Allagash Brewing Co. in Portland, Maine, has a rich history rooted in Belgian-style beers and a commitment to community. Rob Tod founded Allagash Brewing Company in 1995 and released one beer: Allagash White. In honor of 30 years of making Allagash White, the company celebrated with a special “1995-era” throwback can design.
Back in 1995, Rob Tod wanted to brew something that would give people a new experience with beer. After a few pilot batches, he landed on Allagash White, a citrusy, hazy, and refreshing Belgian-style wheat beer. The love for it started slowly at first, around Portland, Maine, and has since spread far and wide.
The Belgian Inspiration
Allagash’s founder Rob Tod began his brewing career at Otter Creek Brewing Company in Vermont. It was during after-work beer tastings that he first encountered Celis White, a groundbreaking Witbier from the ‘godfather of Witbier’ that inspired him to start his own brewery.
Tracing back to 14th-century Belgium, Witbier fell out of favor in the mid-20th century. That was until a Belgian brewer named Pierre Celis revived the tradition in the 1960s and created the modern-day version of the style, a beer known as Hoegaarden. As Marco Passarella, sales manager at the Belgium-based brewery St. Bernardus describes it, “Pierre single handedly brought Witbier back from the dead.
Witbiers are brewed with raw, unmalted wheat, which gives the style a signature cloudy look, and are spiced with coriander, orange peel and other spices, giving them a refreshing, citrusy flavor profile. They also always use Belgian yeast strains, which contribute fruity esters to the final product and add a level of complexity to the finished product.
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Even though Rob was impressed with the style out of the gate, the same can’t be said for the market. Although they weren’t winning popularity contests quite yet, they were catching the attention of some heavy hitters in the industry and the awards started to roll in not long after Allagash was founded. In 1998, Allagash White won its first gold medal at the World Beer Cup, followed by several other gold medals, including the Great American Beer Festival in 2002 and 2005, World Beer Cup again in 2010, 2012 and 2015. For Rob and brewmaster Jason Perkins, the awards are a recognition of the continued quality of Allagash’s beer, which is one of the most important things for them.
This past year has been a significant one for Allagash as a brewery. Allagash Brewing Company closed its thirtieth year with hardware, healthy momentum against a tough market, and a sharpened focus on purpose. The Portland, Maine brewery capped its anniversary year with top honors at the 2025 Great American Beer Festival, earning Brewer of the Year, its third such recognition in the last five years, alongside notable wins for Allagash Tripel and Allagash Lager. Allagash White is the most-awarded wheat beer in the world.
The brewery’s Tripel, which Tod described as the “most awarded Tripel in the world,” continues to excel in global competitions, from the Brussels Beer Challenge to the World Beer Cup. “We’re always humbled when we win awards like this,” Tod said. “There’s so many great beers being brewed these days, it’s great reinforcement after 30 years that we’re still making great beers.
Beer volumes are down across the United States-about five percent industry-wide and seven percent for craft-but Allagash Brewing Company continues to outperform those trends. Though sales were down slightly year-to-date through September, the brewery improved markedly after a tough first quarter that saw a ten-percent decline, closing the gap to just two percent. That performance is driven largely by Allagash White, which still represents more than 80 percent of production. “It continues to grow and gain tap handles on and off premise,” Tod noted, cracking open a can mid-call.
The brewery also credits disciplined innovation and targeted product development for keeping the brand relevant. The brewery’s House Series, a lineup of seasonally themed beers, grew 67 percent over its first year, led by strong demand for the winter release, Ski House. Allagash Brewing Company’s Lager ranked as the number-one new craft American lager, and its Hazy IPA became the top new hazy IPA by dollar sales in New England. Even its hop water, a small but growing category, led new entries in regional sales.
“We now have two brands that are kind of outside our historic lane of Belgian inspired beers, but beers that we’ve been making internally for such a long time,” said Sales Director Josh Fructman.
Expansion and Partnerships
Allagash strengthened its visibility through high-profile partnerships. A new branded bar, Allagash Alley, debuted at Citi Field as part of a sponsorship with the New York Mets, becoming the brewery’s largest on-premise venue by volume. In Maine, Allagash became the official beer sponsor of the Hearts of Pine soccer club, whose breakout debut season drew international attention. Another collaboration, with musician Noah Kahan’s Busyhead Project, saw Allagash sponsor the inaugural Folk & Fairways Festival in Vermont, combining craft beer, music, and mental-health advocacy.
Allagash Brewing is heading to the Land of 10,000 Lakes. The Portland, Maine-headquartered craft brewery will enter Minnesota this month with Clear River Beverage Company, it announced in a press release. “While our home Northeast market continues to be critical for us, our team is looking forward to further strengthening Allagash’s ties in the Midwest,” sales director Josh Fruchtman said in the release. Clear River’s territory includes the 15 counties that surround Minneapolis and St. Paul, which is home to two-thirds of the state’s population, according to the release.
Allagash will offer the following products and package formats in Minnesota:
- White in 16 oz. can 4-packs, 12 oz. can 6- and 12-packs, 19.2 oz. single-serve cans, and draft;
- Tripel in 12 oz. bottle 6-packs;
- Curieux in 12 oz. bottle 4-packs;
- And the seasonal House Series (Ski House, Surf House, Haunted House) in 12 oz. can 6- and 12-packs.
Allagash has famously kept a tight distribution footprint after retrenching in the mid-2000s, which founder Rob Tod detailed during a keynote address at the New England Brew Summit in February 2020. In 2005, Allagash sold 5,000 barrels while distributing to 26 states on both coasts and Washington, D.C. By 2019, the brewery pared its footprint back to the East Coast from Maine to Georgia, plus Chicago and California, and sold 104,103 barrels, according to Brewers Association (BA) data.
Since then, Allagash has expanded its distribution in small steps. Its most recent new market was Florida in 2021, preceded by Wisconsin in 2020. In 2021, the brewery deepened its statewide presence in Illinois, after years of shipping only to Chicago.
Allagash west/central regional sales manager Heather Baragar will cover the new Minnesota market, and the company does not plan to hire a local rep to start, Fruchtman said. “We also have an incredible partner in Clear River Beverage, and will be working with them as an ongoing partner in planning activations around our portfolio,” he added.
Last year, Allagash was the 15th largest craft brewery in the country by volume, according to the BA. Its output was flat year-over-year at 119,878 barrels of beer, according to the May/June issue of the BA’s New Brewer.
In the 52-week (L52W) period ending October 5, dollar sales of Allagash’s portfolio have declined -3.5% at off-premise retailers tracked by NIQ, according to data from 3 Tier Beverages. Those declines have decelerated to nearly flat in the L4W (-0.3%).
Table: Allagash Brewing Company Key Facts
| Fact | Details |
|---|---|
| Founder | Rob Tod |
| Founded | 1995 |
| Flagship Beer | Allagash White |
| Location | Portland, Maine |
| Key Awards | Great American Beer Festival, World Beer Cup |
Commitment to Local Grains
While Allagash White continues to dominate the brewery’s production, accounting for a wild 80-percent of production, for the coming year, Allagash Brewing Company plans to focus on fewer, better-supported innovations. The brewery also plans to buy 1.9 million pounds of local grains in 2026, up from 30,000 pounds a decade ago. This has been a large area of focus for Allagash in recent years.
“This has a huge impact on sustainability, the Maine economy, and the farmers in the State of Maine,” said Tod. “We’re supporting Maine farmers, reducing our carbon footprint, and are proud that more Maine breweries are getting on board and buying Maine grain. We’ve made a huge impact on this front.
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