The story of Skowhegan’s beloved Bigelow Brewing Company starts when Pam and Jeff met at Skowhegan Area High School in 1978. They started dating as Juniors, and have been together for 43 years. Pam says, “it helps to have a lot of beer,” in regards to that incredible and long feat.
Years later, in 1989, Pam purchased a home brewing kit for Jeff for Christmas. He brewed his first Batch that January. Though the first batch didn’t come out as expected, on his second brew he fell in love with the process and knew he wanted to open a brewery one day. “It’s just like cooking. It’s fun to create and try new things,” Jeff says. However, the birth of two children and Pam’s slight obsession with horses put this idea on the back-burner for nearly 23 years.
Horses in the brewery
Fast forward to 1993, the Powers family started their endeavor in horsemanship. The barn we know and love as the Bigelow taproom was indeed once a live barn that housed Pam’s herd of horses.
When Pam and Jeff’s oldest, Jordan, was four and a member of the local 4-H Club, they attended a meeting at a rescue facility in Palermo, Maine. Pam fell in love with a 7 year old, 16.3 hand registered thoroughbred who was 500 pounds underweight. They adopted the loving, beautiful bay and nurtured him back to health. This was only the beginning, and the menagerie continued to grow to include 7 horses, 48 chickens, 2 goats, a turkey, and several dogs and cats. As the herd began to grow, it became necessary to build a barn. In 2000, Jeff, Pam’s dad, and Jeff’s dad set out to construct the original barn structure with a timeframe of 3 weeks. They did a great job, completed the project on time and the animals had a cozy home for the winter.
The horses and other critters were an amazing part of their lives, but as the kids neared college age, some of the animals had passed or moved on to other families. Pam went back to college for the second time and received a degree in University College Studies with a concentration in Education. She joined the staff at SAD 54 (Maine School Administrative District, Somerset County) in 2005. In a famous quote from Jeff, Pam was informed she only needed to work for two years to pay for the kids’ college education and then she could retire. Six years later, Jeff came to Pam with what he said had great news: he was going to open a brewery and Pam could quit her job. I.e., Pam would begin another full time job immediately running operations at the brewery. Pam’s response, “Lying Bastard.” Lying Bastard turned out to be the name of Jeff’s first flagship beer.
When I decided I wanted to open a brewery, all I wanted was to make great beer, share it with others, and hopefully sell it.
Jeff
At the time Jeff started brewing, when he decided he wanted to open a brewery, all he wanted was to make beer and sell it. He had no thoughts as to what he wanted his brewery to be or where it was going. There were only about 5 breweries in the state that were actually making and selling beer. “I just thought it would be kinda cool to be one of them, or one of the next ones,” Jeff remembers. When Bigelow opened, there were only 46 other breweries in the state of Maine. There are now over 150.
In 2012, the barn to brewery conversion began. The original plan was to renovate the 32×48 horse barn into a brew house and taproom. Cement floors were poured, and the stalls were opened up to create a division between taproom and brewery.
When Pam and Jeff opened Bigelow to the public, the original business plan was written to expect no sales in the tap room. “We didn’t expect anyone to come out to the middle of nowhere to drink our beer,” Pam explains. To their fortunate surprise, they had over 300 people on opening day in May 2014, greatly exceeding expectations.
After only five months, Bigelow knew an expansion was inevitable.
In the first year, Bigelow sold 56 barrels (bbls) of beer. In the following year, numbers nearly tripled with 165 bbls. By 2016, they reached their limit at 183. Jeff recalls, “We were pretty much at capacity at that point. I didn’t have any more room to brew any more than what we had. That’s when the barn got the big extension.” This 48’x50’ addition to the barn was made to accommodate the new brewing equipment, which took the production volume from 183 bbls to 407 bbls in 2017, an increase of 223%. Along the way, Bigelow partnered with Valley Distributors of Oakland and Maine Distributors of Bangor. According to Valley, Bigelow’s product line is the leading craft beer in their entire portfolio. Additionally, The Brewers Association ranked Bigelow Brewing Co. as 48th on its 2018 list of the fastest-growing craft breweries in the U.S. The following year, business boomed, and 2019 concluded with a little over 1800 bbls, a long way from where they started at 56.
Bigelow expands out, while focusing within the community.
Though community has always been important to Pam and Jeff, when they started a brewery, that wasn’t their top priority. “It quickly became a major factor in every aspect of our business,” Pam explains. Indeed, almost everything you see at Bigelow comes from somewhere in Maine. The landscaping is done with granite sourced from the Dodlin Hill Quarry in Norridgewock, the wood fired oven designed and manufactured by Maine Wood Heat in Skowhegan, and is finished with a copper dome made by local artist, Barry Norlin. Bigelow’s delicious pizza dough is a recipe specific for the brewery made by The Bankery located in Skowhegan, using spent grains from the brewing process and flour from the local grist mill. In the kitchen, meats, cheeses and vegetables are procured from local farmers as much as possible.
When it comes to beer, Bigelow is proud to say that 100% of the base malt used in beer production is Maine grown. In 2014, when Bigelow Brewing opened to the public, the Maine Malt House in Mapleton, Maine opened, producing malts from grains grown in Maine. It was a perfect time to switch malt products.This past year, Bigelow was the third top consumer of the Maine Malt House, the biggest malt house in the state, racking up an impressive 64,000 lbs.
Bigelow has big dreams, and strong determination to achieve them.
Though Bigelow’s success has exceeded anything they ever dreamed of, Pam and Jeff were able to grow with the needs of their customers. And they will continue to do so with the big upcoming expansion/move downtown to the former Maine Spinning Company at 7 Island Ave. on the banks of the Kennebec River. This exciting project is a restoration and renovation of the old island mill, which will create two floors of brand new apartments, expanded brew house, taproom, cafe, general store, restaurant, and event space. Pam and Jeff are hoping this project will help draw people into their beloved community.
Even with such an exciting project on the horizon, Pam and Jeff still have their heads firmly on their shoulders. Pam maintains, “we’ve never run a brewery before, or a restaurant, or any business for that matter. We’re learning all the time, we’re rolling with the punches, and we’re so thankful that our employees have been rolling with us. We’re going to make mistakes, but here’s the thing: you look at what you did, you fix it, you move on. It’s only a mistake if you continue doing it. If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not trying hard enough. You’re not pushing the limit.”
1 thought on “How Bigelow Came to Be”
So nice meeting you folks at Snow Pond yesterday! Loved the IPA and definitely will be trying your DIPA. See you at Saddleback…
Bob and Fran