NEW GLOUCESTER — Barely a month after opening its seventh location in Brunswick, Brickyard Hollow Brewing Co. opened its eighth brewpub in New Gloucester over Memorial Day.

Just a few weeks into June and business was jumping at the former Nu Brewery, ringing up some 225 customers on a Wednesday night in this town of 5,600. It’s a jump-start with weekend numbers even more impressive.

The New Gloucester location is much more than just another brewpub selling craft beer and craft pizza though, with a 30-barrel brewing setup part of the acquisition of Nu Brewery.

The added brewing capacity is the real gem, greatly expanding the chain’s brewing output and ability to supply all eight locations with its line of craft brew, something the original Yarmouth location couldn’t do because it only has a five-barrel capacity.

“As we grew, we couldn’t keep up with the brewing there (Yarmouth), so we found some really good partners who could help us with what we call contract brewing,” Brickyard co-founder and President Brad Moll said, “but we’ve been very eager to get back to doing all our own brewing again. It was important for us.”

Contract brewing comes with a cost, but for small or expanding breweries who aren’t ready to make the capital investment for the infrastructure — like fermenters, brew kettles, mash turns, chillers, a canning line and more — contract brewing is a great alternative. The third party uses the brewery’s recipes and in some cases their ingredients to produce their brews.

After three years of contracting most of their brewing, Brickyard Hollow’s head brewer in New Gloucester, Worth Hamilton, fired up the brewery the first week in June.

“We’ve done two brews so far, and you know that’s going to continue to grow every week at this point,” Moll said. “We’re just really sort of dialing in the system and you know, figuring out things that we need to do for our beers.”

They expect to have enough beer brewed to end their contract brewing relationship in two months. That means all the kegs, bottles and cans of Brickyard Hollow beer will now be supplied out of New Gloucester. A new 5,000-square-foot warehouse is being added to accommodate storage and distribution needs.

Moll said they’ll have nine beers on tap in the restaurant at any one time, and over the past five years in business, they’ve brewed about 40 different beers, some one-off brews, some seasonal and some brewed once a year. “We brew a beer, actually we just brewed it last week, for a clam festival in Yarmouth,” Moll said. “It’s called Aww Shucks and we brew it once a year. It’s only for the clam festival so you know we have things like that.”

Without having to contract out their brewing, Brickyard Hollow can increase its profit margin and the company will have more capacity than it needs, which opens the door to the shoe being on the other foot — doing contract brewing for other breweries.

MORE GROWTH BREWING

In it’s latest assessment of the craft brew industry, the Brewers Association, a not-for-profit national trade association, said overall craft production volumes were roughly even year-over-year in 2022, with distributed sales down, with the exception of nonalcoholic brews, which was up. The group cites factors like competition from canned cocktails and fewer people from Generation Z — those born between 1997-2012 — drinking alcohol, among the reasons.

The growth, the association said, is in taprooms and brewpubs, which saw a combined rate of 7% in 2022. Taprooms in particular are known for their focus on community, hosting charity events and connecting their customers to each other and the local community. That is something Moll said Brickyard Hollow has taken to heart and made a part of its mission in all its communities.

“When I started this company,” he said, “my entire mission was to have a little craft brewery on Main Street in Yarmouth and use it as a vehicle to give back to the community. That was the whole point.”

In New Gloucester, there is room to grow, Moll said without hesitation, drawing customers from Lewiston and Auburn to the north to Gray and North Yarmouth and even Yarmouth to the south. They added a kitchen and offer pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, salads and other items. There’s an outside deck with a bar, a stage for live music, cornhole games and of course, a nine-hole disc golf course.

“It’s set up for expansion already to add more fermentation vessels … So we can continue to grow within the space for the foreseeable future,” Moll said.

Shea Cusick, the new executive director of the Maine Brewers Guild, said the craft beer industry in Maine has a wide variety of business models to match an equally wide variety of brewers’ interests and business plans. “Our 136 craft breweries contribute significantly to the economy in Maine, yet we make only 13.1% of the beer consumed in Maine. That tells me that we have a significant amount of growth we can still achieve.”

So, Cusick doesn’t think the craft brew market is oversaturated here. Yet, she acknowledges the pressure on the industry from “new categories” of beverages on the market and out-of-state big beer makers. “Maine’s brewers are a creative bunch,” she said. “They know that the industry is maturing and that competition to stand out is stiffer.”

Earlier this month, word got out that Brickyard Hollow had leased 180 Main St., in Biddeford, which Moll confirmed is set to open in 2024, just down the street from Cowbell Burger Bar, Banded Brewing and a host of other breweries and eateries.

“I am always pleased to hear about and celebrate the ways our breweries find to expand production or grow,” Cusick said of Brickyard Hollow’s expansion. “I also want to celebrate and acknowledge the ones that creatively find ways to stay competitive without having an expansion model. These small, mostly rural breweries make up almost half of our membership,” she added.

Beyond Biddeford, one might wonder what’s on tap for Brickyard. Is there more expansion in Maine or perhaps another state?

Moll would only say it’s possible, and that they’ve looked and talked to people about other options. “We’re sort of finding our way through these other options,” he said, “keeping all the, you know, options out and considering everything.”

Moll and his vice president of operations, Brendon Medeiros, said they’ve had good luck when it comes to staffing at all their locations, which they attribute to a good culture, treating their people well and being a fun place to work.

“We have a great product,” Medeiros said, “a great craft beer, great craft pizza, that’s really, you know the two things that really drive us, and our engagement in our communities that we get into.”

“We’re certainly not done, there’s no doubt about that,” Moll declared, which is something to keep in mind if you’re hungry for a craft beer from Maine and a pizza.

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