Look at a map of the Maine Beer Trail and it’s easy to pick out the dot that represents Monhegan Brewing Co.
It’s the only one in the water.
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Owners Danny McGovern and Matt and Mary Weber have grappled with a unique set of problems since they opened the brewery in July 2013. The brewery is 10 miles out to sea on an island with only 69 year-round residents, and customers need a boat or a ferry ticket to reach it.
All supplies – including pallets of grain, glassware, two 700-pound fermenters and the lumber to build the two-story building that houses the brewery – came to the island on the mail boat from Port Clyde, then were trucked from the ferry landing to the brewery location. Those freight costs average about $600 per month, which means they have to charge more for beer.
“That’s just part of living on an island,” said Mary Weber. “It’s sort of understood that it’s going to be a little more expensive here, because of what it takes to get here.”
Recycling as much as possible has also been a big priority. Trash bags cost $10 apiece on the island.
The 1,000 pounds of spent grains the brewery creates every eight to 10 days (each time a batch of beer is made), are given to The Monhegan Island Farm Project, which uses them for compost. The farm grows hops, which the brewery takes and uses to make its Island Farm Double IPA. And the empty grain bags? A local resident sews them into tote bags, which are then sold from the Monhegan Brewing Co. tasting room.
Getting supplies and getting rid of waste – endemic to any island business operation – have been relatively simple problems to solve, albeit expensive. The bigger challenge is: How do you keep the business relevant all year to consumers who are a body of water away?
It didn’t make sense to try to extend the season by opening earlier than May or closing later than October since after Columbus Day there’s only one ferry stop per day. Additionally, Matt’s a lobsterman and fishes from October to June.
Initially, Weber and her partners planned to distribute their brews to retailers and restaurants. But the logistics turned out to be too expensive and complicated to execute.
So they switched gears and worked on drawing more customers to the island.
“Rather than focusing on getting beer out there to restaurants and stores, we decided to focus on getting people to come here,” Weber said, and getting the most revenue from the six months the brewery is open to the public.
Monhegan Brewing Co. tapped into other beer networks with large, well-established followings of customers. That meant getting a spot on the Maine Brewers’ Guild beer trail map, tagging Maine Hop Yard on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts, and encouraging consumers to check in on Facebook during island visits.
“Monhegan really attracts people who are interested in buying local,” she said.
The owners also participated in events like the Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Across America, and the Maine Craft Weekend on the mainland, to increase visibility of the brand.
This past summer they also started offering ginger beer and root beer to broaden their appeal to families and to people who don’t drink alcohol.
“This ended up being huge,” said Weber.
They also name all of their beers after Monhegan landmarks – the Dead Man’s Cove IPA, Lobster Cove American Pale Ale and Shipwreck IPA. The hope is that “beer drinkers who have a certain love, revelry or curiosity about Monhegan will be attracted it,” she said.
All those strategies seem to be working. This past season, roughly 20,000 customers came through the brewery, double the amount of traffic of the first season. Tourists who had come to check out island birding or the artists’ studios flocked to the brewery after exploring the island, Weber said.
“People who hadn’t heard that we were here would finish their hike, see a sign for the brewery, come in and say, ‘How did you know that this is exactly what we wanted right now right here?’ “
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