David Geary, who introduced craft brewing to Maine, dies at 78

Native Information

“He was bigger than life and an incredible dad.”

David Geary, the Portland, Maine brewmaster who based New England’s first craft brewery, died this week at 78. 

Geary’s kids, Kelly Lucas and Matthew Geary, shared the information in a Fb publish on Thursday. 

“Our humorous, charming, gregarious, and cantankerous father handed away final night time,” they wrote. “He was bigger than life and an incredible dad.”

Geary’s household informed the Portland Press Herald he died of pure causes, “surrounded by household and mates.”

In one other Fb publish, The Geary Brewing Firm — which Geary began in 1986, when there have been simply 13 microbreweries in the USA — remembered his “pioneering spirit and management,” which “performed an integral half within the explosion of the American craft beer revolution.”

Each posts garnered an outpouring of condolences and fond reminiscences of Geary. 

Geary realized the best way to brew beer within the Eighties working at breweries in Scotland and England. He introduced the craft again to Portland and in 1986, alongside his then-wife Karen, opened his namesake brewery and launched “D.L. Geary’s Pale Ale.” 

It was the start of a craft brewery growth in Maine, for which Geary largely paved the best way.

“Maine is actually a beer vacation spot now, and that began over 40 years in the past when our mother and father had the concept to provide some English type ales and distribute them in Maine,” Lucas informed the Press Herald.

“I’m very pleased with the creativity and braveness it took my mother and father to create one thing from scratch,” Matthew Geary added. “It’s comforting to go wherever in Maine and see the methods my mother and father influenced Maine’s tradition.”

Geary Brewing Firm was offered in 2017 however stored its founder’s identify, which continues to be celebrated on the earth of New England craft brewing.