USA, ME: Two new breweries coming to Washington County in Maine

Craft beer-making may be on tap for the first time in two thirsty Washington County locations, Mainebiz reported on May 3.

A pair of breweries are preparing to launch in Eastport and Machias, and the startups would be the first beer producers in their respective communities. Owners of both businesses view the Downeast region beyond Ellsworth as an underserved market where there’s plenty of potential patronage from locals and visitors.

Horn Run Brewing

At 75 Water St. in Eastport, Lisa and Jeff Smith plan to open Horn Run Brewing by Memorial Day weekend.

“We’re within weeks of opening,” Lisa Smith told Mainebiz.

The couple comes at the venture from surprising angles.

Lisa, a Calais native, worked at Dead River Co. in Calais for 17 years, first as office manager and then as general manager.

Over the past five years, Jeff, an Eastport native, has worked at the St. Croix Tissue mill in nearby Baileyville, where he was shift supervisor. Before that, he worked on the Eastport waterfront, fishing with his father.

The two have been together for about five years. They share a passion for visiting breweries in Maine and beyond. Now that their children are older, the couple said they had an opportunity to pursue their dream of starting a brewery.

Jeff has done home brewing for a long time. The couple began researching the transition from home brewing to commercial production about a year ago, and had their eye on the business model before that, Lisa said.

“It was something that was desperately needed in this area,” she said. “An opportunity arose and we went for it.”

That opportunity came in several forms. The couple had capital to acquire some equipment that was available in Calais through a bank foreclosure. The Smiths initially looked at locations in Calais, but some fell through and others weren’t the right fit.

In December, the Smiths reached out to a friend who had acquired 75 Water St., a historic building along Eastport’s working waterfront, and was starting to renovate it. She wanted to recruit a business for the storefront portion of about 2,000 square feet, which was formerly occupied by a bakery.

“So we reached out to her and were able to sign a lease,” Lisa said.

Between the lease, equipment and permits, the Smiths will have invested close to $80,000 by the time they open. The couple has financed the venture so far with cash from the sale of a boat and dipping into their 401(k)s.

Their equipment includes a two-barrel brewhouse, two fermenters and two “bright tanks,” which refine the brew.

The beer will go into kegs initially, for sale at the taproom they’re fitting up and also to sell to several restaurants in Eastport and Calais that have so far expressed interest, Lisa said. There will also be outdoor seating at the brewery.

The couple owns a small canner to eventually can the product. The goal is to increase capacity enough by this coming fall to offer both canned beer and wholesale kegged beer in Washington County.

“The taproom is the highlight of our business because it’s such a beautiful building,” she said. “We’ve put a lot of time and effort into making it a nice environment to sit down and enjoy looking at the waterfront.”

Interior décor includes a live-edge wood bar and tables, embossed tin ceilings and new hardwood floors.

Also on offer will be branded merchandise. In fact, the brewery has already received a lot of response for its T-shirts, hoodies and hats.

“Before we’ve even sold beer, we’ve been selling some our merchandise,” she said.

They use a Westbrook screen-printing company, 320 Ink LLC, to produce the merchandise.

Employees will at first be family members, including the couple’s children and Jeff’s mother.

The Smiths anticipate a busy summer at the taproom, which will be open year-round, at least on weekends.

“Everyone’s got a relative in Eastport,” she said. “It’s a lot of people who have moved away and make the summer vacation trip coming back.”

In addition, she noted, there’s been a boom of out-of-staters moving to the area over the past year.

With a growing cluster of breweries in the area, including Lubec Brewing Co., founded in 2015, Smith said the area has great potential to expand its imprint as a destination on the Maine Beer Trail. Eastport’s monthly summer art walks and festivals will likely also bring in customers, she said.

Brews will be somewhat seasonal, starting with lighter beers this summer, including India pale ales and a fruity French Saison.

“Because we brew in small batches our turnaround time is good,” she said.

Giving up her regular job for the new venture was “definitely a leap of faith,” said Lisa. “But with the response and how this is coming together, we’re really pleased so far. We acknowledge the risk, but we thought it would be worth it.”

Bad Little Brewing

At 101 Court St. in Machias, Kathryn Toppan and her husband Shawn Lent plan to launch Bad Little Brewing in a phased roll-out in, piece by piece in the building.

The goal is have the brewery operational by July, open a taproom in August and open a restaurant in September.

“We have contractors lined up and ready to go,” said Toppan.

Toppan has been an English teacher at Deering High School in Portland for 22 years. Lent has taught social studies for 10 years; the past seven years have been at Falmouth High School.

Like the Smiths, they share a passion for craft beer.

“We’ve been enjoying craft beer since before there was a craft beer scene in Maine,” she said.

As that scene started developing, “We became beer tourists,” she said. “We would go around Maine, New Hampshire — anytime we were traveling around the United States, we would seek out craft breweries.”

In February 2019, they bought a camp in Whiting, two towns north of Machias. As teachers, they had summers off and spent that time at their camp.

“We never wanted to leave,” Toppan said. “We love the area. We love how down-to-earth it is.”

She continued, “The only thing we missed in Portland was the amazing food and drinks. We’re wicked foodies. When we did go to Portland, we’d spend an ungodly amount of money on food and drinks. So we decided we’d bring that up here.”

In July 2019, they settled on the concept of starting a craft brewery, taproom and farm-to-table restaurant. The couple set about teaching themselves how to brew, developed a business plan, bought a small brewhouse and looked at potential locations around the region. They found 101 Court St., which they bought through a foreclosure auction. The transaction closed about a week ago.

The property, built in 1868, is called the Clark Perry House and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Built in the Italianate style, it includes a main house and an attached barn. It formerly housed the Beehive Design Collective, a well-known arts organization in Machias.

“We knew right away it was where we wanted to be,” said Toppan. “The layout lends itself well to what we want do.”

The structure is sound but the exterior and interior need work, she added.

The couple sold their house in Portland last summer to move to Whiting and have cash to put into the business, she said.

Now they’re working out the rest of the funding needed to launch. For full build-out across the three phases, the project is expected to cost over $900,000, according to Toppan.

The couple were approved for small business loans from the Northern Maine Development Commission and the Eastern Maine Development Commission, each providing $250,000. Toppan and Lent also applied for a Coastal Enterprises Inc. loan of $50,000 and were waiting for a final answer as of last Friday.

And on May 12, Machias voters will decide whether to authorize the town to apply for a $180,000 Community Development Block Grant on the behalf of the new business.

The plan also includes renovating part of the house as a vacation rental unit to generate an additional income stream, she added.

The Maine Historic Preservation Commission has approved the project.

“We have most of our funding,” Toppan said. “If it turns out we’re short on funding and can’t open the restaurant yet, then we’ll retool the business plan.”

03 May, 2021