USA, ME: Bath Ale Works expected to launch in Bath this summer
Just months after Bath’s first brewery opened up on Front Street, a second brewery seems set to call the City of Ships home, the Times Record reported on June 5.
Pepper Powers said that he is moving to Phippsburg this summer to establish the Bath Ale Works on State Street in Bath. The announcement comes on the heels of Bath Brewing Company opening its doors in the city earlier this year.
Powers is working with property owner Mark Sewell on developing a property at 8 State St. to house the brewery, along with a coin-operated laundry and exercise facility. Sewell’s plans were scheduled to be discussed at a Bath Planning Board meeting at 6 p.m. on June 5 at city hall.
The building that used to stand on that lot — the former home of the Bath Bus Company — was intentionally burned down last month during a training exercise for area firefighters.
According to planning board documents, Sewell intends to have two buildings constructed on the 1.1-acre property. One building will house the exercise center and Laundromat, while the second building will be entirely dedicated to the 3,162-square-foot brewery and tasting room.
“It’s relatively small,” said Powers, “but we want to start small … and see how the market does and how the community reacts to us.”
One of the difficulties of bringing a brewery to Bath, he said, was simply finding space in the city.
“From my own experience, we actually had a rough time finding an appropriate place to actually open,” Powers said. “Especially other cities that we’ve been to, microbreweries tend to open in industrial areas where there are lots of closed warehouses and things like that, and it seems like Bath just doesn’t have that type of facility available.”
However, with help from a Bath official, Powers was connected with Sewell and the property on State Street.
“That’s an area that’s been underdeveloped in the past,” said Director of Planning & Development Andrew Deci, who said the project falls in line with what the city would like to see develop in that area.
“I would say that’s an area that we have intended for commercial development — highway-oriented commercial usage where people are coming in cars and leaving in their cars,” he said. “We’re open to anyone who’s excited to bring an entrepreneurial idea to Bath.”
If the project is approved, Powers said construction could take place this summer with the brewery opening by the end of the year.
“If everything goes exactly right for us — which I can guarantee it won’t — we would be hoping to be opening in the November/December time frame,” he said, noting it might take until early next year.
Originally from Old Orchard Beach, Powers currently lives in the Washington, D.C. area, where he’s worked at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center since 1989. However, he and his wife, Jean, are preparing to move back to Maine permanently this summer so they can work on establishing Sagadahoc County’s next commercial brewery.
The couple have had a home in Phippsburg since 2005.
“We love the area,” said Powers. “I decided it’s time to do something fun, and brewing in Bath seemed like the right thing to do.”
He’s been a homebrewer since the early-’90s, when some of his colleagues introduced him to the hobby. It may seem like a jump going from NASA to brewing, but Powers said that the science of brewing is part of what makes it so appealing.
“I have a science background, and I really enjoy a lot of the chemistry and biology that goes on in creating beer,” he said. “And besides that, it’s a wonderful beverage.
“It’s just a lot of fun, caught my interest, and I’ve put a lot of time and effort into learning how to do it right,” Powers added. “It’s just kind of grown from there.”
Powers said he’s looking to start out with 6-8 brews on tap.
“The general theme is actually going to be kind of like a return to some of the original styles: Pales ales, the original definition of IPA, lagers, stouts,” said Powers. “I do have a couple of unique ones. There’s a spruce ale I make that’s pretty good — I’ve actually made it with spruce tips from the Phippsburg peninsula.”
Specifically, Powers is hoping to make a space for himself in Maine’s crowded craft brewery scene by branching out beyond the IPAs that dominate many of his would-be competitors.
“A lot of current microbreweries … tend toward the IPA, and that’s fine. I love IPAs myself,” he said. “But I go to a lot of microbreweries … and it seems like that’s all they’re serving are variations of IPAs. I just want to give people a broader choice and a broader experience of the types of beers that are out there.
“We’re really looking forward to this (and) we’re really hoping we can pull this off,” added Powers. “We’re looking forward to bring something that Bath doesn’t have right now and becoming a significant part of the community.”
05 June, 2018
