By: Sam Margolin, Staff Writer
It was a crisp bright autumn Saturday at the Maine Lakes Brewfest at Point Sebago Camp Ground in Sebago, Maine. Over 3000 attendees came to sample beers from 31 different New England breweries and 15 local food vendors. While some of the more recognizable breweries were present such as Allagash, Shipyard and Sam Adams, brewfests like this provide a stage for smaller breweries such as newcomer Bear Bones Brewing from Lewiston or Bigelow Brewing from Skowhegan.
In its 14 years, the Maine Lakes Brew Fest has helped beer business become a thriving economic force in Maine. According to the Maine Brewers Guild, Maine has seen a 40 percent increase in breweries from 36 in 2004 to 89 in 2016. Volunteers such as Korey A. Morgan, a student at Tufts University and a native of Greenwood, Maine, are excited about events that celebrate the thriving beer culture in Maine.
“Brew festivals like the one on Sebago Lake,” Morgan said, “are important platforms for small scale craft brewers and microbreweries that lack the resources to fund comprehensive marketing campaigns to interact directly with potential customers, and to raise awareness of their products,”
The Greater Bridgton Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce sponsored the brewfest. Organizations such as this are crucial to connecting and exposing Maine breweries in their communities. Sue Mercer, the Executive Director of the Chamber, said that the event benefits all the local businesses not just the breweries. “The brewfest brings people from as far away as Texas and North Carolina,” Mercer said. For people to come for the beer and stay for everything else is the real goal of events like this. Connecting tourist attractions like breweries to the communities they live in benefits all facets of Maine’s economy.
This idea was behind the creation of the University of Southern Maine’s new Quality Control Laboratory, or QC2. The director of QC2, Lucille Benedict, an Associate Professor of Chemistry at USM, in collaboration with the Maine Brewers Guild, created the lab in March 2016. The Maine Brewers Guild (MBG), headed by Executive Director, Sean Sullivan, is a nonprofit trade association working to promote and protect Maine’s beer brewers. The MBG works with the government on issues that impact brewers and the beer business, acts as spokesperson for the industry and promotes brewers through unique events. The MBG helped create the lab to help Maine breweries have a place to test samples for quality control on a fee-per-sample basis as well as to provide training for brewers and future industry techs.
As the beer industry grows in Maine, the need to produce a consistent quality product becomes critical.
“This requires an understanding of the science behind beer, and putting processes in place to ensure the beer, and the ingredients used to make beer are being tested before, during, and after the brewing process,” Sullivan said.
The lab provides students with a unique experience where they can independently work on research projects and learn new techniques on how to test chemical materials such as beer.
Some students, like Nicolas Mesloh, a class of 2019 Human Biology Major, have research projects studying optimal brewing techniques in the QC2 lab. Mesloh is currently researching the effect of metal ions on the physiology of brewers’ yeast, and the effect on fermentation and growth rates.
“Research gives me an opportunity to apply what I am learning in my coursework at USM. It’s a good motivator; working in a lab makes high-level academics immediately relevant to my day-to-day life,” said Mesloh.
The lab also provides testing for local breweries at a fraction of the cost of other professional testing companies. Professor Benedict said, “students gain lab skills, experience similar to internships, communication, and public speaking skills and get to experience how to write grants and research papers. For the breweries, this lab provides a resource for quality control testing and education.” The lab has future plans to expand testing services for brewers as well as create more opportunities for students from a variety of majors to help run the lab.
Sean Sullivan is looking to the future of the industry by trying to overcome some of the potential hurdles. “We are in the golden age of beer right now, and the biggest problem most Maine brewers have is making enough beer to meet demand,” Sullivan said, “that said, certain regulatory issues, supply chain challenges and threats of the conglomerate brewers like AB-InBev and SAB Miller threaten our growth.”
As the Maine brew business becomes a staple in the Pine Tree State, the future looks promising as long as community leaders, educators, students and brewers continue to work together.