Liberator Brewing Company
Liberator Brewing Company: The conception
The concept of Liberator Brewing Co. was born as I was taking care of my Elderly Farther living in Long Island N.Y., his wishes were to stay and pass on in his own house of 57 years. I always knew that my Father flew a B24 Liberator Bomber during WW II, however he never spoke about this part of his life actively, unless you dragged some stories out of him and even those were cut short, understandably! My only knowledge on his participation in WWII was that I knew he flew many missions in a B24 over the European Theater and dropped out of high school at 17 to join the US ARMY AIR CORP, very common at those times. Some of the short stories I remember burned in to my mind are the stories of this B24 Bomber flying back crippled and very damaged to home base in England after a bombing raid, those stories seemed to stick in my mind, even to this day as my thoughts of creating, once again, my own small hand-crafted brewery I wondered what I was going to call this brewery? Dozens of names came to mind, but nothing stuck out in front for me, I even created a Face Book contest to name the brewery with no avail or excitement from the array of names I had chosen.I have been in the craft brewing industry since 1989 and it was time for me to enter the new age of craft brewing. Than I thought what’s in a name anyway, it’s what you do with it, right? Then after years of traveling back and forth from Maine to NY to assist my Father's needs, he finally did pass at the young age of 93 in his own house, has were his wishes. After the Funeral and some much-needed down time I had to start preparing his house for sale in NY, while cleaning out all of his personal objects and affairs I had found some very interesting pictures, medals and letters of his flight crew with the B24 resting in the background, I thought this picture was in too good of condition to be real, so I brought the picture to a professional photographer and a WWII Aviation historian and they both verified the picture authentic. After placing the picture on Face Book on Veterans day, as a tribute to my Father and all the fly boys and girls that helped fight to keep this country free, a friend of mine mentioned to me, why don’t you call your Brewery" Liberator Brewing Co". in tribute to your Dad. The gears in my head instantly started turning, I immediately had my graphic artist create a label from this photograph, the idea and concept were perfect, Liberator Brewing Co. was born. To all who have served to keep this country free, many giving the ultimate sacrifice.
LIBERATOR BREWING COMPANY SALUTES YOU
TEAM
Richard Ruggiero
Owner/Brew-master-Quality control (Taste Tester) and all around Beer Keg. O'ye - payer of the Bills-. Poor Richard.
.
Brewing beer and designing and operating brew pubs and breweries have been a passion for me since 1990. I had been an amateur beer-maker before that, but I decide then to leave the electronic defense industry working for the D.O.D. and take my passion to the next level.
I moved from my home on Long Island, New York to Chicago to study at the Siebel Institute for brewing Science, graduating in 1993. I moved back to Long Island and worked with Long Island’s first micro brewing corporation, the James Bay Brewing Company. I honed my brewing skills on a seven-barrel steam-fired Pub brewing system capable of producing seven hundred barrels of hand-crafted beer annually for sale and consumption at the James Bay Brewing Company/ pub.
James Bay was a big success, getting lots of press right away. We one various gold and silver medals at the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup. As I became known in the beer industry, I noticed there was a need for the services of someone who had the technical background and brewing skills to help others create award-winning ales and lagers, and who understood the science of brewing. I sold my shares in James Bay and started consulting for breweries along the East Coast. Among the startup breweries I have worked on, besides James Bay, are Neptune Brewing in New York and Oak Pond Brewing ,Rock Harbor Brewing Co, and Atlantic Brewing in Maine, as well as, and Harbor Head Brewing in Long Island N.Y.
In 1995, I was hired by a local entrepreneur and temporally relocated to Rockland, Maine to create a micro-brewery in Rockland, Maine, Named Rocky Bay Brewing company. I eventually bought the brewery with a partner relocated to Rockland, Maine permanently, and operated Rocky Bay Brewing Company in Rockland for thirteen years. After moving on from Rocky Bay I worked for Bank of America to learn more about finance, and then for Blueberry Broadcasting to improve my understanding of using Radio advertising media and improve my marketing skills. My real passion has called me back. My old customers have repeatedly asked when I was going to start another brewery. I recently designed and built a Nano-brewery for Amalfi on the Water in Rockland named Shag Rock Brewing and Rock Harbor Pub and Brewing Company which have received great press and quickly developed a reputation for great beers.
It’s time to bring my passion for brewing great beer once again to the Midcoast area. Nano Small batch hand crafted beers are exploding in popularity in the American market, and growing consistently every year, Hand crafted beers that are unique outside the mainstream are very quickly becoming destination spots. Small breweries that operate on a three-tier marketing model –On Premise retail, retail take-out, and on-premise food revenue, are consistently successful if they have a quality product. I have consistently proved I can produce world-class Lagers and Ale’s, and can operate a brewery profitably.
Some claim this is a difficult economy to start a new venture, but with every negative comes a positive, it seems clear that while people are spending more carefully on entertainment, they are also focusing on getting value and quality for their money. Creating a quality flavorful product in a comfortable environment will attract repeat customers in both the summer visitor season and throughout the rest of the year.
Cheers,
Richard
Karen Ruggiero
Tasting Room Manager/Financials and all around bossy fun person. AKA- The Queen.
Karen Ruggiero, Born and groomed in Mass. Working in the Banking industry as a bank manager and an avid equestrian trainer, became fed up with the normal every day redundant rotten routine of the working life and decided to move to Rockland Maine for adventure, Family, poverty ,horses and the pursuit of life long love and companionship(in pursuit of a man slave),of course that's when she ran into myself, Brew master and all around fun- guy (Fungus) and male slave.The rest is ,as they say , historic.
Although Karen's main expertise is running an equestrian center in Maine, horse training and lessons, she also keeps us on track at the tasting room and also assists my self in the brewery while making sure we don't consume all of our products .
Doug Anderson
Graphic Artist/Marketing and all-around Idea Guru AKA -Crappy Bastard.
Doug Anderson, originally hailed from the NY area and moved to Maine for unknown dark reasons of Celtic origins. Graphic artist to the stars, Linda Beans Perfect Maine ,Currier Gazette ,Rocky Bay Brewing Co. just to name a few, and now Liberator Brewing Co. He is also an very talented artist and painter; you most likely will see his craft around the coast of Maine in business, art gallery's, hand craved signs, labels and various art work designs for local business and of course, Liberators beer labels.
A master of many trades and Bag Pipes .If you hear the haunting sounds of bag pipes carrying over the water its most likely Mr. Anderson ,if you happen to run into him, please feel free to buy him a cold craft beer or a wee bit of single Malt.