Step into the Lubec Brewing Company, and the warm wall colors, twinkling lights and comfortable furniture give a generous welcome. It's a microbrewery with a line‑up of craft beers that use hops grown by local farmers and organic grains grown in Maine. Owner Gale White's passion for what he does is apparent the minute he starts talking, with eyes lighting up like a kid in a candy shop.
      What started as a 30-gallon-per-week brewery has quickly grown to 120 to 240 gallons a week, with a place on the Maine Brewery Trail that brings in about 10 visitors a week. That's not counting the customers from Lubec and area towns as far as Machias and Calais who come for the craft beer and the pub food that features local organic ingredients. However, White doesn't want it to get too much bigger. "I love making small batches." The customers do too, with requests for specialties like oatmeal stout met with enthusiasm from all quarters.
      The former nuclear physicist found Lubec about three years ago. White had always wanted to visit Downeast and finally took the plunge and landed in Bar Harbor. "I thought that was Downeast," he says with a laugh, because that's what the tourism industry said. "By day two..." He pauses to get the point across. Long story short, he met a bartender who gave him some gentle advice about the real Downeast, including a hand‑drawn map of where to visit once White got to the Machias town line. He fell in love with Lubec, bought the downtown building that houses the Sunrise Café and started planning for his microbrewery. Along the way he met his future wife, massage therapist McGinley Jones.
      They planned and renovated, "and then this place opened up," White says happily of the building across the street where the pub is located. In late 2016 the building came on the market and is the permanent home of the pub and brewery. Next door, the large space formerly occupied by Bayside Chocolates is used by the Lubec Market to sell goods during the winter months. Plans are in the works to expand the section of space allocated to the brewing operation. "I want to expand the brewery offerings, not the restaurant," he explains. The second floor space may become apartments geared towards a local and year‑round population, not the more highly priced and lucrative tourism rental market. "Housing is becoming unaffordable," White says of the rental market for people who live in the town year‑round.
      While the Sunrise Café building had seemed like the perfect brewery and pub location with its two floors of water views, the more White and Jones delved into the brewery plans the clearer it became that the café was a needed year‑round presence for people to meet for meals and socializing. "Our primary focus is doing what's in the best interest of the community," explains Jones. The strategy is working, with community members coming out of the woodwork to help paint the pub's walls from a disquieting green to a warm dark red. One fellow came in and donated a map of Lubec in the old days. When he saw it on the wall a week or so later, he returned with a portrait of a distinguished gentleman who gazes with interest down at the clientele. Next up he offered a long‑term loan of the old mahogany bar‑backer from the former Rexall store. "He said, 'Let's see how you do." White ended up purchasing the piece but notes that the price was low and in the spirit of the man's prior gifts. A piano and guitar were donated. The pub has been featuring area musicians, with a recent visitor to the area exclaiming over the quality of the music on tap.
     Between the Sunrise Café and the pub, White has 13 year‑round employees, with an additional seven during the summer months. The work may not be full‑time, but White and Jones feel positive about being able to provide year‑round work. The brewery expansion should add another two or three employees once it's up and running.

Wider economic impact
      The brewery has had an economic impact in wider circles, including four area farmers who are growing different varieties of hops for White. Lubec resident Alba Briggs is one. "I was talking to Gale three or so years ago about growing hops locally and thought I'd like to give it a try." His two varieties, Saaz and Hallertau, are used by White in his Dorothy Blanch brew, a homage to a Lubec native who made her fame and fortune producing Broadway shows, then returned to her home and gave back to her community in the way she knew best, with theater and acting, says White.
      Briggs has 12 plants producing hops and plans to expand to 48. "That's about all I can handle by hand." While hops are easy to grow, he notes, "They're hard to grow well for quality and quantity." He adds, "It's great to be doing this locally," and he is pleased to be revisiting a Maine farming tradition that faded as Western growing conditions favored less disease and higher hops production. "We've made some really good beer from their hops," White says of the over 100 pounds he's purchased from the four farmers.
     In addition the Lubec Brewing Pub has played a significant role in the production of organic grain in the state. White notes that when he first started working with Blue Ox Malthouse, a malted grain supplier based in Lisbon Falls, there were only three organic barley growers in the state. "I'm the smallest brewery in the state, but we created the demand for the organic barley." He explains that a small farm couldn't meet the demands of a large brewery but "for a small one like me, they can. This is the way to help grow local economies."
     Joel Alex, owner of Blue Ox Malthouse, says that the brewery's consumption of 7,000 pounds of grain over the last year is not a lot in the grand scheme of things when it comes to grain, but when it comes to organic "it's a real commitment and meaningful to farmers." White relates how he approached Blue Ox and told the company of the brew pub's needs, with 100 pounds of grain used per 30 gallon batch. "They asked, what else do you need?" The two companies have been working at a mutual level of respect, with Alex saying, "We've been working with him since day one. Gale's unique in that he has a strong commitment to organic. So that's super fun for us." He adds, "I'm so impressed with what he's done there, not only with us and his brewery needs, but about the community there and what it needs."