Yankee Brew News Archive

Bar Harbor: A Beer Lover's Paradise in Downeast Maine

Originally Published: 07/95

By: Karen Kane

Bar Harbor, Maine sits at the edge of Mount Desert Island; it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and surrounded by Acadia National Park. From 1796-1916, the town was officially known as "Eden". Romantics say the name refers to the beauty of the place.

But the beer lovers consider Bar Harbor paradise of another kind. The small town supports two microbreweries, Bar Harbor Brewing company and Soda Works, and Atlantic Brewing Company, which between them produce a dozen unique and tasty beers. The third brewery, Maine Coast Brewing, will open a brewpub in the center of town this spring.

Bar Harbor's brewing history began in 1990 when Tod and Suzi Foster established Bar Harbor Brewing. Not only were Tod and Suzi the first commercial brewers on the island, but they were the first successful cottage brewers in the Northeast. In the New England tradition of cottage industry, the Fosters operate Bar Harbor Brewing from their home. The couple live and work in a tan clapboard house a few miles south of Bar Harbor. Tod brews the beer, and Suzi runs the business. They attend to every detail of the operation personally.

"Our office is in the kitchen, the brewery is in the basement," says Suzi. "It's impossible to get away from it."

And aside from an occasional vacation, they don't want to. The idea of operating a successful brewery on their own terms has occupied Tod and Suzi since they moved back home to Bar Harbor from California in the 1980s.

Tod's background is in marine biology; Suzi's combines business with restaurant work. When they couldn't find jobs that made use of their skills, they decided to create a business that did. They identified microbrewing as a western trend on its way east, and set about opening a brewery.

To keep costs down, they operated out of their home, and began on a small scale. The first year they brewed in 10 gallon batches, in a brewing area so small that Tod, 6'3", couldn't fully stand up. He fermented the beer in a closet heated with Christmas tree lights, and used extract because there wasn't room for grain storage or extra vessels.

Response to their beer was overwhelming, and they soon expanded from one local restaurant account to seven. Three years later, their beer is now available in pubs and stores throughout central Maine.

They also sell a sizable amount of beer at home. On summer afternoons as many as a hundred of the area's vacationers stop by for tours and tasting. Suzi greets them in the gift shop and hospitality cabin, where she conducts a tasting and gives a brief history of the business. Then Tod takes guests on a tour of the brewing area and answers questions about the technical side of the process.

Tod brews six barrels a week, producing up to 250 barrels of beer a year. He uses a new four-barrel brewing system and is in the process of switching from extract to grains. Each week Tod makes two barrels with extract and four barrels with grain, then blends them among three fermenters. He says he'll proceed in this direction as long as the beers retain their quality; he refuses to sacrifice flavor for a "whole grain label."

The beers--Thunder Hole Ale, Cadillac Mountain stout, Harbor Light--are sold in 22 ounce bottles and bottle conditioned. They are named for local geographic phenomena, both the sights and the beers are impressive.

Cadillac Mountain is the island's highest peak. The view from the top offers a panorama of land and sea. Cadillac Mountain Stout is rich, full-bodied beer whose creation dates back to Tod's days as a homebrewer. Ingredients include roasted barley, chocolate malt and "lots of hops." It has a malty start and a dry, Imperial Stout finish.

Thunder Hole Ale is named for a vertical slab of granite at the edge of the ocean that amplifies the sounds of incoming waves. The beer is a dry brown ale with rich red highlights and a slightly woody flavor. Harbor Lighthouse is a mild ale named after the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse.

While the Fosters draw visitors to the edge of Bar Harbor, Doug Maffucci packs them in downtown. Doug owns The Lompoc Cafe and Brewpub and Atlantic Brewing Company, an "alternative brewpub," which he opened in 1990. The Fosters sold their first batches of beer at the Lompoc Cafe. A year later, inspired by Tod and Suzi's success and brewpubs he had visited in Seattle, Doug decided to brew his own beer.

His first brewery was housed in a small room off the cafe bar. He recruited Roger Normand, a homebrewer, accountant, photographer, and cook at the Lompoc, as head brewer. In the beginning Roger brewed with extract, using a 42-gallon kettle and a two-barrel conditioning tank. Customers watched him through a window from the bar. "And if there was anything they didn't like about the beer," he recalls, "they let me know."

"The brewery was too small from the beginning," says Doug, and he added space and equipment as he could afford it. The next year he bought a four-barrel system and installed it upstairs in the building adjacent to the cafe. In 1993, the brewery moved downstairs, and Roger began brewing with a seven-barrel system.

Currently, Roger brews double batches three days a week. In 1994 he brewed 800 barrels in less than ten months. He uses 2 row malts, a variety of hop pellets, and Windsor powdered yeast.

Atlantic Brewing Company's flagship beer is Bar Harbor Real Ale. The clear, English amber has a malty aroma and a balance of malts and hops. It is available on tap at the Lompoc and area restaurants, and is sold in 12 ounce bottles in stores and restaurants throughout Maine. Four specialty beers--Ginger Wheat Ale, Coal Porter, Lompoc Pale Ale and Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale--are available in 22 ounce bottles.

Requests for Blueberry Ale come from as far away as California; it was the winner at the first annual Maine Brewers Festival last November. The ale is made from barley and the juice extracted from 200 pounds of fancy Maine blueberries. The juice is introduced during the boil, then again during the conditioning phase. As a result, the beer has a sweet aroma and a mild ale taste.

Ginger Wheat Ale is a refreshing, lightly carbonated beer with a lively aroma. Each batch contains twenty pounds of fresh ginger root and enough wheat to keep the body light. Coal Porter is a luscious combination of pale, crystal, chocolate, black, and Munich malts. It starts sweet and finishes dry, and has a rich roasted taste.

Roger also brews an assortment of seasonal and specialty beers. His Holiday Ale is spiced with cinnamon; once a year he makes Roger's Three Frog Stout. Scottish Ale and Belgian Triple have been popular with the cafe crowd, and new this year is an IPA.

Also new at Atlantic Brewing is a bottling operation that Doug describes as "the world's smallest counter-pressure bottle filler." The thriving cafe has been enlarged to include an outdoor beer garden and the first bocce court in Maine.

A block away from Atlantic Brewing and the Lompoc Cafe, at the end of a row of Victorian-style buildings, a 1950s-style Burger World is being transformed into the tap room for Tom St. Germain's newly established Maine Coast Brewing Company.

This is Tom's third attempt to open a brewery. "I'm thankful, I guess, that the others didn't work out, because now I'm sitting here in the center of Bar Harbor."

More than four million tourists visit Bar Harbor each year, and Tom couldn't be in a better position--logistically, anyway. Technically, he has a lot to do before the crowds descend. In February he was still waiting for his equipment and license to arrive. But he wasn't worried. In fact, he spoke as confidently as if the place had been there for years.

"This is the entree to the whole brewpub area. Here you'll sit at the bar. I've got hundreds of old beer ads, posters of people from the '50s drinking beer. Really, the inside of this place will blow you away."

Eight hundred square feet will enclose '50s memorabilia, a brass-topped bar and seven-barrel system that Tom designed as "a tribute to the Peter Austin system." Plate glass windows will showcase the brewpub's interior, and the mash tun and copper-domed kettle will be in full view.

"It remains to be seen how often we'll have to brew," says Tom, but given the brewpub's location and the popularity of the other breweries, he anticipates sales will be brisk. Maine Coast will be on tap at local restaurants, and growlers will be sold on-site.

Maine Coast's head brewer is Nathan Hills. Nathan previously worked for Doug and Roger at Atlantic Brewing. He plans four beers to start--a golden ale, a pale ale, a red ale, and a stout--and draft root beer. He hopes to brew seasonal beers as well.

There's no competition among Bar Harbor's breweries. All of the owners agree that what's good for one will benefit them all. Each offers the beer lover a unique setting and a variety of beers--which sounds like paradise to me.

For more information about Bar Harbor Brewing, call Tod and Suzi Foster at (207) 288-4592. To learn more about Atlantic Brewing, dial (207) 288-9513, and talk to either Doug Maffucci or Roger Normand. You can reach Tom St. Germain at Maine Coast Brewing at (207) 288-4914.

Pull quote:

More than four million tourists visit Bar Harbor each year.