Yankee Brew News Archive

Independence Day Could Mark Debut of New Hampshire's Newest Microbrewery

Originally Published: 04/96

By: Tom Ayres

A group of New Hampshire investors, allied under the banner of New Hampshire Custom Brewers, Inc., is predicting it will have its beer in coolers by the Fourth of July.

Although a representative of the firm would not comment, the confident projection seems a strong indication that a company stock offering, first made public last October, is going well. The offering was noted in the last issue of Yankee Brew News in a article discussing the entry of craft brew into the stock market.

"The goal is to emulate beer styles that have been highly successful in a very mature and competitive market--the Pacific Northwest," said Kevin Boyle, president of Merrimac Corporate Securities, Inc., the Windham-based investment bankers who are handling the stock offering for New Hampshire Custom Brewers.

The company's attraction to beers from the Northwest is driven in part by its president, Dr. Arthur Lyford, a Hollis, New Hampshire, dentist and homebrewer, who lived in Oregon for 13 years and developed a strong affinity for regional craft brews. Not surprisingly, New Hampshire Custom Brewers expects one of its first beers, tentatively dubbed Loon Pale Ale, to be a "British-style pale ale in the Northwest tradition," according to Boyle. (Hopheads, take note!)

If all goes according to plan, New Hampshire Custom Brewers will also offer a second beer that has not, to this reporter's knowledge, been proffered by a New England-based microbrewery to date: hefe-weizen, or traditional, German-style wheat beer, unfiltered, naturally conditioned, and bottled mit hefe or "on the yeast."

"Hefe-weizens are extremely popular in other parts of the country right now," said Boyle, citing the Pacific Northwest and New York-New Jersey markets as hotbeds for the phenolic, spicy, yeasty brews. "Our intention is to brew beers that will be popular and marketable, but also to bring new beers into the regional mix as well." New Hampshire Custom Brewers hopes to begin this effort with the hefe-weizen, then follow a common microbrewery marketing strategy by introducing seasonal beers such as Oktoberfest and Scottish ale, Boyle added.

Although a location for the new brewery hasn't been firmly established, Boyle said the company is zeroing in on the Manchester, New Hampshire, area. "They have the right infrastructure there in terms of services and solid, old buildings that could be readily outfitted," he noted. The prospectus for the stock offering indicates that New Hampshire Custom Brewers has a commitment from DME Brewing Services of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, to engineer a 28-barrel brewing system.

The prospectus also projects that the brewhouse will be operational within four months of the close of the offering and that its first product will be available approximately six months after the closing. The offering remains open, suggesting that the July 1996 target date for putting New Hampshire Custom beer on the shelves may be a bit ambitious.

One piece of news bodes well for distribution of the beers once they do hit the market, however: New Hampshire Custom Brewers has letters of intent from two of New Hampshire's largest Anheuser-Busch wholesalers--Bellvance Beverage of Nashua and New Hampshire Distributors of Concord--to distribute its products. Distribution discussions are under way with three other distributors in Anheuser-Busch channels, Boyle said. Initial distribution will be to markets from southern New Hampshire north to the Lakes Region and in northeastern Massachusetts.

Pull quote:

Although a location for the new brewery hasn't been firmly established, the company is zeroing in on the Manchester area.