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V O L . X X V I I N O. X I X S E P T E M B E R 6 , 2 0 2 1 22 S TA R T U P S / E N T R E P R E N E U R S H I P cheese on a donut, wanted to create a brewery that ultimately made his cus- tomers smile. He hired Abe Henderson-Brown, former head bartender at Leavitt eatre, to be the brewer. Henderson was at first hesitant since he didn't have any previous brewing experience. "I just told him 'Hey, it's like mak- ing really big cocktails,'" says Grey, who worked with him over the winter on initial recipes. e brewery offers eight beers on tap and monthly can releases. With table service for indoor/outdoor seating, they also offer food from Food for ought. With over 1,200 visitors on a recent summer week, they're proving a market for beers with a sweet take, like their green-hued pineapple tapache Berliner weisse, blended with sour sop nectar and green guava candy or their mango lassi- inspired beer. e craft beverage hub of Portland's East Bayside neighbor- hood continues to grow. is spring Belleflower Brewing Co. joined the pack. With an owner-brewer team that hales from Mass.'s popular Trillium Brewing Co., they're focused on small-batch iterations that use local ingredients. ey moved into former Brewery Extrava's space, uti- lizing the equipment of the brewery that closed last year, and purchased their own canning line. Opening a brewery during a pan- demic is tough enough, but owner of Bath Ale Works Pepper Powers was used to frustrations and delays. He'd been searching for the perfect loca- tion for the brewery, which is a play on Bath Iron Works, for five years. With several different buildings fall- ing through, he finally settled on the space on Bath Road in Wiscasset. F O C U S Playing off the sense of nostalgia found in favorite childhood candies, Jay Grey's Odd by Nature Brewing, which opened mid-June in Cape Neddick, focuses on ice cream IPAs, candy beers, pastry stouts and beer cocktails. Grey, right, and head brewer Abe Henderson are pictured in the tasting room at the Cape Neddick brewery. P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY N ew Maine craft beverage mak- ers are getting creative as they find new ways to stand out from the crowd. Niche styles, gluten-free and even alcohol-free options are some of the new focuses adding more variety to Maine's 150 craft breweries. While other brewers are adding alcohol to selt- zer, cider and kombucha for an on-trend twist to typical craft beverage offerings. Playing off the sense of nostalgia found in favorite childhood candies, Odd by Nature Brewing, which opened mid-June in Cape Neddick, focuses on ice cream IPAs, candy beers, pastry stouts and beer cocktails. Owner Jay Grey, who in 2019 opened Ogunquit's Food for ought gastropub, which also has an element of nostal- gia with comforting fusions like grilled Brewing niche businesses New breweries and distilleries are targeting more specialized markets B y C a t i e J o y c e - B u l a y

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