A popular Biddeford ‘tap room’ will soon be closing its doors in order to expand brewing operations that will support its other locations.
According to co-owner Matt Haskell, the change at Blaze Brewing will allow the company to expand overall and the space will remain as a manufacturing location for at least the next few months.
“We have a lot of irons in the fire, and decisions like this are never easy,” Haskell said during a Thursday morning interview with the Biddeford Gazette.
Haskell and his wife, Evelina, opened their Biddeford location just days before Maine and many other states went into lockdown at the start of the Covid pandemic on March 15, 2020.
“It was a $600,000 investment that became really difficult on Day One,” Haskell said.
Despite the pandemic and other challenges, Haskell said his company has been doing well overall. “We really just needed more room, and we’re going to be opening another location soon.”
Blaze Brewing has several other locations throughout Maine, including Camden, Blue Hill, Bangor and Bar Harbor; and Haskell is excited about opening a new seasonal location in Greenville at the Big Moose Mountain ski resort in just a few weeks.
In a recent Facebook post about the change, Haskell said he grew up skiing at Big Moose Mountain and has “been working with and donating to Friends of the Mountain, the non-profit operating the ski mountain for several years.”
Haskell said the decision to close the Biddeford tap room was not easy, but Maine liquor laws would require one of their locations to be closed before securing a license for the Greenville location.
“We are not closing the door on Biddeford forever,”
Matt Haskell, co-owner
“We figured the Biddeford location made the most sense to close since we are planning to leave this facility in the summer ahead, and it’s the dead of winter,” Haskell wrote on Facebook.
The tap room at Blaze will be open through the upcoming weekend on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Haskell said there were some challenges to operating in downtown Biddeford, most notably a lot of ongoing construction near the Pearl Street location, near the city’s municipal parking garage.
“We are not closing the door on Biddeford forever,” Haskell said. “We may return later, but for now we need more space to make more beer and cider.”
THE BIDDEFORD GAZETTE 