🔒New business still on tap, as four newcomers keep Maine’s craft beer buzz going

“Trinken” means “to drink” in German, and is the name of one of Maine’s newest craft brewers with a focus on German-inspired beers, from Pilsner to a Bavarian-style Hefeweizen.

Trinken Brewing Co., at the top of Witch Spring Hill in West Bath, had a false start in March when it was forced to close two days after opening because of the pandemic.

“That was a crazy time, just coming off the back end of a six, seven-month build-out and spending a lot of money,” co-founder Tyler Inman recalls of the unexpected shutdown. “There was a lot of stress, a lot of sleepless nights when we had to shut down after one successful weekend.”

He and business partner Ryan Bisson forged ahead, keeping busy with curbside sales of 32-oz. glass bottle howlers for the better part of three months. Before they were allowed to open to outdoor seating in early June, they spent two days building a fenced-in beer garden in the parking lot furnished with eight-foot-long picnic tables, shrubs and trees.

“We had three months for people to have this relationship with us, so we knew that when we finally opened back up we were going to be busy, and that’s very much the case,” says Inman. “The silver lining is that when you start at rock bottom, and then you get held at rock bottom for months, it can only get better.”

While this isn’t an easy year to run any business or start a new one, Trinken is one of four newcomers to Maine’s craft industry in 2020. The others are Outland Farm Brewery in Pittsfield that opened in April; Belfast’s reincarnated Marshall Wharf Brewing and Three Tides brewpub restaurant, under new ownership with big plans; and Bath Ale Works in Wiscasset, which aims to open in November.

Slow but strong startup momentum

While COVID-19 may have slowed the pace of new breweries on the scene — Maine has added an average of 17 a year over the past decade — they are keeping the buzz going in the high-profile sector.

All will add to Maine’s cachet as a hotbed of craft-beer entrepreneurship, more than three decades after D.L. Geary Brewing Co. in Portland became the first brewer to open east of the Mississippi since Prohibition, and 25 years after Rob Tod founded Allagash Brewing Co., also in Maine’s largest city.

Why the continued startup momentum even in the toughest of times?

Sean Sullivan, executive director of the nonprofit Maine Brewers’ Guild, chalks it up to a combination of increasing consumer interest in local beer, an opportunity to fill in the geographic gaps in the marketplace and a strong sense of community and thirst for local brands.

“There’s still so many people that are discovering local beer, and there are a lot of communities that are looking for a local business to revitalize their downtown,” he says. “A brewery requires a strong community to succeed, and in Maine, strong communities are one of our best assets.”

Beyond that, Sullivan says, “Maine has become well-known for not just quality beer and brewing expertise, but for having a community of beer business service providers, vendors who offer an easier path to market entry.”

He also notes that while the brewing process goes back thousands of years, the past five or 10 years have opened people’s eyes to the huge varieties and styles of beer, adding: “I think there continues to be opportunities [for new entrants] to establish niches, whether it be based on the style of beer they’re brewing, the location or the concept around the experience they’re bringing.”

Sector’s economic might

In Maine, the number of craft brewers has grown from 66 in a dozen counties in 2015 to 155 today in all 16 counties. Together they produce 121 unique brands.

In terms of the industry’s economic impact, Maine outshines all but three other states, in the latest scorecard from the Boulder, Colo.-based Brewers Association. The nonprofit trade and industry group represents more than 5,200 small independent brewers nationwide.

In its latest economic impact report, the trade group calculates that the craft brewing industry as a whole contributed $82.9 billion to the U.S. economy in 2019 and provided more than 580,000 jobs. The $82.9 billion figure measures the total impact of beer brewed by craft brewers through the entire production and sales cycle, as well as related products such as food and merchandise sold by brewpub restaurants and taprooms.

The same report puts craft beer’s 2019 economic impact at $668.13 million in Maine. That translates into a per capita amount of $642 per adult of drinking age, putting the Pine Tree State at No. 4 behind Colorado (No.1 at $796 per capita), Vermont (No. 2 at $766 per capita) and Oregon (No. 4 at $695 per capita). Maine moved up a notch from No. 5 the previous year.

“There are lots of different ways to measure the relative positions of the craft beer industry by state, and the economic impact numbers are a decent synthesis since they combine the market share, production value, as well as other ripples throughout the economy such as supplier industries and tourism,” says Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers’ Association.

“By nearly ever metric,” he adds, “Maine is a top per capita state for craft brewing, as these numbers underline.” While craft beer still makes up only 14% of beer production volume nationwide and 25.2% of sales revenues, Watson says there’s still plenty of opportunity for new craft producers. He also notes that Maine’s “fairly friendly” regulatory environment helps, along with Portland craft pioneers like Geary and Allagash that paved the way with strong brands, as well as enthusiastic consumers and a bit of luck.

There’s been some bad luck this year because of the pandemic, including the permanent closures of Nuts & Bolts Brewing in Biddeford and Andre’s Brewing Co. in Lincolnville. Sullivan says that while neither cited COVID-19 as the sole reason for shutting its doors, in both cases it was the final straw.

Noting that the market in general is more competitive than ever, Watson recommends entering with a clear niche as well as high-quality beer and service.

“It’s good to see people still excited to enter the industry, even in these challenging times,” he adds.

2020’s ‘Fab Four’

Though they’ve all taken different paths to beer and business ownership, Maine’s newest craft entrepreneurs are equally excited to finally open after pandemic-related delays.

“The waiting has been the most difficult part, but we’ve had a lot of enthusiasm from everybody we’ve talked to,” says Pepper Powers, a long-time home brewer and former NASA contractor with Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who founded Bath Ale Works in Wiscasset with his wife, Jean. With some help from friends, they self-financed the venture with no debt, and aim to open the midcoast town’s first brewery and taproom around mid-November in a leased 5,328 square-foot space inside the Wiscasset Marketplace shopping center along Route 1, directly across from a Shaw’s Supermarket.

As the landlord’s team works to get the space ready with a new HVAC system, reworked sprinkler system, refinished rest rooms and new floor drains being cut and poured, Powers says there will be more outdoor seating than originally planned because of the pandemic.

“Six months ago, we felt this business was going to be a slam-dunk, but we’ve had to change our approach and put more emphasis on outdoor seating,” Powers explains. “It’s not the best time to be opening a new business, but it is what it is and so we’re pushing on.” Even if November isn’t the best time for al fresco seating, Powers says they’re looking into heat lamps and other solutions, adding, “We’ll have to push as deep into the winter as we possibly can.” He says the business expects to employ about seven people and get its primary income from the taproom and some distribution to local restaurants, and eventually also cans.

Just as Bath Ale Works is a play on Bath Iron Works about 12 miles away, the starting product lineup includes beer names that pay homage to vessels built at the shipyard, like Arleigh Burke India Pale Ale and Zumwalt Porter.

“We’re trying to build names around the midcoast theme, especially the shipbuilding,” Powers says.

About 50 miles up the coast in Belfast, husband and wife Daniel Waldron and Kathleen Dunckel are the new owners of Marshall Wharf Brewing and Three Tides brewpub restaurant, two previously distressed businesses they purchased earlier this year.

“The opportunity came up and we said, ‘What the heck, let’s jump on it,’” says Waldron, who has a background in both brewing and property development, as president of Whitecap Builders in Belfast.

With their new ventures, they’ll have 1,361 square feet of brewhouse, 750 square feet of office and storage space and a 750-square-foot tasting room at Marshall Wharf, and two floors of indoor dining at Three Tides, with outside deck seating and a 1,250 outdoor beer garden overlooking Belfast Harbor that was getting ready to open as this article went to press.

Waldron says they have brewed six beers and have ingredients for 16 more.

“We really couldn’t feel more blessed in how things have come together,” he adds. “The previous owners that started these businesses built a wonderful community and provided a product people loved, so it was a no-brainer to pick up the model and run with it.”

In a much different setting in downtown Pittsfield, Heather and Mike Holland launched Outland Farm Brewery in April, close to a 75-acre farm of the same name that she owns. They started with curbside sales in April and are now serving beer outdoors.

While all production is currently downtown. Heather expects the farm to be licensed for production next spring, explaining: “It was supposed to be first, but we ran into a few logistical issues that delayed the production on the farm.”

While the brewery is separate from the farm business, the plan is to highlight beer’s close ties to agriculture.

“Everybody thinks that beer is something that comes out of nowhere, so we wanted to find a place that ties those two together and supports Maine agriculture,” says Mike. He’s a graduate of the American Brewers’ Guild with nine years of brewing experience, while Heather grew up on a farm and studied horticulture and landscape management in college.

While curbside sales were brisk this spring, business at the patio opened in July has been unexpectedly slow, with most locals away at camp and not many tourists, the Hollands say. That’s in sharp contrast to Trinken’s busy beer garden in West Bath that Inman calls a hit.

“If you make a good product,” he says, “people who like your beer are going to come back and drink it, and you’re going to start hooking people in.”

Advice for aspiring craft beer entrepreneurs

Make sure you, as a founder, are clear about what’s important to you. And make sure you have a way for everyone that you hire to understand in no uncertain terms what those important things are.
_{^{— Rob Tod, founder, Allagash Brewing Co.}}

 

Finding a niche in beer style, brewery location or customer experience is critical. We have a lot of breweries making high-quality beer in Maine and the marketplace is crowded, so differentiation is key.
_{^{— Sean Sullivan, executive director, Maine Brewers’ Guild}}