Cote Crane & Rigging foreman Brian Bosse prepares to guide a 2,500-gallon fermenting tank into Lone Pine Brewing Co.’s Gorham facility in January. Staff photo by Ben McCanna

Lone Pine Brewing Co. in Portland was named the fifth fastest-growing brewery in the U.S., and Mast Landing Brewing Co. in Westbrook was No. 24 on the Brewers Association’s 2018 list of the 50 fastest-growing craft breweries in the nation.

The nonprofit Brewers Association, based in Boulder, Colorado, compiles the list annually. Twenty-seven states are represented, and the breweries on the list range from 50-barrel to more than 40,000-barrel capacity. As a group, these brewing companies represent about 10 percent of total craft growth by volume for the year, the Brewers Association said.

“Even as market competition continues to increase, these small and independent breweries and brewpubs demonstrate there are still growth opportunities across a diverse set of regions and business models,” Bart Watson, chief economist at the Brewers Association, said in a news release.

Co-owners John Paul and Tom Madden founded Lone Pine Brewing in Portland about three years ago. Last year, they expanded to a larger space in Gorham that was previously used by Sebago Brewing Co. In January they added four fermenters and a conditioning tank that increased the brewery’s capacity from 7,500 barrels of beer in 2018 to a projected 12,500 barrels this year. They still operate a tasting room at their original location, 219 Anderson St. in Portland.

Mast Landing Brewing Co., located at 920 Main St. in Westbrook, was founded in 2015 by Ian Dorsey and Neil Fredrick. It was Westbrook’s first craft brewery.

For the full list of breweries, go to brewersassociation.org.


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