Summer Update

WHAT'S NEW AT GEARY BREWING CO.

Summer Beer Release: Pulling Traps

Our newest beer release, an American IPA, Pulling Traps, honors the hard working lobstermen of our community. After all, what is Maine without lobster? 

At New England's First Craft Brewery, we believe in the same traditions of hard work that made lobster fishing a symbol of Maine life. Just as fishermen harvest a day's catch by hand, our brewers craft a day's batch by hand.

Join us in supporting our lobstermen through the Maine Lobstermen's Relief Fund. The past few summers Geary Brewing has supported the benefit and this year it will be held on September 6th at Cook's Lobster & Ale House on beautiful Bailey Island.

More info on the Maine Lobstermen's Community Alliance can be found here: https://mlcalliance.org/

Pulling Traps is a must try. Stop by the tasting room or one of the many tastings at our retail partners to taste this delicious and refreshing beer!

Environmentally Conscious Brewery:

Wind turbines in Maine Landscape.
Photo source: Maine Audubon

In May we made the switch to 100% wind power! We're using Green-e Energy certified renewable energy certificates to source wind power from off site turbines. This is just one of many ways Geary Brewing Co. is becoming more sustainable.

Fun Fact: Wind power is a massively viable opportunity for energy production in Maine. Currently it accounts for 21.06% of all electricity production in the state. (https://windexchange.energy.gov/states/me)

Besides sourcing our electricity from the wind, Geary Brewing happily promotes positive relationships with our Maine environment through composting and recycling. Everything that can be recycled, is! And that's not just metals, glass, and paper products! We also donate all our spent grain from the brewing process to Harrison Farm in Arundel, Maine, to use for livestock feed and fertilizer. 

Before we move the freshly brewed beer to the fermenters, we use a trub filter to remove all the hop debris. This debris is then removed and composted and sent to local company, Garbage to Garden. Additionally, all our compostable paper towels are sent to Garbage to Garden.

Geary Brewing Co. was one of the initial 13 breweries to form the Maine Brewshed Alliance which now includes 30 breweries all dedicated to protecting the water that makes our beer so great. The purity of the beautiful Sebago Lake along with our numerous other lakes and rivers make Maine an ideal center for craft brewing. Most beer is at least 90% water, so having a good clean supply is crucial to our product. The water in Maine, especially Sebago Lake, is some of the purest in the country; we're so lucky to be here!

For this year's Drinking Water Week, May 5-11, we created a new beer in our pilot system called Crooked River Crasher. This beer is named after a river that is a tributary of Sebago Lake. Many of our employees have fond memories of spending days on this river which spiked a lot excitement to create a special beer for Drinking Water Week. Les and Peter, two of our wonderful employees, can be credited with the creation of this beer to show support for Maine's amazing water. Thanks Les and Peter! Another employee, Bob, crafted us up a hand-carved custom tap handle.

Water conservation is important to us year round at Geary Brewing Company. In the early stages of brewing, we conserve water during wort chilling. During this process we transfer the beer from the brew kettle to the fermenters using a heat exchanger. We use city water to chill the wort to temperatures that are better for yeast. The water warms up through this process and is used to refill our hot liquor back (HLB) which in turn also saves fuel. 

One of the most important parts of water conservation in brewing beer is filtration. We're so lucky to have owners who have a great understanding of the importance of this. The water we get from Sebago and other Maine sources needs little to no filtration to be potable, and we believe our waste water should be no different. The filtration techniques and equipment we use at the brewery allow us to clean our wastewater so it requires less processing by the Portland Water District.

We have also invested in a centrifuge which allows for even more purification through filtering. This highly efficient machine spins the beer at 12,000 RPMs, and helps us preserve and conserve beer that may be lost through other methods of filtration. Our centrifuge is a highly innovative piece of equipment not many breweries in the area have.

2019 Door Design by MECA graduate, Hannah Rosengren
https://www.instagram.com/hannah_rosengren_studio/

2017 Summer Ale Design Winner, Hallie Mitchell
https://www.instagram.com/hallie.is.art/

2019 MECA Collaboration:

Over the past 17 years we have been collaborating with the Maine College of Art (MECA) to provide artwork for our brewery. In the past artists have designed new Summer Ale packages and labels and created posters. This year, MECA graduate Hannah Rosengren designed and painted our tasting room door. Swing by the brewery Thursday-Monday to sample a beer and take a photo in front of the beautiful new tasting room door! 



Sails and Pales:

Our July 6th brewery event, Sails and Pales, was a huge hit! We had a blast hanging out with Captain Bangaroo, Taco Trio, Sea Bags, SailMaine, and Calendar Islands Sailing Co.! 

Taco Trio provided delicious tacos for all our guests that we've been craving ever since.


Sea Bags' Blue Crew drove their mobile truck over to the brewery to show off their beautiful bags.






Calendar Islands Sailing Co. drummed up excitement for their new partnership with the Maine Brew Bus for Sails and Ales, check out this link for more information and how you can taste some local beers on a sail boat this summer.

Captain Bangaroo totally killed it!
They'll be back soon!

We're so happy to have been able to donate 30% of our net proceeds from the event to SailMaine!  

SailMaine provides sailing lessons and opportunities for all ages. The non-profit's mission is "to provide affordable access to the water through community sailing and educational programming."

Check them out:

http://www.sailmaine.org/




Tasting Room Renovation:

This spring we renovated our tasting room. We gave it a whole makeover from redoing the floors, painting the walls, and adding a couple new touches.

Check out the photos below, and come on by to hang out at the bar and see for yourself!

Upcoming Events:

July 27 - Maine Brewers Guild Summer Session
https://www.facebook.com/events/430240194398933/

Join us at this great Beer Festival; all the best breweries in Maine will be there!

August 3 - Dog Days of Summer Party!
https://www.facebook.com/events/461325758015225/

Mia, our petite Havanese brewery dog!

We love having pups out at the brewery!!

Maine Craft Beer Industry Update Links:

Maine Beer Box ships off to Europe!

Tradition Done Right - Geary Brewing Co in Ferment Magazine, pg 23

Portland Maine tops the list for number of breweries per capita!