Courtesy / National Retail Federation
Participation in Halloween-related activities will resume to pre-pandemic levels, with 69% of consumers planning to celebrate this year, according to the National Retail Federation.
Updated: October 31, 2022
Maine brewers, chocolatiers, ride Halloween business boo(m)
Photos / provided by companies
Made-in-Maine Halloween products include Allgash's Haunted House and Shipyard's Smashed Pumpkin beers and Bixby Chocolate's Pumpkin Caramels, while Rising Tide sponsors an annual dog costume contest.
This Halloween is expected to see record consumer spending, and Maine brewers and chocolatiers are looking to ride the 2022 business boo(m) with a host of seasonal products.
"In October we've actually had our busiest weekends of the year," Naomi Neville, sales director at Portland-based Allagash Brewing Co., told Mainebiz. "Our busy summer season is stretching into the fall."
Allagash, ranked Maine's largest brewer in the 2022 Mainebiz Book of Lists, celebrates the spooky season with three Halloween-themed beers: Haunted House, Ghoulschip and Foliage Report.
Haunted House, described by Allagash spokesman Brett Willis as a "toasty, dark beer with notes of coffee and hops," gets its name from its dark color and association with Allagash House beer, while Ghoulschip "is more of a fun experiment that turns into a yearly tradition," he said.
From candy to costumes and well beyond, the National Retail Association predicts record spending this Halloween of $10.6 billion, exceeding last year's record of $10.1 billion.
The Washington, D.C.-based group also expects participation in Halloween-related activities to return to pre-pandemic levels, with 69% of consumers planning to celebrate the holiday this year. That's up from 65% in 2021 and comparable to 68% in 2019.
In Maine, consumer spending is also showing strength, according to Curtis Picard, president and CEO of the Augusta-based Retail Association of Maine.
"Like most holidays, there is a trend to return to normal post-pandemic," he told Mainebiz. "Consumers have a desire to spend on things like Halloween because it signals a return to everyday life and celebrates fun."
Autumn 'is pretty big'
For a growing number of Maine food and drink makers, pumpkin-themed anything sells big this time of year.
"Our best-selling autumn-themed products are the Pumpkin Patch Bonbons," said Kate Shaffer, artistic director at Westbrook-based Ragged Coast Chocolates, a company she founded with her husband, Steve Shaffer.
"We make the soft ganache center from locally grown pumpkins, directly traded milk and bittersweet chocolates from Latin America, our own Maine maple syrup, caramel and fresh cream down the road at Baker Brook Farm," she said. "People buy them first because they look like tiny pumpkins. And then they keep coming back for them because they're delicious."
From a business perspective, "autumn — and by default Halloween — is pretty big," she said, noting that Ragged Coast Chocolate does about 50% of its annual sales in the last two months of the year.
"But like many high-end chocolate makers, we're not the go-to trick-or-treat candy," she added. "Mostly folks gift our autumn items to family or friend, or use it for grown-up Halloween parties."
File Photo / David Clough
Bixby Chocolate founder Kate McAleer
Up the coast in Rockland, Bixby Chocolate's seasonal offerings include Pumpkin Caramels and a Dark Chocolates Maine Sea Salted Caramels Gift Box.
"Our Maine Sea Salted Caramels are such a popular item, our team thought about expanding our caramel offerings and adding a seasonal choice," said Bixby's founder Kate McAleer, who was recently honored as a 2022 Mainebiz Woman to Watch.
"I have been following the pumpkin market and research showed pumpkin is very popular. We developed prototypes and have never looked back," she said. "Every year we see the growth of Pumpkin Caramels for the fall."
Asked about plans to add to the Halloween product line, McAleer said, "We are always considering product innovations and how we can bring creativity to a category."
Rolling out the barrel
Halloween is also a big season for brewers with Halloween or autumn seasonal releases.
Fred Forsley, founder and CEO of Shipyard Brewing Co., told Mainebiz that the Portland-based brewer "is having a great Pumpkinhead season," referring to the popular wheat ale with the ghoulish logo. Shipyard also sells a seasonal beer called Smashed Pumpkin, which is 9% alcohol by volume.
"That's extra strong, bold Pumpkin beer," Forsley said.
Pumpkin is also a key ingredient in Allagash's Ghoulschip, which cools overnight in a large, open fermentation vessel known as a coolship before being fermented in a stainless steel tank.
"Surely the first people who discovered this process thought there was some kind of hidden magic at work —spooky!" said Sean Sullivan, executive director of the Maine Brewers' Guild.
File Photo / Tim Greenway
Sean Sullivan, executive director of the Maine Brewers' Guild
Sullivan's take on the autumnal beer season: "While most Maine brewers offer a variety of styles year-round, for those consumers who haven't gotten into the IPA craze, now is the time to swing by your local brewery. As we get into colder weather, maltier, darker beers will be prevalent, and perfect for pairing with chocolates, stews and roasted meats."
Not all brewers go the potent-pumpkin route.
"Nothing specific for Halloween, no," said Heather Sanborn, who owns Portland's Rising Tide Brewing Co. with her husband, Nathan Sanborn, and serves as director of brewing operations. She was honored as a Mainebiz woman to watch in 2015.
This time of year, the brewer sells TastyBrau and Oktoberfest, "both very great German-style fall beers, she said. "We also have our Twelfth Anniversary IPA available right now with a cool iridescent can."
Over the weekend, Rising Tide participated in the East Bayside Block Party. On Saturday, it hosted an all-day dog costume contest, with $1 from each pour donated to a local nonprofit called Maine Needs.
Today, on Halloween, some Rising Tide staff members were planning to be in costume "and we'll have free Halloween candy to pair with your beers, while supplies last," Sanborn said.
And what do Maine choco-preneuers hand out to trick-or-treaters?
Bixby Bars, Lobster Claws, drinking chocolate and "anything Bixby," McAleer said, while Ragged Coast's founders don't expect any costumed kids ringing their doorbell.
"The sad truth is, that since we've moved to Portland and live in a multi-unit building with no young families, we don't get trick-or-treaters," Kate Shaffer said.
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