it enters its second year, organizers hope to add a passport program and are working with members of the cheese guild on a combined tastings map, says Bettina Doulton, owner of Cellardoor Winery and Vineyards of Lincolnville and Rockport. “People are intrigued by taking the wine trail map and going to visit other places,” she says. (For more on the wine trail, see “Cluster on the vine,” June 2, 2008.)
But alcoholic beverages are far from the only basis for tourism trails in Maine. There’s a new birding trail, a museum trail, even one that follows geological formations carved out by glaciers during the ice age. The Maine Office of Tourism often provides technical assistance on developing the trails, which are essentially “tourism products,” says the office’s director, Pat Eltman. The trails help to define Maine as a destination beyond lighthouses, moose and lobsters, “the sign of the cross in this office,” she says wryly. “It’s all part of how we sell the state.” Maine hasn’t studied how many dollars the trails bring in, but it has looked at how to best offer experiences as part of the tourism product mix, according to Harold Daniel, director of the Center for Tourism Research and Outreach at the University of Maine. “It provides people with a point of entry and it provides people with a package they can mix and match as they want to,” he says. The trick is identifying market segments with specific interests and understanding what they seek.
The trails allow visitors to create new and unique experiences, including those who return every summer to do the lighthouse, lobster and moose thing, says Donna Fichtner, a private tourism and economic development consultant and member of the Maine Tourism Commission. “It makes things visible that would otherwise be invisible,” she says. “And that’s what visitors need, to be led.”
At The Liberal Cup in Hallowell, regulars make up the bulk of the clientele, though some summer tourists find their way to Water Street in the village’s downtown. Mainers visiting their camps, college kids off for the summer and people antiquing may stop by to sip a Bug Lager or Tarbox Cream Stout at the bar, where a sign reads “Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.” On a recent warm May afternoon, a trio of the pub’s servers headed out into the sunshine for a break. “Want to give me a holler if someone new shows up?” one of them yelled over her shoulder.
Jackie Farwell, Mainebiz staff reporter, can be reached at jfarwell@mainebiz.biz.
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