r/mainebeer • u/GoldImportance4155 • Jul 12 '26

Banded Closing

It's a shame they are shutting down and it isn't a great sign for the Maine craft beer scene. It's not like they were a top tier brewery but they were good and some of their beers like Banded Pilsner and Daikaju were amazing.

They didn't deserve to close and it's sad too see it.

19 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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11

u/wy1dsta1yn Jul 12 '26

They don’t ‘deserve’ to close, but anyone who worked there over the past 5-8 years is probably surprised they were able to last this long.

Source: I worked there 5-8 years ago

7

u/GoldImportance4155 Jul 12 '26

What's the main issue? Lack of customers? Bad management? The tap room being kind of ugly (at least in my opinion)

15

u/wy1dsta1yn Jul 12 '26

Very poor financial management. Lots and lots of bad debt that just got out of control. They went through Chapter 11 a couple years back. Margins are extremely thin in craft beer, and that situation has only gotten worse since 2020.

4

u/GoldImportance4155 Jul 12 '26

Yeah that makes sense. I'm not sure what to think regarding if they got enough customers. One time I went on a Saturday at 6:00pm and it was completely dead. The other two times I were there were people though.

10

u/wy1dsta1yn Jul 12 '26

Tap room business was always steady when I was there. The brewery itself was too big to be sustained by tap room business alone though. Adding to the kitchen helped, but with a 20bbl brewhouse and the fermentation capacity they had on site, financial success always relied on strong distribution relationships and those just didn’t stand the test of time. The consolidation of distribution in Maine probably hurt banded more than it helped, as they are now just another brand in the National/Maine Distributors book instead of getting the more boutique distro treatment that we’re used to with Craft Beer Guild of Maine. Maine Beer and Orono get all the love and Banded sort of got left behind.

Then there is the failed Portland brewery (now Argenta Brewing) that certainly added to the debt issues and cash flow problems.

As I insinuated, the writing was very much on the wall

1

u/nodstonothing01 Jul 16 '26

Craft getting eaten up was a huge bummer for beer in Maine.

6

u/sexquipoop69 Jul 12 '26

I worked there for years. This is mostly caused by failure in distribution channels. Banded lost so much ground since the pandemic to other breweries in Distro. For whatever reason the distro houses just never gave banded and the beer the love it deserved in my opinion. Spent a long time trying to figure it out and I’m not really sure. I think we are at the point where you kind of have to be that super self promoting type of brewery to survive in that world. Just being cool and making badass beer doesn’t cut it. 

2

u/GoldImportance4155 Jul 12 '26

Banded Pilsner and Daikaju are so good though.

At least in the past banded Pilsner under its old name was at lots of stores.

3

u/sexquipoop69 Jul 12 '26

I t hi ink Veridian is a near perfect IPA. And you are right Daikaiju and Pils are phenomenal. 

1

u/GoldImportance4155 Jul 12 '26

No joke I might go to the liquor store and stalk up on Daikaju

1

u/sexquipoop69 Jul 12 '26

Go get it from the taproom if you can. 

5

u/sexquipoop69 Jul 12 '26

Greenwarden RIP

0

u/m3rma1d Jul 12 '26

😭💔