{"id":9363,"date":"2013-12-26T10:42:14","date_gmt":"2013-12-26T15:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=9363"},"modified":"2013-12-26T10:42:14","modified_gmt":"2013-12-26T15:42:14","slug":"the-craft-of-art-beer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/the-craft-of-art-beer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Craft of Art Beer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winterguide 2014 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Is microbrewing the latest frontier for young and restless entrepreneurs?<\/h3>\n

By Jeanee Dudley<\/p>\n

\"craft_beer\"<\/a>Portland has become a hot spot for craft beer. Award-winning brewers such as Allagash and Shipyard have built success here, backed by a brew-happy public and a food scene that favors the unique and the local. Beer is big business in Maine, and Portland\u2019s place as the city with the second-highest brewery rate per capita in the country (behind Portland, Oregon) is no coincidence. There are roughly 15 craft breweries in and around town, give or take a few start-ups.<\/p>\n

In this case, let\u2019s take<\/em> them. In the coming months, three more small breweries are rolling into production. Two of them, Bissell Bros. Brewery and Foundation Brewery, neighbors on Portland\u2019s Industrial Way, are just a heartbeat from opening, while Banded Horn Brewery is constructing an impressive home base at Pepperell Mill in Biddeford.<\/p>\n

Bissell brothers Noah, 23, and Peter, 30, started their first business as kids growing up in Milo, selling gourds and pumpkins door to door. \u201cI\u2019d been doing various entrepreneurial things for a while,\u201d says Peter, an Orono graduate with a communications degree, most recently a professional photography business. \u201cNoah does all of the brewing. The first batch he brewed was like licking an ashtray, but I promise it\u2019s a lot better now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot more practice,\u201d laughs Noah. \u201cI\u2019ve been brewing for about three or four years now. I got started after staying here for a summer with Peter between semesters at Farmington. I was only 20 at the time, but I got to try some great local beers and I was hooked on craft. Since I couldn\u2019t buy it, I started to make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noah and Peter have been planning the business since Thanksgiving 2011. The brothers chose the space on Industrial Way in April and are doing some major redecorating. They\u2019re converting a garage\u2013strewn with large aluminum tanks, drop sheets, paint cans, and hops bags\u2013into a production room, bottling station, and tasting area for visitors who\u2019ll stop by to pick up bottles and growlers.<\/p>\n

The brothers plan to open with a flagship brew they call Substance, which is fermenting at press time. \u201cIt\u2019s hoppy in a way that expresses a lot of character without being too bitter,\u201d says Noah. \u201cWe\u2019ll follow that up with some new beers every couple of months. We\u2019re planning a number of 10- to 20-barrel one-offs and then a new full-time beer next summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

They plan on self-distributing and have already established a networking platform with regulars at the Thirsty Pig, the Portland pub and craft-beer hub where both work to supplement their brewing habit. \u201cPortland loves local,\u201d says Peter. \u201cIt\u2019s a really cool environment to be in. We eat and drink better than anywhere in the world, and it\u2019s affordable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saisons and sessions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Foundation Brewing Company, just next door to Bissell Brothers, projects full production this winter as well. Joel Mahaffey is 36, with a BA from Penn State where\u00a0 he majored in multimedia design. He started brewing about a decade ago. \u201cI got interested in craft beer and brewing just before I moved to Maine,\u201d he says. \u201cI was interested in all different types of beer, and once I started making my own\u2013I made my way through all the different kits from the Natural Living Center in Bangor and then developed my own recipes\u2013it quickly spiraled out of control. I met my partner in this business, John Bonney, a few years ago. We are both brewers and had always dreamed about doing this for work. We started putting Foundation together about two years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joel and John moved to Industrial Way in July and have their own renovations underway. \u201cMost of the space will be for production,\u201d says Joel. \u201cThere is a small office here that we\u2019ll be building out into a tasting room for samples and growlers. We\u2019ll offer tours of the production area as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo start, we\u2019re launching two beers, a saison [a broad term meaning, roughly, medium-alcohol Belgian-style summer ale] called Eddy and a saison\/India Pale Ale hybrid, Blaze. We\u2019ll be adding two or three other beers to the line-up as soon as we can, maybe after three to six months. Our focus is on high flavor and aroma without making beers that are overly\u00a0 strong. We enjoy the option to drink more than one beer in a sitting without being sloshed as a result. We plan to make a wide range of beer styles, some of which will be stronger than a typical session [low-alcohol] beer, but most of our beers will be session-able.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foundation is in small-batch production after a series of expected delays. \u201cNothing happens as quickly as you think it will,\u201d Joel says. Fortunately, between hanging drywall and painting, he\u2019s made time to put some brew together, a small victory.<\/p>\n

Banded in Biddeford<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ian McConnell, founder of Banded Horn Brewing Company, started brewing with his cousin and business partner, Ron Graves, in 2005. \u201cWe started brewing together in Maine,\u201d says Ian, where they both grew up. \u201cA few years later I moved to New York City and got involved with Sixpoint Brewery in Brooklyn. That really awoke my passion.\u201d He began as an unpaid intern and rose through the ranks there.<\/p>\n

While grateful for his experience, Ian, 33, always fantasized about taking the wheel to change and improve different beers. When he and his wife, Celia McConnell, had their daughter they decided to move back to Maine. \u201cI didn\u2019t have many prospects,\u201d he says. \u201cI could either find a way to be self-employed or try to find something else.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaine is a great place to make beer,\u201d he continues. \u201cIn general, people care about drinking local more than most states. The craft beer scene has gotten exponentially better in the last five years. We chose our location in Biddeford because of the mill. Doug Sanford, our landlord, has been really supportive and took a risk on a startup. The space is fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and Celia started the brewery at home, working for months on a business plan and financing. They moved Banded Horn into Pepperell Mill in July, and Ian has been at the large and ancient industrial facility nearly every day. Between stripping tall wooden structural columns, cleaning large industrial windows, and tearing down walls, the team is preparing to install equipment and set up a tasting bar and refrigerators for specialty beers.<\/p>\n

In the coming months, Banded Horn will be introducing two brews. Eldir is the team\u2019s rauch (smoked) beer. Ian already has it on tap for friendly and curious visitors. The brew is dark and possibly intimidating for craft-beer newbies, but the flavor is both lighter and richer than you might expect. Veridian, an India Pale Ale, promises a clean, dry finish with moderate hops.<\/p>\n

Portland and environs are something of a hub for startups. Advertising agencies, graphic-design houses, publishers, and restaurateurs have found a backdrop for creative endeavors here. People really do buy local, a factor that has led to success for many. The same qualities that make the area a great place to start a creative company contribute to the ongoing boom of beer culture.\u00a0 n<\/p>\n

Crafting Females<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ashley Fendler presses cranberries for Oly\u2019s Imperial stout at Allagash Brewing Company in Portland. She is one of about a dozen women on the staff there.<\/p>\n

There are lots of women involved in the business of beer\u2013in tasting rooms, accounting, sales, and as beer writers and advocates\u2013but how about as brewers?<\/p>\n

Deedee Germain moved to Maine about 10 years ago. Working at Flatbread Company on Commercial Street, coworkers recommended she try Allagash White as an introduction to craft beer. \u201cI never considered myself much of a beer drinker before that,\u201d she notes. \u201cI took my first sip and it blew my mind. I was like, \u2018This doesn\u2019t taste like beer!\u2019\u201d At the time, Germain was looking to build a new career. With no experience in brewing, she called Allagash and asked for a job. \u201cThey said no. But over the next couple of weeks, I came in, took a tour, kept tasting beer and meeting new people. They called me back and asked me if I still wanted to work with them and I said yes. I trained from the ground up.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Maine, female brewers are hard to find, though Germain says women are coming into the industry more and more as it grows. \u201cBeing a brewer is a very demanding job. Especially at a small brewery. Fifty-pound bags of grain come\u00a0 in and you have to lift them. You have to lug 160-pound kegs around. I think that may keep a lot of women out of the business because they see these physical requirements and question their ability to do this kind of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rising Tide<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rising Tide Brewing Company at 103
\nFox Street is a small-batch brewery with a tasting bar open four days a week, tours on Saturday afternoon, and retail in 22-ounce bottles. risingtidebrewing.com<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bunker<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bunker Brewing Company at 122 Anderson Street, Portland, is a micro-brewery featuring experimental, traditional, and seasonal beers available on draft locally, in tastings, and in 64-ounce growlers on site. bunkerbrewingco.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Winterguide 2014
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