Hog Island Owner Purchases Plymouth-Based Brewery

ORLEANS – The owner of Hog Island Beer Co. is ready to set sail aboard the Mayflower, so to speak.

 Mike McNamara has purchased Plymouth-based Mayflower Brewing Company. The acquisition gives the Orleans resident ownership of an established brand that has been in business since 2007.

 “I always had definitely an appreciation for the brand, what we call in the industry a legacy brand,” he said.

 McNamara, who owns and operates both the Hog Island brewery on West Road in Orleans as well as the Hog Island Surf Lodge in Wellfleet, began discussions with Mayflower owner and founder Drew Brosseau earlier this year.

 “The owner was looking to retire,” he said. “He had a great staff that was in place in both locations, and I think the timing was just right.”

 Mayflower operates two locations in Plymouth, a brewery and taproom off Route 44 and an outdoor beer garden in the Pinehills. 

 “We could not be more excited about having Mike and the team at Hog Island usher in the next era of growth and prosperity for Mayflower,” Brosseau said in a press release. “Their passion for quality and commitment to community is exactly what I envisioned for Mayflower’s future.” 

 For McNamara, the opportunity to purchase a like-minded brand over the bridge made good business sense. Like Hog Island, Mayflower regularly hosts live music and other events that bring patrons together over food and drinks. There’s also an important piece of history that connects the two brands on and off-Cape, he said, noting that Brosseau himself is a Mayflower descendent.

 “It’s kind of neat to think that the first beers to ever hit the shore on the Cape came over on that boat,” McNamara said. “They wrote the Mayflower Compact in Provincetown Harbor, so it’s got some great ties to the first landing if you will.”

 Mayflower, which for years self-distributed its products, recently entered into a deal with the same distributor that works with Hog Island, which McNamara said will help in the ownership transition. But he said he doesn’t anticipate many changes to the Mayflower brand going forward.

 “I think the beauty of this acquisition is the team in place up there is second to none,” he said. “They’ve got a really, really great team. It’s almost like a big family. They’re young and they have a great outlook. Everything about them, I was very, very impressed when I first met the management team and all the people who make things work over there.”

 For now, he said he’s just excited to welcome Mayflower into the fold. He said he expects the sale to be finalized in the next 45 to 60 days, after the necessary transfer of licenses.

 “For us, it was looking at trying to find another spot that would compliment what we were doing and find another place where the beers as well would compliment what we had,” he said. “And we found it.”