Courtesy / Hight Family of Dealerships
Sam Hight, left, and Jeff Powers of Bigelow Brewing toast the launch of Tin Can Sailor.
August 17, 2021
Skowhegan brewer, car dealership group team up on a craft beer 'first'
Courtesy / Hight Family of Dealerships
Navy Lt. S. Kirby Hight is shown taking command of the USS Babbitt during World War II.
By William Hall
As Maine’s increasingly competitive beer-makers look for new ways to distinguish themselves, a Skowhegan craft brewery is teaming up with a local auto dealership on a promotion they say is the first of its kind.
Bigelow Brewing Co. and the Hight Family of Dealerships last week announced the launch of a Scotch ale, Hight’s Tin Can Sailor, which is “the first known brewery and auto dealership collaboration in the country,” according to a news release.
Whether that claim is true is an open question. Over recent years, craft brewers and dealerships have teamed up in Nevada and Georgia. But the Skowhegan pairing may be the first to offer a new product, and the brew’s back story isn’t one that’s likely found anywhere else.
Tin Can Sailor honors the late S. Kirby Hight, a member of the Hight family who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. The Hight business said it will donate $1 from each sale of Tin Can Sailor to the Skowhegan Free Public Library.
“The Skowhegan Free Public Library was an organization that my grandparents Kirby and Grace were passionate about, [so] it seemed appropriate to choose this organization as the first beneficiary of Tin Can Sailor,” said Sam Hight, dealer principal at Hight Ford.
“Tin can sailors” was a term used to describe Navy destroyer crews during the war. Kirby Hight captained the USS Babbitt, a destroyer that guarded convoy missions in the North Atlantic.
Following in the footsteps of his father and company founder Walter, Kirby Hight entered the car business upon graduating from Bowdoin College. In 1941, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hight joined the Navy and served until 1945, moving up the ranks from ensign to captain.
The Babbitt operated as a convoy escort off Iceland, along the coasts of the United States and in the Caribbean Sea. From 1943-44, the 1,200-ton, 133-crew ship completed five transatlantic escort crossings, one to England and four to North Africa.
Hight later returned to the family business.
“None of it would be possible without the confidence and loyalty of our customers and this community,” said Sam Hight.
Jeff Powers, of Bigelow Brewing, added, “Community is the cornerstone of Bigelow Brewing, just as it has been for the Hight family for the past 110 years.”
The Hight Family of Dealerships was founded in 1911, and today includes four businesses: Hight Ford and Hight Chevrolet Buick GMC, both in Skowhegan; Hight Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, in Madison; and Hight Chevrolet Buick GMC, in Farmington.
Bigelow Brewing was founded in 2013 and today distributes its products in more than 700 locations across Maine.
Craft beer and cars have long had a connection. Perhaps attracted by the large open retail spaces, dozens of small breweries across the U.S. have sprung up in former dealership buildings. One of the most well-known is Motorworks Brewing, in Bradenton, Fla., which launched its brewery and taproom in 2013 at a 27,000-square-foot site built in 1923 as an outlet for Hudson Automobiles.
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