JOHN & SARAH
ODD ALEWIVES FARM BREWERY
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Baltimore, Maryland to Waldoboro, Maine
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To get to Sarah and John McNeil’s Odd Alewives Farm Brewery and home, you take the former route one road towards downtown Waldoboro, Maine. Their farm is perched on a hillside surrounded by trees, making it feel very private and rural, but it’s short proximity to town, fertile soil and the historic character of the buildings made this former alpaca farm too perfect to pass up when searching for possible locations to build their brewery, farm and home. John, a commercial photographer and professional brewer, had long dreamed of starting his own craft brewery but he knew he wanted to grow and forage his own ingredients, so his dream was on standby in the city. He balanced his time between his job as the photography department manager at the Maryland Institute College of Art and working as a freelance brew master at various Baltimore breweries. Sarah, a puppeteer and stop-motion wizard, worked tirelessly through the ranks at Maryland Institute College of Art and had finally secured a full time position in the animation department that gave her the creative freedom to develop her own classes. Sarah, with another colleague, built one of the best stop-motion labs in the country and she felt like she’d reached a high point her career. Although the couple was flourishing professionally, they yearned to be reconnected to the natural world. Baltimore, although offering a vibrant community art scene, was lacking in green spaces. They opted to buy a small rustic cabin in West Virginia to escape to on the weekends. After several months, they realized that they dreaded their Sunday evening drive back to the city and began to talk about the possibility of relocating back to their home state of Maine.
Sarah, passionate about perusing real estate listings, began casting a net around the Midcoast area of Maine. They spent a month each summer renting in Midcoast Maine and doing copious amounts of research on the different towns in the area; their physical attributes, their rules/regulations, their community offerings, etc. When they came across their farm, they knew immediately that they had stumbled on the right place. The town of Waldoboro, although somewhat sleepy, enthusiastically welcomed their proposal to start a farm brewery and their town government helped them navigate their way through the myriad of paperwork and licenses they would need to open for business. Once they closed on the place, John quit his job and moved to the farm to begin the extensive renovations and set up his brewing room. Sarah would come up on the weekends and during breaks, unsure if she was ready to leave her dream job for an uncertain future. After much deliberation, Sarah decided that ending on a career high note seemed better than leaving the teaching field when the passion had burned out, so she took a huge leap of faith and relocated to Maine full-time to help get the brewery up and running.
Although they never worked together in this capacity before, Sarah and John have settled into their roles somewhat seamlessly. Sarah is the gardener and forager, growing all of their ingredients that go into their beers. John is the master brewer, spending long hours concocting recipes and doing the less glamorous, but essential, sterilizing, cleaning and maintaining of the brewing equipment. As artists, they both see this as the biggest and most multi-faceted creative project either of them have embarked on. Although they don’t have the bandwidth currently to practice their other artistic endeavors, they use their creativity daily- from making recipes, to landscaping, to making their own tap handles, etc. Their entire town has rallied around them and cheered on their success. Sarah and John, from the get go, have focused their business around nurturing those local relationships. One day every month they host a town potluck, where people come and bring a dish, drink beer and visit with one another. Sarah started a weekly knitting night where local fiber artists come to drink and knit; it has become one of their more raucous evenings. While the craft brewing market has seen astronomical growth, John’s distinctive culinary approach to brewing, sets Odd Alewives beers apart; both complex and palatable. Farmed ingredients in their brews include pumpkin, lavender, coriander, tomatoes, beets, carrots, nettle, etc. and foraged ingredients include lilac, maple sap and spruce tips. They are settling into their first open winter season feeling secure that they will be able maintain a steady flow of local business – a necessity for all businesses in seasonal destinations to survive. This confidence has only been manifested through hard work, dedication to immersing themselves and their brewery in their community, and their initial commitment to tirelessly researching locations before planting their roots in the country. (Click here to jump to their interview)
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