🔒Maine Beer Co. proposes expansion of Freeport production plant

Maine Beer Co. is seeking permits to build an 11,000-square-foot addition to its Freeport brewery, which would allow the company to double production from 50,000 to 100,000 barrels of beer.

Increased production enabled by the addition would gradually ramp up, based on the needs of the market and what buyers can responsibly sell, Steve Mills, Maine Beer’s CEO, told Mainebiz.

“That will take time,” he said. “We will phase in employees and equipment to meet those needs.”

The company met with Freeport’s planning board earlier this week. Mills was optimistic that the proposal would go through.

Pent-up demand

Located at 525 U.S. Route 1, Maine Beer was founded in 2009 by brothers David and Daniel Kleban

The 18,000-square-foot brewery now in operation produces 50,000 barrels per year and is at capacity, said Mills.

Distribution is to 29 states, mainly New England and the mid-Atlantic, provided through an independent wholesaler and distribution network to bars, restaurants, grocery stores and liquor stores.

The proposal includes added parking and staff to the workforce that today numbers 100 year-round employees.

At full capacity, doubled production could mean another 25 or so hires.

The proposed expansion is driven by wholesale demand, Mills said.

“We have bars, restaurants, liquor stores, grocery stores, asking for more of our beer than we can supply,” he said. “Talking with our who distribution network, we think there’s enough pent-up demand that justifies this expansion.”

$18M project

The addition would be built onto the existing brewery. The campus also includes a taproom of about 10,000 square feet.

The cost of the project is estimated at $18 million, including construction, additional equipment and construction of a lower parking lot that’s underway now on adjacent land. It’s expected the lot, with 57 parking spaces, will be ready by Memorial Day.

The goal is to break ground on the addition, pending permits, by late 2026 or early 2027, with completion by late 2027 or early 2028 and production underway in early 2028.

The project team includes Freeport general contractor Zachau Construction Inc., Ryan Senatore Architecture in Portland, South Portland civil engineering firm Sebago Technics and Portland commercial real estate brokerage the Boulos Co. Norway Saving Bank provided financing.

Equipment staging

The company has begun buying equipment for the expansion and is staging it at its distribution facility at 15 Saunders Way in Westbrook, where it recently leased an additional 13,770 square feet on a temporary basis.

The landlord at 15 Saunders Way is J.B. Brown and Sons. The lease was arranged on behalf of the landlord by Drew Sigfridson and Reese McFarlane and on behalf of the tenant by Derek Miller, all with the Boulos Co.

In 2018, Maine Beer added 24,000 square feet to its Freeport brewery and added the 30,000-square-foot storage-and-distribution site at 15 Saunders Way in Westbrook.

In 2025, the company completed the installation of the skeleton of a 49.6-foot-long finback whale in the Freeport tasting room. Named Finny, the young whale stranded on the Maine coast in 2023. In 2024, Maine Beer sponsored the collection of the carcass by staff and students of Allied Whale, a marine mammal field research nonprofit at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor.

The skeleton was prepared and rearticulated by Dan DenDanto, an Allied Whale research associate who has been cleaning, articulating, restoring and installing whale skeletons in museums, science centers and national parks since 1993.