Category: Beer

LD 1889

| Posted in Beer

Carla Jean Lauter has written an article about LD 1889, the law that enabled breweries to charge for samples, for the Press Herald.

Here in Maine, there’s another milestone that probably deserves to be recognized: the passage of LD 1889 in the Maine House and Senate. Signed and enacted in mid-April of 2012, LD 1889 laid the groundwork to fundamentally change the entire beer industry in Maine by allowing Maine brewers to charge for samples at their own breweries. While this seems trivial, its passage had cascading effects that have allowed the beer industry to become what it is today.

Definitive Brewing Co.

| Posted in Beer, Under Construction

The Press Herald checked in with Definitive Brewing on the upcoming launch of their Industrial Way brewery and how they hope to succeed in an increasingly competitive market.

[Michael] Rankin, the CEO of Definitive, rounded up a group of 11 investors and bought a building on Industrial Way, across the street from Allagash and next door to Foundation, Austin Street and Battery Steele breweries. Definitive hired Dylan Webber – a former top brewer at Maine Beer Co. and Mast Landing – to be the director of brewing operations. And Definitive is diving into the market with a 15-barrel brewhouse and four 40-barrel fermenters, which is enough to make more than 1,000 gallons a week.

Definitive Brewing is slated to open around Memorial Day.

Maine Beer Co. Hires a CEO

| Posted in Uncategorized, People, Beer

Maine Beer Company has hired Steve Mills to be the CEO for the Freeport-based brewery, reports Brewbound.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Maine Beer Company,” Mills wrote to Brewbound. “I’ve known David and Dan since almost the beginning. They had such awesome vision for what they wanted Maine Beer to be: people focused, exceptional quality and supporting 1 percent For The Planet. And look at what they’ve built! It’s all about doing what’s right. I’m looking forward to contributing wherever I can.”

Mills is moving to Maine from Utah where he was the CEO of Uinta Brewing.

Sebago’s New Brewery Opens Today

| Posted in Openings, Beer

The Press Herald has published an article about Sebago’s new brewery and tasting room in Gorham. The new brewery is located on Route 25. It is slated to open to the public today.

For starters, it’s just bigger. The largest fermentation vessel at its previous location – about a mile away – made 1,240 gallons of beer at a time. Now it has two fermenters that make nearly 5,000 gallons at a time – and capacity to add two more just like them.

Lone Pine Expansion

| Posted in Beer

The Press Herald has published an article about Lone Pine Brewing’s expansion.

If head brewer and co-owner Tom Madden is worried about the change, he doesn’t show it – and talks about the expansion with eager optimism.

He has a reason to be confident. If Lone Pine had purchased equipment for a brewery of Sebago’s size, it would have spent months making decisions about how to set up the system and even more time attempting to test it and “do the math” to scale up its five-barrel recipes. But purchasing a working brewery’s equipment has a unique advantage. Its quirks and limitations are known, and its ability to produce excellent beer has already been realized in the hands of Sebago’s brewing and production staff.

2 Beer Releases: Imperial Stout, Oat IPA

| Posted in Beer, Openings

Mast Landing and Battery Steele are releasing Ice Cream Imperial Stout, a new collaboration between the two breweries. The beer is brewed with “[h]undreds of waffle cones in the mash, lactose and a bucket of sprinkles in the boil, then conditioned on vanilla beans.”

Battery Steele also plans to release Onsight #3, which they describe as an “Oat IPA (6.5%) heavily hopped with Galaxy, Nelson and Rakau. Very soft, almost no bitterness and busting with notes of passion fruit, pineapple, mango and hints of pine”.

Beer Releases from Bissell and Oxbow

| Posted in Beer, Events

Two new beer releases are taking place this Saturday:

  • Bissell Brothers is releasing Preserve & Protect, “a 7.8% IPA built off the blueprint of our 4th-anniversary one-off. This beer gives us a chance to utilize the pineapple flavors of Denali on a larger base, with background support from Citra and Vic Secret. The label features an illustration by Heidi Geist featuring our father, recently retired as director of Baxter State Park”.
  • Oxbow is releasing Blacklight, “a 6% European hopped dark Farmhouse Ale brewed with oats and midnight wheat, called Blacklight”

Portland Beer Abroad

| Posted in Beer

Maine Public has published a report on Shipyard’s exports to the UK where their beer is in 900 pubs.

This international marketing strategies appear to be paying off. Coles says sales of the American Pale Ale have grown 30%, year over year in the UK- 50% for the IPA. Marston’s even has plans to lead a group of visitors from the U.K. to Portland later this year in order to visit the original birthplace of Shipyard.