Rob Tod of Allagash Brewing Company

A little more than a decade ago, Rob Tod’s brewing peers thought he was crazy to be pouring his life into a small-market niche brewery. He was in the wrong Portland—Maine, not Oregon—and only brewing Belgian-style beers. Who’s crazy now? Tod’s labor of love, Allagash Brewing Company, has grown into one of most highly regarded and boundary-pushing Belgian breweries in the country, if not the world.

1. When you fall in love, go with it
Tod readily admits to “stumbling” into the brewing industry. He was bumming around Vermont, toying with the notion of enrolling in graduate school for geology and desperately in need of any job he could get. He ended up washing kegs for Otter Creek. “It was just for a job,” Tod recalls. That changed quickly. “After working there for two days, I went from really not being sure what I wanted to do with my life to really being pretty sure.”

2. Timing’s not everything, but it helps
His timing couldn’t have been better. It was 1993, and like much of the industry, Otter Creek was booming. Growth meant plenty of opportunity to work and learn. Tod says, “I went to Lawrence [Miller], who was the owner at the time, and I said, ‘I want to start a brewery, and I’d love the opportunity to learn as much as I can.’ I was able to get my hands in everything—from bottling to brewing, lab work, keg washing, installing equipment.”

3. Sometimes, success is measured in decades
Tod finished his year in Vermont, moved to Portland, Maine, and rolled out Allagash White. Then he spent the next 10 years trying to interest the beer-drinking public in Belgian beers. “It was a tough sell,” he says. “A lot of brewers thought we were crazy to be doing these beers. They probably had a good point. We were stubborn. It really wasn’t until two or so years ago that these beers were accepted on a little bit more of a broad scale, even within the microbrew industry.”

4. If you go extreme, go with the OG
Tod was drawn to Belgian brewing by the style’s unique flavors and nearly limitless possibilities. He notes that the brewing industry is now chasing after the same techniques and mentality the Belgians pioneered. “Belgian beers are, in some sense, extreme beers. The brewing culture is experimental by nature. Barrel-aging beers, fermenting with wild yeast, using unique ingredients and spices—that’s what Belgian brewing, in a lot of ways, has always been about.”

5. Honor tradition, but don’t be a slave to it
You’d think that, if somebody were building a business around the intricate brewing traditions of a particular country, that person would travel to the country in question and study up—well, you would, but Tod wouldn’t. He never visited Belgium before founding Allagash, and he’s glad he stayed away. “I didn’t really want to go over there and try to emulate something that a particular brewery was doing,” he explains. “If somebody else has already done something, why bother doing it?”

6. Sometimes simplicity yields variety
With Belgians, the yeast makes the beer. So it’s fascinating that, considering the tremendous variety in Allagash’s beer lineup, the brewery only uses one primary fermentation yeast strain. “If you drink some of our 9 percent beers versus the White, you might even think they’re different yeast cultures because the yeast is giving off such a different flavor and aroma profile. All yeasts change in different environments, but this yeast seems particularly well suited to that. It’s a really interesting strain.”

7. Welcome the happy accident
Two of Allagash’s wildest, best-received beers weren’t planned. Interlude, a strong Pale Ale aged in French Merlot and Syrah barrels, is fermented with a strain of wild yeast that “we found growing in a batch of beer at the brewery.” And Curieux, a Tripel aged in bourbon barrels, was “a total accident.” They had 150 barrels of beer and no bottles to put it in, so into the barrels it went. “We thought it probably wouldn’t be a good fit,” Tod admits. But after three days in the warm room, the beer had been “totally transformed.” Says Tod: “I’d never tasted anything like it. It was a stroke of luck.”

8. Tastes evolve, so evolve with them
Tod ties the rise in Allagash’s fortunes to the ascendance of the extreme beer movement, which has trained beer drinkers to challenge their palates: “When the first-wave micros came out in the ’80s and ’90s, those were real unique beers for all of us. People have gotten to the point now where they want to continue to experiment and try new things, and these extreme beers are giving them that opportunity. There’s a continual supply of new styles. It’s great.”

9. Demand quality, but expect to pay for it
Unless you’ve got 50 percent market share, beer isn’t cheap to brew—doubly so when you’re using quality ingredients and corking imported bottles by hand, as Allagash does. Because of this, Tod insists that craft brewers have to help consumers adjust their pricing expectations. “We need to take away this stigma that beer tastes the same, looks the same and is priced the same. We’re brewing beer on a miniscule scale compared to the large brewers, but you’re getting something that’s truly local and handcrafted.” ■