PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - A new report says Maine’s fast-growing craft beer industry sold $150 million worth of suds and employed more than 1,600 workers last year.
The Maine Brewer’s Guild and the University of Maine School of Economics project in the report that production will grow 41 percent over the next three years.
Andrew Crawley, a University of Maine economist, said he was surprised by the economic impact, saying continued growth will transform beer into a “major part of the state’s industrial make up.”
There are currently 82 breweries in Maine.
Sean Sullivan, executive director of the guild, said there’s a lot of discussion of whether such a large number of breweries can be sustained. But he says many of them are small, and content to stay small.
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