Author Kate Cone revisits New England's growing craft brewing industry
Photo / Patrick brancaccio
Kate Cone of Waterville is the author of “What's Brewing in New England: A Guide to Brewpubs and Craft Breweries,” published by Down East Books.
Author Kate Cone noticed a lot of changes in craft breweries and brewpubs since she published her first book on the topic in 1997. Neighborhoods embraced craft pubs, and craft brewing permeated the mainstream beer industry nationally. And then came the NPR news report that craft brewing is a $6 billion-plus business. It seemed time to revisit the subject and update her book, she told Mainebiz by phone during one of the recent blizzards.
“What's Brewing in New England: A Guide to Brewpubs and Craft Breweries,” was published last fall by Down East Books. The lawyer and mother of three tapped numerous resources in all six New England states for the book, which lists brewpubs and craft breweries by address and with a short description and history of each. Some, like Allagash, are known nationally, while others, like Fore River Brewing in South Portland, have neighbors beating a path to their door.
Cone counted 200 breweries or brewpubs, including multiple locations for some, in New England as she started writing her new book, and in one year's period, five alone opened in Maine. As her book went to print in 2016, the Brewers Association in Colorado said the number of craft breweries in the country had topped 4,200, up from the 3,000 in July 2015.
In the edited transcript that follows, she tells Mainebiz what's on tap.
Mainebiz: How did you become a beer writer?
Kate Cone: I worked for a law firm in Brunswick that represented Shipyard Brewing when they were just opening on Newbury Street in Portland. I have a law degree, but didn't pass the bar exam, so I couldn't go to court. So I ended up working as [Shipyard co-founder] Fred Forsley's assistant. I also was writing fiction and met a book agent who suggested I write a beer book. Down East published it.
MB: What's the biggest difference in the craft beer/brewery market between then and now?
KC: There were 25 craft breweries and brewpubs in all of Maine, including some with multiple locations like Gritty McDuff's. Six were in Portland. In the course of 2014 and 2015 when I was writing the new book, that grew to 90 in Maine. A lot of people went under in the late '90s. At the same time people in Maine were loving local, which is why Portland can support 13 tap rooms.
MB: How do Maine brewers stack up other New England states?
KC: Maine and Vermont are the two states that are over-the-top. Everybody is nuts about our [Maine] beer. Massachusetts has more than 150 breweries and at some breweries like Tree House people wait for hours in line for new releases, just like at Maine Beer and Bissell Brothers here. Rhode Island is growing as is Connecticut, which was slow to the game because a lot of import beer companies had their headquarters there, so the state's culture wasn't ready for craft beers for years.
MB: Have you caught the beer bug?
KC: When I wrote the first book it was like immersion journalism. I joined a brewers club and homebrewed. My sweet stout got a blue ribbon at the Common Ground Fair. I stopped for a while, but I got a new kit recently.
MB: How would you summarize what beer means to Mainers?
KC: This has become part of the fabric of people's lives, especially the millennials. A couple will go out on the weekend to refill their growlers and then they'll talk about it on social media. It's a good thing for Maine businesses.
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