E-Malt.com News article: USA, ME & NH: Sea Dog Brewing Co. to open its first New Hampshire location this fall

Sea Dog Brewing Co. plans to open its first New Hampshire location in North Conway this fall, expanding its northern New England footprint beyond its Bangor, South Portland and Topsham pubs, Bangor Daily News reported on July 28.

Jim Bunting, operations manager for the company acquired by Shipyard Brewing owner Fred Forsley more than a decade ago, said in a prepared statement that “it was a really quick decision” to move into the Mount Washington Valley, driven by the vacancy of an antique barn, a growing restaurant and brewery scene and access to local food sources.

The New Hampshire expansion follows on the approach the company has taken in opening pubs in Florida, where it last year opened pubs with small brewing operations supplemented by beer production done mostly in Bangor. The New Hampshire location is its sixth.

In Massachusetts, the Sea Dog brand has run into challenges, according to the Boston Business Journal. The publication reported a Sea Dog pub licensed but not run by Forsley and Pugsley in Woburn, Massachusetts, filed for bankruptcy earlier this month and other locations have reorganized or rebranded their operations.

The company said it plans to start construction this month on the new location in the Red Barn Shopping Center, which was originally the Moat Mountain House Inn in the 18th century. The antique barn became a shopping center in the 1970s.

Forsley and Shipyard brewer Alan Pugsley bought Sea Dog for $1.2 million in a bankruptcy sale more than a decade ago. The pair also acquired Casco Bay Brewing Co. in 2008.


30 July, 2014