Maine craft brewers ‘own the backyard’ – but beer-making business is on a new playing field

A bartender pours a beer at the Bissell Brothers Brewing Company’s tap room in Portland. Brewers have been slow to roll out “hazy” brews, an industry consultant told the New England Craft Brew Summit on Thursday. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer file Maine craft beer makers have locked down the state’s market for suds – but need to react nimbly in order to maintain that position, a beverage expert warned Thursday at an industry conference in Portland. “You own the backyard,” consultant Bump Williams told the New England Craft Brew Summit at the Holiday Inn by the Bay. Maine brewers have adapted rapidly to changing consumer preferences, but those changes are only going to speed up and intensify, Williams said. At the same time, he predicted, large multinational brewers will step up their efforts to retain shares of a market that is increasingly fragmenting. Williams said some of the most profitable tools Maine brewers have are their brewpubs and tasting rooms. The state’s beer makers have done a masterful job of getting people to stop by to taste the latest creation, he said. “We don’t really see that anywhere else,” he said. Still, he cautions, brewers should strike a delicate balance […]

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