“If I were to give advice to a group of young women thinking about their futures, the biggest thing for me was don’t let the ‘hard’ or the fear stop you,” Cain offered. Taking that one step further, only 2% of breweries in the U.S. A 2021 survey by the industry trade group Brewers Association said women account for 23.7% of brewery owners in this country, compared to 75.6% owned by men. For the next six months, Cain set out to problem solve - could she make the financing work, where would she find a building, can she make decent beer? On her birthday in May 2019, sitting around a fire pit near Acadia National Park, she decided she was going to open a brewery. And hoppy beers tend to be more bitter, so it’s not a stretch to conclude most women aren’t as fond of IPA style beers as men are. There’s a physiological explanation to their reaction, but for the sake of brevity the explanation is that women have more bitter taste buds than men. Hops is an essential ingredient in beer and while it adds flavor, hops is also bitter. Most of the craft brews they came across were very hops forward - something neither Cain nor her wife like. But one trend in brewing in Maine stood out, and not in a good way. She could do this.Ĭain loves the tasting room experience, trying new things.
“Because that’s what we did when we first moved to Maine - was to drive and enjoy the scenery - and we happened upon Grateful Grains in Monmouth.” The business wasn’t even open yet, she recalls, but the brewer was there and they talked about the business. “We were driving around one fall afternoon,” Cain explained. In October 2018, an idea started brewing in her head. The beer was heading to Smitty’s Game Lab in Topsham. She was poached by the nearby Barnes & Noble before long, where over 10 years she moved up the ranks to become a store manager.Ĭhristine Cain fills sixtels of Pink Boots cranberry sour Sept. She took the job at Dick’s and soon found herself in the company’s management training program - the beginning of her retail management career. “I like sports and I like books so at the time I applied to Dick’s Sporting Goods and (what was) Borders at the time.”
“I was just looking for work and it was meant to be something short-term, so I was like what do I like,” Cain continued. The dot-com bubble burst in 2000 and the company she worked for went bust. Then it was on to a B2B company, where the money and experience were good, but wouldn’t last. “I never kind of really knew what I wanted to do,” she explained.Ī stint at a not-for-profit organization in Washington, D.C., brought home the reality of how difficult it is to make a living in an expensive city on a not-for-profit salary.
The daughter of educators, she earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a master’s in environmental management from Yale and her master’s in business administration from the University of Rochester. Rather, it was a long and convoluted journey that brought her to this town of 4,000. LISBON - Christine Cain didn’t just wake up one morning and decide she was going to open a brewery.
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