30 Years Ago, Jim Yearwood Started a Brewery at a Rafting Company
In 1996, a river guide and homebrewer named Jim Yearwood did something unusual: he started a brewery inside a outdoor adventure resort in Maine. Thirty years later, the Kennebec River Brewery is still brewing Magic Hole IPA downstairs in the Northern Outdoors lodge in The Forks and pouring it in the brewpub upstairs. It has never stopped being one of the best ways to end a day on the rivers, trails, or wherever you find yourself adventuring.
Where Maine rafting began
Northern Outdoors has been running rivers for more than 50 years. It started in 1976, when Wayne and Suzie Hockmeyer became the first outfitter to raft the Kennebec River, running the first commercial rafting trip in all of Maine. Jim Yearwood, who grew up in Madawaska, joined the crew as a river guide in 1981.
By the 1990s, Jim was guiding by day and homebrewing by night. At an adventure resort, a brewery made a lot of sense. Guests spent all day on the river or the trails and wanted a good place to land at the end of it. What better way to cap off a day in the outdoors than with a cold beer brewed downstairs and served upstairs in the lodge’s brewpub?
A brewery ahead of its time
Jim, by then a co-owner of Northern Outdoors, founded Kennebec River Brewery in 1996, the 8th brewery licensed in Maine, on the bottom floor of the main lodge. The brewpub upstairs started serving his beer in January 1997. The first beer on tap was Magic Hole IPA, named for the Magic Hole rapid on the Kennebec, and it is still the flagship today. Jim served as head brewer himself through 2001.
This was years before craft beer took off in Maine. Kennebec River Brewery was tapping kegs a decade before the Maine Beer Trail existed. In those early years, before cans were common, the brewery bottled its beer and sold it across New England.
Mike McConnell takes the reins
In 2001, Jim handed the brewing over to Mike McConnell. Mike came from a craft beer family: he and his father, Ray, had run Emerald Isle Brew Works in West Warwick, Rhode Island’s first craft brewery.
Mike brewed at Kennebec River Brewery for about 20 years, working on a 4-barrel system bought from Pierre Rajotte. Under Mike, the brewery grew its lineup, joined beer festivals around New England, and was named one of America’s Coolest Breweries by Travel + Leisure. Mike is still part of the Northern Outdoors crew today, as the Resort and Facilities Manager and a hunting guide.
Kevin Ross at the brew kettle
Today, Kevin Ross is head brewer, and the one and only brewer at Kennebec River Brewery. He took over in 2023. Kevin keeps the classics like Magic Hole IPA and Big Mama Blueberry pouring, and he’s known for trying out new beers on the brewer’s rotating tap. In 2024, US Today name the Kennebec River Brewery one of the 10 Best Brewery Hotels in the US.
KRB beer now comes in cans, too. Four-packs of Magic Hole IPA, Big Mama Blueberry, Old Canada Road Pilsner and seasonal Winter Sled Head are sold to go and at local stores. For the anniversary year, Kevin helped craft the 50/30 Ale to celebrate 50 years of Northern Outdoors and 30 years of the brewery, and Magic Hole IPA got a limited 30th anniversary can.
The next generation
Jim’s kids grew up here. His son Paul joined the guide staff in 2003 and daughter Emily in 2006. In 2024, Emily and Paul Yearwood, with their spouses Zach and Mona, bought Northern Outdoors from Suzie Hockmeyer, Jim Yearwood and Russell Walters. Today the four of them own and run the company, including the brewery.
Jim has retired from guiding and says his off-season is now year-round. But he still gets to see what he started 30 years ago carried forward by his family. And his order hasn’t changed: “Hands down a Magic Hole IPA or two.” But he has been known to test some of Kevin’s new brews now and then!
Here's to the next 30
Thirty years in, the idea is the same one Jim started with: spend the day outside, then come in for good food and a beer brewed right here. Stop by the brewpub, raise a Magic Hole IPA, and help us toast three decades of Kennebec River Brewery. Cheers!