Maine’s craft brewers are concerned about the rising cost of cans after tariffs on steel and aluminum imports shot up to 50% last week, though most are hesitant to consider raising prices on what they already consider a premium product.

The move doubled the tax President Donald Trump initially put in place in March. Metals from the United Kingdom, where Trump recently touted a trade deal, were excepted from the increase and will continue to be taxed at 25%.

The tariffs and trade wars they have sparked are creating widespread economic uncertainty in nearly every sector. And while some businesses have stocked up on goods and materials in an attempt to beat — or at least delay — the impact, that’s not always feasible for Maine’s brewers.

“If we were to do that, we would need to find off-site storage,” said Peter Dahlen, director of brewing operations at Sebago Brewing Company. He said the costs of shipping and logistics would likely eclipse whatever was saved in terms of tariffs.

Sebago — one of the biggest breweries in the state — currently has about a million cans in storage at its Gorham facility, but that figure can swing based on production schedules, Dahlen said. Sebago uses printed cans, which he said are cheaper overall but must be ordered by the truckload — for 12-ounce cans, that’s 204,225 at a time.

Sebago currently pays about 11.5 cents per 12-ounce can, but that price has fluctuated from about 10 to just under 12-cents since 2023, he said. The brewery sources its cans from Ardagh Group, a global packaging manufacturer with plants around the world. But it purchases them through a broker, who updates prices monthly based on the London Metal Exchange and Midwest Premium index prices, so prices tend to reflect the overall market, Dahlen said.

Aluminum hit a record high of 60 cents per pound or about $1,323 per metric ton for American purchasers last week, one day after the tariffs rose, Reuters reported.

But Dahlen said it could take months for Sebago to feel the full effects, depending on when they next need to make a purchase.

“It’s a couple steps ahead of where we deal with someone for our can price that (the) impact really starts to happen,” he said. “I think it will make an impact for us for sure. It’s hard to know exactly how much we’re going to see and where it starts to hit.”

Sarah Bryan, executive director of the Maine Brewers’ Guild, said larger breweries are generally better able to pad their profit margins and absorb price increases. But she said every brewery in Maine is “looking closely at their bottom lines now with some trepidation for the future.”

Bryan and several brewers said there is very little wiggle room to raise retail and wholesale prices without undermining sales.

For example, a 12-pack of 12-ounce cans of Sebago sells for about $20 at supermarkets in Maine. While that’s less per can than some other craft operations, it’s nearly twice the price of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

“Consumers, by and large, report that craft beer prices are really at the apex of their comfortability,” Bryan said. That leaves brewers with two unfavorable options: raise prices and risk losing customers and profit, or just eat the new costs.

“It is kind of positioning the majority of folks to take a loss one way or the other,” she said. That could mean lost profits or, in some cases, smaller breweries going under, she said.

Bryan said a handful of Maine’s brewers have told her they switched to ordering from Can-One USA, which manufactures cans in Nashua, New Hampshire. Though owned by a Malaysian company, Can-One sources all its materials domestically, said chief executive Giovanni DiMambro.

DiMambro said new customers have expressed an interest in the company’s relatively shielded production line, but he said it was too early to tell whether the tariffs would drive a larger wave of brewers to his company.

“We’ll know in about the next three to six months,” he said.

BAD TO WORSE

The tariffs come during an already turbulent time for craft brewers. A report from the Brewers Association found that more craft breweries closed than opened in 2024, for the first time in nearly two decades.

“It’s hard to make enough money with this lifestyle,” said Ian McConnell, owner of Banded Brewing in Biddeford. He added that business has increased in Banded’s Pepperell Mill taproom, but revenue from canned beer sold offsite has been decreasing at a slightly quicker rate. A four-pack of the company’s Milltown Lager, sold in 16-ounce cans, can range from around $13 to $15 on store shelves, while IPAs are typically few bucks more.

“It’s really hard to make projections. It’s really hard to plan things. It’s really hard to worry about things like the price of cans,” McConnell said. “It feels like we’re chasing our tails.”

In another building on the mill campus, Kathleen “Pidge” Pigeon, founder of Lucky Pigeon Brewing, said she’s already contending with higher can costs.

Lucky Pigeon buys blank, 16-ounce cans and sources them from a number of suppliers. But the company’s relatively small space means it can only store about two pallets of cans at a time, she said. Meanwhile, the building’s historic doorways are slightly too short to accommodate full-sized pallets, meaning the company has to purchase half-pallet shipments, which cost more per can and require more frequent shipping.

“It’s just that cycle of having to order more often and pay shipping more often,” Pigeon said. “We’re ordering like every other week, every two to three weeks.”

Lucky Pigeon has seen can prices rise 4% to 7%, though it has not needed to make a purchase since the tariffs escalated to 50%, Pigeon said. Though she could not say for sure, she said their cans likely come, at least in part, from abroad.

All told, packaging makes up about 10% to 20% of the total cost of producing a can of Lucky Pigeon beer, though that figure also includes things like printed labels — themselves about 14 cents — cardboard packing flats and labor, she said. As a gluten free brewery that has to shell out for harder-to-find ingredients, Lucky Pigeon’s profit margin is already slimmer than most, she said. Four-packs retail for around $20 at supermarkets and specialty beverage stores.

“Any little increase, when we’re already at a premium price point, affects everything,” Pigeon said. “We’re not at the point right now where we are approaching price changes (for customers), but that’s not to say it couldn’t happen.”

Beyond aluminum, Pigeon said steel tariffs could hurt her company’s ability to grow. She pointed toward the seven fermentation tanks that bubbled behind her. Tanks retail for a few thousand to more than $10,000.

“We need new tanks if we’re going to grow. And all of the tanks, even the U.S.-made ones often, are using steel from other countries,” Pigeon said. “This is a capital-intensive industry, those are really big numbers.”