Bath Ale Works

Pepper Powers, a home brewer and one of BAW’s founders, was working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, where he had worked over 100 Space Shuttle missions and the first 20 years of the International Space Station. One day in the summer of 2015, he received the above email from his son. Of course, every home brewer dreams of owning their own brewery, though Pepper had never really seriously contemplated it. So some “ha ha, funny, that would be great” email exchanges with his son took place, then it was back to work. But in the back of Pepper’s mind, the name Bath Ale Works took hold. “Bath Ale Works…Bath Ale Works…huh, that really kind of works”, he thought over the next few weeks. Being a play on Bath Iron Works, it has an immediate connection to Maine’s Midcoast…and it was a little different than the usual XYZ Brewing Company name…so it started feeling right, somehow. And thus was born a 5 year adventure for Pepper, his wife Jean, their son and his wife, and several friends/investors, filled with much excitement; multiple frustrations; many, many “WTF are we doing” moments; a permanent move from Maryland to their summer home in Maine; and several “Let’s pull the plug on this” moments that almost killed BAW dead in its tracks. From a dilapidated old church, to several ‘too small’ locations, to 2 years of waiting for a new building that was never built, a suitable location was just not in the offing. But the excitement and encouragement we received and felt from the Midcoast community always kept us going for “one more try”. And finally…FINALLY…a location in the town of Wiscasset was found, a lease was signed, buildout was completed, and BAW is now a part of the awesome Maine craft brewing scene!! Cheers!!