🔒Shipyard’s Forsley reflects on brewer’s past, present and ‘brewtel’ future

Fred Forsley, founder and CEO of Portland-based Shipyard Brewing Co., was profiled in the first issue of Mainebiz, when both were startups.

Today, Shipyard is Maine’s largest brewer, with an expected global output of 160,000 barrels this year. Forsley chatted with Mainebiz about Shipyard’s past, present and future, in a phone interview excerpted below.

Mainebiz: Back when you started, you talked about bringing new life to the East End. What’s your view of today’s development boom?

Fred Forsley: I’m very happy with the progress. It’s one of those things you start looking back and think, ‘It actually has happened, and we’re still here.’ Our site was a brownfield site, abandoned for many years. It’s now a vibrant part of the city that’s on the map locally, so hopefully our kids and grandkids will be able to maximize what Portland can become.

MB: You also predicted a ‘boom of beer’ in that first Mainebiz interview. Did you ever expect such a big boom?

FF: It’s definitely surpassed what I had anticipated. At that time I thought that 10 or 12 breweries in the state would be a lot, and we’re now well over 90. To me it’s a little mind-blowing, but I’ve never been more excited about the business than I am now. It’s very competitive and you’ve got to be on your toes. Our goal is to stay independent and keep having fun and making it work.

MB: And the distribution partnership with what was then the Miller Brewing Co. you undid five years later to become independent again?

FF: I got to understand how big companies work, and it really made me value being able to get the business back. There’s a lot more pressure when everything is on you, but luckily we’ve had a lot of lot of good banking relationships.

MB: How do you stay relevant in an increasingly crowded market?

FF: You do things that are a little more innovative that maybe big companies wouldn’t do. One of our employees wanted to support gay pride, so we came up with a beer in support of that [Hoppy Pride IPA]. Last year we did a beer in honor of the 20th year of Beach to Beacon, so we were able to bring some attention there. We’ve also been able to expose our brands through partnerships, like our themed brewpubs in Sugarloaf and Sunday River, which also set us apart. It’s definitely tricky but you just have to adapt.

MB: What do you hope to accomplish with the planned ‘brewtel’?

FF: The hope is that it is fundamentally the nucleus of our being, everything that our company values, really being able to brew and serve on-site, and have customers come from all over the world or from around the corner to experience our beers. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born on the site, there’s a rock there to commemorate that right on the corner of Hancock and Fore streets. I’m hoping that with our handcrafted beers we’ll be there long into the future.

MB: Could you ever envision doing a Longfellow beer?

FF: We actually own it, and we’ve done it before. And we’ll do it again.

MB: Where do you see Shipyard in the next five or so years?

FF: I’d like to see us continue to grow globally with Shipyard brands. You can’t be everywhere in the U.S., but where there are hotbeds for craft brands, we want to try to continue to have exposure in those markets. It’s a very competitive game, but I’ve never been more excited about the business.

MB: What markets pose the greatest interest?

FF: We’re spending a lot of time trying to grow exports, so we’re hoping that we can continue to grow in Europe. In the U.S. we hope to grow a lot in Florida and in New England, New York and New Jersey. With Pumpkinhead we hope to be everywhere in the country through this next season, and then some of our other beers. We can get our beer anywhere in the country, we just need customers to ask for it and help us out.