Island Park Brewing in Winthrop draws from local lake history

Sep. 22—WINTHROP — Island Park Brewing, a brewery and taproom that opened last month on the north shore of Cobbosseecontee Lake, takes its inspiration from the lake's drinking and dancing history.

Connor Lacasse, the head brewer, opened the location at 2541 U.S. Route 202 in August and named it after Island Park, an island just offshore from the converted garage building.

One of central Maine's most popular dance halls was built on Island Park in 1904, attracting thousands of locals and visitors every weekend for much of the early and mid-20th century. Eventually, a bridge was built and trolley service established to transport people more easily to and from the island.

Even though the island is now privatized, Lacasse said he wanted to honor Island Park's tradition with his brewery — 120 years after it all began.

Much of the branding of the store — stickers depicting Cobbosseecontee Lake's lighthouse, old posters and postcards on the walls from the Island Park dance hall — is based around that local history.

Lacasse's grandfather used to dance in Island Park's pavilion, and even had his first drink on the north shore of the lake. Or so the story goes.

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"It was a place of gathering, and I think that we wanted to also mimic that ethos, to be a place of gathering," Lacasse said. "Really, the lake is the centerpiece. We're just on the bank of it."

Lacasse grew up in Manchester, but trained for seven years at breweries in Oregon. He received his master brewer certificate from the University of California, Davis, after a yearlong program.

But he wanted to move back to Maine to start his own brewery.

"I guess I was maybe a little homesick," Lacasse said. "My family still lives here. I have two brothers and my parents who live on the lake. And I love Maine. It's where I grew up."

Paula Lacasse, Connor's mother and the "unofficial CFO" of the brewery, said several partners, including the nearby White Duck Brew Pub, came together to fund and kick-start the brewery, with Connor Lacasse in charge of the operation, and with the lake front and center.

"We're all about the lake," Paula Lacasse said. "You can dock your boat and walk up to the brewery, which is so cool."

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Connor Lacasse brews all the beers served at the taproom. The process can take three to six weeks, depending on the type of beer. He meticulously checks alcohol and sugar levels in each beer as they ferment, making sure the ingredients are working together as expected.

Many of the brews are West Coast-inspired, with a clearer, dryer, crisper taste, while others take a New England approach, with a hazier look and tropical hops. After all, he said, brewing is becoming increasingly regionally defined in the United States, with different areas using different strategies and slightly differently ingredient preparation.

"The reason that there's almost 10,000 breweries in the United States — and probably a million different beer styles — is because we, as brewers, have so many different dials we can change," he said. "Every one of those beers is unique, but we're all using the same four ingredients."

Island Park Brewing was begun during a plateau in the rate of new breweries around the country. Maine has the nation's second-most breweries per capita, and the industry creates almost $700 million in economic impact for the state.

But in 2023, for the second consecutive year, new craft brewery openings nationwide decreased, according to a Brewers Association report. New breweries in Maine, like in the rest of the country, are few and far between.

The plateau is a big shift for the industry. Between 2011 and 2017, the number of operating craft breweries in Maine grew by almost 200%. That rate of growth has slowed to about 57% since 2017, and has been especially slow in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and during the war in Ukraine, which continues to impact the wheat supply for brewers.

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Lacasse also said drinking habits are changing: Generation Z — those born between 1997 and 2012 — drinks less than other generations, and seltzers, ciders and nonalcoholic beer are more popular than ever.

The solution to those trends for his nano brewery, Lacasse said, is to expand into selling the newly popular drinks, and into canning his beers and sending them elsewhere.

A nano brewery is a brewery or brewpub whose production is small and distribution limited. Many nano breweries focus on experimentation and innovation.

Lacasse said he hopes to begin working with a canning company this winter. In the meantime, he sends kegs of beer to local brewpubs, bars, restaurants and breweries to help the brand become more visible in the community.

As Island Park Brewing adapts to the changing craft brewery economy, however, Lacasse said he does not want its local focus to change.

"It takes a village to raise a brewery," he said, "and that's totally the case here."

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