Yankee Brew News Archive

Brewer's Profile: Steve Gorrill

Originally Published: 10/97

By: Kate Cone

Picture a hot August sun beating on the Maine coastline, a gathering of Maine's microbrewers and crowds of art-loving people enjoying cool brews under the beer tent. What better way to spend an afternoon? It's the twenty-first annual Maine Festival, an arts weekend renowned throughout the region, that features live performers of dance, acrobatics, folk and bluegrass music and fine Maine-made crafts -- sorry, though -- no fried dough -- only the best Indian, Thai and authentic barbeque available in the state.

The sponsors have smartened up and for the last couple of years have invited Maine microbrewers to serve their products to worshiping fans. And among the brewers is Steve Gorrill, owner of Sheepscot Valley Brewing Company, sporting a black tee-shirt with his company's new mascot, "Joe Pemaquid," a lobster buoy personified, smoking a cigar and holding a beer. "Haul in a Pint," Joe urges, and hauling in his own pint (or so), from handcarved lobster buoy tap handles, Steve joins YBN at one of the picnic tables to tell us more about his "excellent brewing adventures" since opening in June, 1995.

YBN: Hmm. Joe Pemaquid -- any relation to Joe Camel?

SG: (Smirks.) Not really, but I wanted a new mascot that evokes a coastal Maine product. And Joe Pemaquid is a product of what I call "the Steve zone."

YBN: Interesting. Well, "the Steve zone" first produced Belgian beers, specifically Mad Goose Belgian and White Rabbit. Why the change?

SG: I found it hard to sell Belgians on the Maine coast. Portland is the closest market that will support that style. I want to stay in Maine, and stay "local" to my area of Whitefield and the nearby coast.

YBN: Describe your new beers.

SG: Pemaquid Ale is my flagship beer, a traditional Scottish border ale with a full malty flavor, a crisp finish from Kent Goldings hops and uses specialty grains and Scottish yeast. Boothbay Special Bitter is brewed in the style of a Northwest pale ale, containing all American malt and hops. Moondance Weissbier is a true to style Bavarian wheat beer and Munich Dunkel is a traditional Bavarian dark lager, cold fermented with a special Bavarian lager yeast, then cold-conditioned for six weeks or longer.

YBN: And what type of equipment brings this beer to us?

SG: I use a Pierre Rajotte four-barrel kettle and mash tun, two wine tanks used as fermenters, an eight barrel conical fermenter used as a settling tank, then the beer is keg conditioned.

YBN: Most brewers these days have a "what I did before this" story. What's yours?

SG: I grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts and graduated from the University of Maine at Orono in 1985 with a degree in Animal Science. I was going to go into poultry science, but that field seemed to die about the time I graduated or thereabouts. That's the time I also started homebrewing. From U. Maine, I followed one of my professors, who was researching oyster farming. I did an internship at the Ira C. Darling Marine Center in Walpole, Maine, an old saltwater farm donated and dedicated to research. And kayaking.

YBN: Oysters? Did you have a premonition, after all, stout and oysters on the half shell are quite the rage now.

SG: I did end up working at an oyster farm, the Mook Sea farm in Damariscotta, for six years. But I got to a point where I wanted to work for myself. My wife was pregnant with our son, and I wanted a situation that would allow me to work at home and spend time with him.

YBN: So you made the leap into brewing on a professional/commercial basis?

SG: Yes. I talked to other Maine microbrewers: Andy Hazen of Andrew's Brewing Company, Tod and Suzy Foster of Bar Harbor Brewing Company, and Kellon Thames and Dan McGovern of Lake St. George. They were really helpful and shared a lot of information about how they started and their progress, so I decided to join the fray.

YBN: And you never looked back, right?

SG: Right. Since last year, my production has increased by fifty percent, and I'm actually making a living doing this.

YBN: Where can we try your beers?

SG: Well, I'm just starting to put out growlers. But if you want to try it on draught, go to the Great Lost Bear or Three Dollar Dewey's in Portland, Maine or Beale Street Barbeque in Bath, Maine. I hope to be in the Augusta/Gardiner area by fall, 1997.

YBN: And do you give tours?

SG: Absolutely. Call ahead, and I'll be glad to show readers around my newly-shingled brewing barn. We also sell pint glasses and tee-shirts, featuring, of course, Joe Pemaquid.

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Sidebar:

Sheepscot Valley Brewing Company

RR 1, Box 88, Townhouse Road

Whitefield, Maine 04353

207-549-5530

E-mail: Brewsteve@aol.com

URL: http://www.tiac.net/users/bcsbob/sheepscot/Sheepscot

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Kate Cone is the author of What's Brewing in New England: A Guide to

Brewpubs and Microbreweries, 1997, Down East Books, Camden, Maine.