Popular Eastern Maine Brewery To Expand Into Androscoggin County

It's always nice to report about a local business, that's been working hard, getting a chance to expand because all of that work they've been doing has paid off.

That's just the case with the local Brewer brewery, Mason's Brewing Company.

According to a post on the Mason's Brewing Company's Facebook Page, they're looking to spread out a bit, a little farther south of Bangor.

"We are SO excited to announce that we will start construction this fall on a second location on the banks of the Androscoggin River in Auburn, Maine. This project will feature a two-story, 250-seat restaurant, micro-brewery and distillery! If it wasn't for our amazing staff, great partnerships and support from all of YOU....this project wouldn't have been possible! "

Mason's broke ground on the spot they now occupy along 15 Hardy St. in Brewer in January of 2018.

Situated along the very popular Brewer River Walk trail, Mason's has since become a fixture in Brewer's Food & Beverage industry.

Co-owner Chris Morley says the project to expand Mason's to Auburn has been in the works for a couple of years now.

"We got into it right at the first onset of Covid thinking that Covid wasn't going to turn into the thing it turned into...A third party made the suggestion to the then and current Auburn Mayor Jay [Jason J. Levesque] who then reached out to me and saw what we did with a vacant spot on the Brewer side and he said 'Hey, look it, I've got this identical spot. Would you be interested in taking a look at it?' And then through two years worth of conversations and trips back and forth, we were able to hammer it out. "

Morely says the building will have a couple of different uses.

"Basically we occupy two of six floors. The basement and first floor are Masons and then the next 4 floors above us will be apartments. So it's basically mid to high-level apartments or condos overlooking the Androscoggin River. It will be a nice little spot."

Morely says he hopes to have planning approval by September and then immediately get to work laying the foundation.

"We hope to get a foundation in before it freezes so we can continue to build during the winter in hopes that we can be functional late spring, early summer. "

"Once Auburn is up and running, there is a third opportunity for a location. And they're spaced out equally at about an hour and a half. So we hit different demographics for different areas of the state."

As to whether or not the new Mason's location will resemble the original, Morely says there will be some things that are familiar and some things that will be fresh out of the box.

"I think the outfit will be reminiscent of Mason's but I think it will be a fresh, new spin on Mason's. We're gonna have some of Mason's staples on the food, but we're also going to distill spirits there. So that's going to be somewhat of a different aspect than what we do here where it's mostly the production and beer side. You'll still find your pizzas and burgers and such but we might jazz up the menu a little down there. We've always wanted to experiment with a raw bar, and I think that will give us a nice opportunity to do that down there."