Women in Small Business: Olive Pit Brewing by Christine Cain

LISBON – Christine Cain woke up one morning and decided she was going to open a brewery. Instead, it was a long and complicated journey that brought her to this town of 4,000.

The daughter of teachers, she earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a master’s in environmental administration from Yale, and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Rochester.

“I never knew what I wanted to do,” she said.

A stint at a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., brought home the reality of how difficult it can be to survive in a city with an expensive nonprofit salary. Then it was on to a B2B company, where the money and experience were good, but it wouldn’t last. In 2000, the dot-com bubble burst and the company she worked for went bankrupt.

“I was looking for a job and it was supposed to be a short-term thing, so I was like, “Cain continued. “I love sports and I love books, so I applied for Dick’s Sporting Goods and (what was) borderline at the time.”

She landed a job at Dick’s and soon found herself in the company’s management training program—the beginning of her career in retail management. She was soon hired at a nearby Barnes & Noble, where she worked her way up the ranks to become a store manager for over 10 years.

Changes at Barnes & Noble forced a rethink, leading to two more corporate jobs and three years running her own ecommerce site.

Meanwhile, on a trip to see a friend, she meets her future life partner, who falls in love with Maine. With nothing to lose, the women set some standards and in 2015 Rochester, New York, put it in the rear view mirror and headed to Brunswick. Cain spent the next seven years as a manager at a Starbucks in Auburn.

She said she was grateful to Starbucks for making it possible for her to move to Maine, but the job was physically demanding, with her on her feet all day. “That’s part of it,” she said. I thought if I worked hard at 50 I would be working for myself.

The road to Lisbon falls

Christine Caine fills a six-pack of Pink Boots Cranberry Sour Sept. 22 at Olive Pit Brewing in Lisbon Falls. Beer was heading to Smitty’s Game Labs in Topsham. Daryn Slover / Sun Journal

In the year In October 2018, an idea began to form in her head. “We were driving one fall afternoon,” Cain explained. Because that’s what we did when we first went to Maine – to drive and enjoy the scenery – and happened upon Thanksgiving Grains in Monmouth. The business wasn’t open yet, she remembers, but the brewer was there and they were talking about the business. That night Cain had an epiphany. She can do this.

Cain loves the tasting room experience of trying new things. But a trend in Maine brewing has emerged, and not in a good way. Most of the artisanal cooks they met were very forward-thinking—something neither Cain nor his wife liked. While hops are an important ingredient in beer and add flavor, hops are also bitter. There is a physiological explanation for their response, but the bottom line is that women taste more bitter than men. And hoppy beers tend to be more bitter, so it’s not a stretch to conclude that most women don’t like IPA-style beers as much as men. That set the wheels in motion. Over the next six months, Cain sets out to solve the problem – can she work in finance, where can she find a building, can she make good beer? In the year On her birthday in May 2019, she decided she was going to open a brewery while sitting around a campfire near Acadia National Park.

Now consider the odds. In the year A 2021 survey by industry trade group the Brewers Association found that women account for 23.7% of brewery owners in this country, compared to 75.6% owned by men. Taking that a step further, only 2% of breweries in America are owned entirely by women.

“If I could give advice to young women thinking about their future, the biggest thing for me is don’t let the ‘hard’ or the fear stop you,” Cain said. “There were a lot of times where I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is hard,’ or, ‘This is scary.’ And I had to keep telling myself what kept me from doing these things before I turned 50.

Brewing school was on tap, as was a business plan, so she looked for a building in Lisbon Falls and bought a home in 2015. She focused on downtown for Taitawa, and when she approached city officials, the response was positive, she said. The Economic Development Officer at the time was extremely enthusiastic and supportive.

“So, I became more committed to the idea of ​​being here in my own community. Being able to go to work, being able to create, bringing that Starbucks culture of connection and community and creating a third place and bringing that to my community.

Cain found a building, but did not leave. Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit. She was introduced to the owner of the building at 16 Main St. in September 2020 and closed on the sale in April 2021 of the former hair salon, which still has rental apartments above the business and a large parking lot overlooking the Androscoggin River.

Olive Pit Brewery was born and finally opened its doors to the public on New Year’s Eve 2021.

Christy Cain has enough signature colors to form a rainbow on the right day. Daryn Slover / Sun Journal

Olive, the pit bull of Christine Cain, is the name of her brewery, Olive Pit Brewing in Lisbon Falls. Photo of Christine Cain

Startup Woman-Owned Business Facts

Cain started the business after the Covid-19 pandemic, which created its own challenges. Then this year it faced a major downtown rebuilding project, which saw Lower Main Street completely torn up, new water and sewer lines, sidewalks, street and streetlights. Some businesses around her, most of which are owned by women, have seen sales drop by up to 75%, while others face the prospect of closing.

Cain and other business owners secretly organized a block party on the main street of the downtown area to create some buzz and business activity in the downtown district. The first phase of the project is winding down and before the snow flies, Cain and other businesses will wait for new sidewalks, road and street lights and the mud, noise and disruption.

Asked what it’s like to work in a male-dominated industry, Cain says everyone is welcomed, accepted and supported. Brewers are a very tight group of people and they always meet each other, looking for pounds of such and such hops or other ingredients.

“I had zero issues with feeling welcome,” she said. I think you have to agree with the boys club that made me that soft. To me that was no big deal. I had boyfriends that I lived with all the time.”

She experienced what she calls a “microaggression” where another brewer, in a patronizing tone, might give her advice on her product. Her response? “If I were a guy, you wouldn’t be calling me to give me a tip.”

The Pink Boot Society is a national group and group of women in the brewing industry that Cain serves as an internal support system, which she says has helped her network with other female brewers in the state.

Beer has long been the domain of men in this country, but that is changing. Industry groups like the Brewers Association conduct annual surveys and find that more women are drinking beer than in years past, especially young women in their 20s and 30s, another reason Cain decided to open a brewery.

Overall, Cain said, despite the challenges, Olive Pit Brewing has been very well received in its first year and its main goals are to continue getting the word out, filling the brewery’s calendar with events to attract and retain more Zeitophiles. The infrastructure that her customers have been asking for is to start bottling her beer.

Christy Cain takes a break from filling up on beer cakes at Olive Pit Brewing to check out Main Street in Lisbon Falls. Daryn Slover / Sun Journal

Reflecting on women in business

“When I think about my friends and my generation, I think we all grew up with the power to do whatever we wanted,” Cain said, discussing how much women have progressed in the business world in this country over the past 50 years. .

“Women focus on different things,” she said. “If you are raising children, you will do these things in my life. So, I think we’re more equitable where people in a couple are sharing those responsibilities equally and that levels the playing field. And I think our culture is changing for the better in that regard.

“My goal, my whole motivation, was to create a whole range of beers with a little hoppy focus — more malt than hop forward,” Cain said. “So I have an IPA on tap and we have an English Summer Ale that Allen is very happy with, so I have something for those people as well. I want to create an environment where I don’t want someone to come in and have the same experience as me and my wife, where there isn’t a single beer that they like.

Is her strategy working?

“Seventy-five percent of the women who come in here say, ‘Oh, thank you for not serving all IPAs.’ They generally prefer more malt forward, less hoppy beers.

What are the parts?

“The Pink Boot Sour – that’s huge,” Cain said.

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