Two months into her role as president of Portland, Maine-based Oxbow Brewing Company, Bri Warner is finding her groove and taking on more of the hands-on, day-to-day operations. The leadership transition allows founder Tim Adams to spend more time evangelizing for Oxbow and Rising Tide, which the company acquired in early 2025.
Warner joined the brewery from Atlantic Sea Farms, the largest kelp farming operation in the country. The duo joined the Brewbound Podcast for a conversation recorded at Oxbow’s Portland taproom last week, ahead of the New England Craft Brew Summit.
“We’ve been very much focused on the art and the beauty and the flavors and all that has been priority No. 1 for a long, long time,” Adams said. “But in order for us to be in this for the long term, we’ve got to tighten things up behind the scenes on the business front. And Bri just is an absolute master at doing that.”
With Warner at the helm, Adams has been able to return to the field to represent the brands to trade partners and consumers. Most of this winter has found him at the Oxbow Beer Garden in Oxford, Maine, where the brewery serves beers and pizza in a 200-year-old barn alongside nearly 100 acres of cross-country ski tracks and a disc golf course.
“We have four locations, we have two brands, we have a lot of beers – there’s a lot to manage internally,” Warner said. “What that does is it keeps Tim from being out on the road, and I think probably the most power of this is the fact that we get to free him to do the work to continue to grow the brand in a really great and passionate way.
“And I think that you see a lot of breweries and a lot of people in the industry that are having a hard time bridging that gap, and hopefully this move will allow that to do that.”
Before the interview, the Brewbound team details the latest beer industry news, including Tilray’s acquisition of BrewDog’s Australian operations, Four Loko’s proposed sale and George Clooney and buds’ new NA brand, Crazy Mountain.
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