New brewpub coming soon to Greenville Junction

GREENVILLE JCT — There’s a new brewpub coming to the area this spring. Threshers Brewing Company, based in Searsmont, plans to open a pub in the vacant building across the street from the Greenville Junction Post Office.

Threshers has been in operation for about three years and the owners are looking forward to expanding to the Moosehead Lake region.

“I used to be a regular patron at their Searsmont location,” Aaron Sarnacki, co-owner of Threshers, said. “I lived about five minutes from the brewery and I was always stopping in and offering to help out. Bottom line, I’ve home-brewed for a while and I love craft beer.” 

Contributed photo
THRESHERS BREWERY — Co-owners Nicole Bendtson, Aaron Sarnacki and Scott Bendtson offer a toast from their Threshers Brewery Searsmont location. Threshers Brewing Company plans to open a pub in the vacant building across the street from the Greenville Junction Post Office.

Last summer one of the original owners, Ethan Evangelos, returned to the construction business and his partner, Scott Bendtson, reached out to Sarnacki, who was delighted to step in as partner in the brewery.

Sarnacki, along with partners Scott and Nicole Bendtson, are each bringing their skills and specialties together to take Threshers Brewing Company on a path of expansion. Scott Bendtson manages the brew house and uses his ingenuity to build unique pieces of equipment such as a counter pressure can-filling machine that he created from scratch. 

Nicole Bendtson runs the front of house operations and works closely with the tap room manager Sarah Adolphsen in planning and executing Threshers events, merchandising and product design, as well as marketing, advertising, social media and bookkeeping. 

Sarnacki’s background is information technology (IT). In addition to his work with Threshers, he runs a successful company, Archangel Computers, with offices in Belfast and Ellsworth. “We do everything IT,” he explained. “We are the premier place to go in the Midcoast,” he said. “And, we service commercial clients from Boston all the way to northern Maine.” 

Threshers Brewing Company, however, is Sarnacki’s passion. According to its website, they are a “farm-style brewery, retrofitted inside an old lumber yard in Searsmont.” They have created an off-the-beaten-path destination, “delivering some of the best beer in New England.” The owners repurposed and reused various materials from dairy farms, local potters, and other unique sources from around the state to build their brewery. “Ingenuity, creativity and community are the cornerstones of the type of environment that inspired the Threshers dream,” they say.

The company offers seven distinct brews to tickle any beer lover’s palate with four available in cans. Their most popular craft beer, Ponderosa, is a mild amber made with Hallertau hops, a traditional variety grown for more than 100 years in Bavaria. It features a lightly flowery and spicy aroma and smooth taste.

Their next offering, Citra, is described as an “easy drinking west coast style IPA” using a dry process with the highest quality citra hops — the end result being a balanced brew with a hint of fruitiness. The Stress Free Moose in Greenville already has this popular IPA on tap. 

Threshers creates a wheat ale they call Firefly. It’s their take on the “saison style” and perfect for a hot summer day. Its history has roots in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium. Many farm families from that area brewed the ale in winter and brought it out to quench their summer thirst.  

Their Brown Ale has “a nutty flavor” with a “malty profile” while Threshers’ Sea Smoke Porter is their richest beer offering with “layers of flavor derived from caramel, coffee, chocolate and black malts blended to perfection.” This blend was voted the best porter to be served at Sugarloaf Ski Area’s trailside locations and will be the premier porter available on the mountain. 

Sarnacki recently returned from a buying trip in upstate New York where he purchased items to install in Greenville Junction’s brewpub. They plan to set up the brewery to produce 110 gallons at a time. “It’s nothing huge, but just right for a small Brewpub where we can feature test batches,” said Sarnacki. 

The main brewery in Searsmont has a seven-barrel system that puts out 250 gallons minimum, something the company is committed to doing as demand is rising and plans are afoot to triple production with new equipment this spring. As of this writing Threshers has their 16-ounce cans of carefully crafted beer at 150 locations throughout the state including most Hannaford stores.

Sarnacki, who believes that the Moosehead area is one of the most beautiful places in the world, plans to offer some great food at his new brewpub. “I absolutely love cooking!” he exclaimed. “So, the plan is going to be a constantly rotating menu – with various beer samples to be offered to customers in Greenville Junction during the season. We’ll be coordinating with Stacy from Stress Free Moose, so our menus don’t overlap.” 

Grand opening will be sometime this spring. “Just for fun we might feature a ‘ride on’ lawn mower race to celebrate,” Sarnacki grinned. “We had a very successful race down in Searsmont. Do you know those mowers can speed along at 45 miles per hour? It’s a blast!” He is coordinating that event with John and Jennie Grey, owners of Moosehead Motorsports, which is located at the Industrial Park in Greenville Junction.  “We’d like to recreate that race right here in Greenville,” said Sarnacki.

“Our mission statement is ‘your favorite beer with your favorite people’,” he smiled. And, providing sample beers for possible future production will make Greenville Junction’s brewpub unique. For more information about Threshers Brewing Company visit them online at www.threshersbrewingco.com.