To the Editor:
I would like to give Steam Mill Brewing and Sunday River Brewing Company a lot of credit for how they have both come so far in Maine’s brewing culture. I would like to do this because Maine has more breweries than any other state in the country and the brewing scene has grown about 350% in the past ten years.

There are clearly many reasons why breweries thrive in this beautiful state but one is due to a legislative change that happened in the early 2010s that made small breweries able to sell beer without it being packaged. It’s not a well-known fact that small breweries are a very large part of Maine’s growing economy and in 2018 alone Maine’s brewing scene added almost $260 million dollars to Maine’s economy.

Both Steam Mill Brewing and Sunday River Brewing Company deserve a lot of credit for becoming very successful in the Bethel area, being the only two breweries in the area. Steam Mill Brewing especially, because the company was born in 2018, survived the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown, and is still thriving in the community, having just recently opened a restaurant on the Sunday River Road.

Sunday River Brewing Company was born in 1993 before the legislative change, but it has been thriving in its current location since the opening of the building, even with the changing of owners a few times since its opening.

Jordan Berry

Newry