An Oakfield couple learned how to distill black strap molasses into rum from the masters, including a few Virginia moonshiners.
After years of perfecting their art, Peter and Annie Hansen and friend Vlad Yepifanov opened Arbor Distillery three years ago, producing small-batch rum in Oakfield.
Its products celebrate Maine folklore and include Sasquatch Sawmill Silver Rum, Pamola Golden Rum, Space Lobsters Spiced Rum. Their latest creation, Sasquatch Summer Spiked Lemonade, resulted from a collaboration with an iconic Aroostook family business, Houlton Farms Dairy.
The first 50 cases of Sasquatch Summer Spiked Lemonade hit stores in mid-July, selling out almost immediately, Hansen said. It’s been so popular that some stores and beverage distributors are limiting sales to one six-pack per person and others are regularly posting on Facebook that multiple cases have already sold out.
“The distillery is like a hobby gone wild,” Hansen said. “The response has honestly been kind of crazy. We’re making it in small batches, delivering it to stores, and it’s gone a day or two later.”
They’ve been trying to increase production just to keep it on the shelves, Hansen said.
Two weeks after its inaugural release, another 104 cases left the distillery and on Aug. 24, another large batch headed out with Sasquatch sightings in Bangor, Brewer, Glenburn, Patten, Hodgdon, Houlton, Oakfield and Dixmont.
The owners started the distillery in 2023 in Norridgewock while living in Bangor. But the hour travel time each day led them to seek a property where they could live and operate the distillery in one location. After finding something in Oakfield, they moved the distillery north in December.
“We worked our butts off, along with a couple friends, to get the production side done during the winter,” Hansen said.
Arbor Distillery is known for tying in Sasquatch Calling Contests into their tastings. Last summer, the contest at Tocci’s Checkout in Glenburn drew international attention, Hansen said.
“Last year’s contest somehow went completely nuts. It ended up in news stories around the country, on Coast to Coast AM, CNN 10, and even got picked up in Australia,” he said. “We definitely didn’t expect a little contest in Glenburn, Maine, to end up getting attention around
the country and on the other side of the world. Once that happened, we knew we had to do it again.”
The Sasquatch lemonade, which comes in 16-ounce glass bottles with about 2 ounces of Sasquatch rum, was born out of Hansen’s love of Houlton Farms Dairy lemonade.
“I’ve been obsessed with Houlton Farms lemonade forever,” Hansen said. “Since I lived here I would say, ‘It’s the season.’ And I’d always find a way to go up and find some.”
So Peter and Annie visited brothers Jim and Eric Lincoln at the Houlton-based dairy in
June, suggesting they combine their products.
Eric Lincoln said this was a first for them.
“It was an interesting conversation,” he said. “We just never had anything like this before, to have somebody who wanted to take one of our things and add value to another product.”
Much like Houlton Farms Dairy butter, which sells out almost instantly, the Sasquatch lemonade is attractive to some because of the dairy’s reputation.
“That’s what customers tell me when I am out delivering,” Lincoln said. “People say they want to try it because it’s got [our] lemonade in it. And of course it’s being produced locally and people like that, too.”
The distillery buys the lemonade in 10-gallon stainless steel cans, making it easier for them when they are doing their batches, Lincoln said.
“They work till midnight trying to get this made,” he said. “It’s all hand labor.”
In late June, the Hansens announced the new arrival.
“This morning, at 7:15 a.m., we have an official new addition to the family,” they said in a Facebook post. “There may be some small changes and tweaks, but, here it is, born in Oakfield, Aroostook County, Maine, USA with the help of the legendary Houlton Farms Dairy.”
What Hansen really likes about the lemonade story is that it blends the work of an Aroostook County legend and a small local distillery.
“You’ve got Houlton Farms, which has been part of The County since 1938, working with this
little distillery in Oakfield that only started in 2023,” Hansen said. “We are very grateful to the Lincoln family.”
The Sasquatch connection came when they were first trying to develop a logo for the distillery.
Since pirates are associated with rum, Hansen plugged into ChatGPT, “What would a pirate living in northern Maine look like?” The image created resembled Sasquatch, he said.
“And when I think of it, a pirate in the woods of Maine would be a Sasquatch,” he said.
Coming in on the heels of the popular Sasquatch Summer Spiked Lemonade, which is seasonal, is a new fall offering for Arbor Distillery. Working with some local cider producers they have created Tote Road Apple Pie spiked cider.
They are also building a tasting room this winter.
Recently, Hansen drove down to Bardstown, Kentucky, the bourbon capitol of the world, where he bought 6,000 pounds of oak staves, the curved strips that form the bourbon barrels.
“We are steaming the oak staves and making the hardwood floor for the tasting room,” he said. “It’s going to be a unique place to visit.
The distillery’s second Sasquatch Calling Contest and tasting of Sasquatch Summer Spiked Lemonade at Tocci’s Checkout is slated from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29, at 1492 Pushaw Road, Glenburn.
