Tod: We got into places like Chicago and DC and California in the first place just to sell enough beer to survive, but the reason we’re still in those particular markets is the beer turned out to be very relevant there.

Adams: Around ’08 and ’09, I used to hang out at the Reef, a bar in DC. It was this huge source of pride that they were one of the biggest Allagash White accounts in the country. They had this rooftop bar and they’d just crush Allagash there. DC summertime, rooftop deck, Allagash White — pretty perfect. I think that’s why they do so well in California too. My sister lives out there and she says every bar you go to, there’s Allagash White.

John Verive (LA-based beer writer; certified cicerone): LA was always a Corona town — it didn’t really have its own local beer industry until 2010. But since before then, Allagash White was a pillar of the bar scene. I live in Hollywood, and White is on the list at just about every decent beer place. It’s such a perfect beer for the LA climate — it pairs great with sunshine. It’s one of the best patio beers around.

Tod: Right as White was catching on, we decided to pull out of markets where it hadn’t clicked. Since then, we’ve grown from 4,000 to almost 100,000 barrels a year — we’re doing 25 times the volume in half the territory. And now everywhere we sell beer, we know it’s fresh.

Perkins: When we expanded in ’07, I think we had maybe 10 or 11 employees. The new space was sprawling, and I said we’d never need another building. I was wrong about that, but it was still a huge jump — and a huge expense, which made us nervous. But growth really started to pop from 2007 to 2010 — like 30 percent growth, 35 percent, I think we had a 42 percent in there. Things got crazy. It’s hard to even remember anything from those days. We just held onto the reins, not really doing any planning. We need new tanks? Buy tanks. We need new people? Hire people. Now, there are about 130 employees working here. And our lineup has grown a lot, but White is still about 80 percent of our overall sales.

Roper: Rob’s lucky that he has such a successful flagship beer. A lot of the new craft breweries do one-off after one-off, but a flagship like White can subsidize so much experimentation.

Tod: We have a little 10-gallon pilot system, and any of our employees — in accounting, or the lab, or the retail store — can brew on it. A lot of those beers become full-scale production beers. Last summer, we had a beer made with Champagne yeast that Mariah, who works in administration, came up with.

Khojastehzad: Some people still come into Novare and are like, holy shit, they make more than just White? We had 41 different Allagash beers on the other day.

Papazian: A really important aspect of what Belgian brewing is about is continued innovation, and that’s what Rob and Allagash have done.

Adams: Back in 2006, Rob was part of a small group of U.S. brewers that Sam Calagione organized for a trip to Belgium. They call themselves the Brett Pack, because that was the moment when brettanomyces [a wild yeast strain that can produce flavors from fruity to funky] started infiltrating the U.S. — not to mention spontaneous fermentation. For any American brewer that came after Allagash in trying spontaneous fermentation, Allagash was the one that broke trail and showed that you can do it in the States.

Calagione: At Cantillon, the famous Lambic brewery, Rob and I climbed the stairs to the attic, where they keep their coolship, the vat where the beer gets spontaneously colonized by yeasts and bacteria in the environment. We were sitting there with the roof slits open, the night air coming in, the steam coming off the beer. We were just quiet for a second, and then Rob turned to me and said, “You know what, Sam? I’m going to build a coolship in Maine.” That was a great moment that I’ll never forget.

Tod: It was a bit of an act of faith. The generally held belief, really, in the world of brewing at the time, was that you could only make these beers in the Senne River Valley area of Belgium.

Sean Sullivan (executive director, Maine Brewers’ Guild): They were like explorers crossing the sea, coming back, and sharing the wealth of everything they learned.

Yvan De Baets (head brewer and cofounder, Brasserie de la Senne, near Brussels): Now, Allagash’s spontaneously fermented beers can easily outcompete some of the very good ones we have in Belgium.

Adams: You go to a brewery or a bar in Belgium as a brewer and say “Maine,” and they’ll say, “Allagash!” Because of Allagash, we’ve piqued a lot of international interest. Everybody’s like, “What’s up with Maine? There’s a lot of great beer coming out of it.”

Eric Michaud (co-owner, Novare Res): Belgians — nobody’s more of a critic of beer than those guys. They just tear apart everything, especially American beers. The fact that they’ve embraced Allagash and recognize that it’s world-class is really cool.

Calagione: There are brewers in this industry who got a hot flagship and then didn’t stay dynamic or adventurous. I think Allagash deserves a lot of credit for not allowing that to happen.

Tod: I doubt our experimental stuff makes any money. These beers take, on average, about two years to make. When you look at the overhead, I don’t think the beers support themselves. White supports them.

Adams: Even though that sector of their production isn’t nearly as profitable, just knowing they make those beers makes White that much more special. It’s a whole brand image: these guys are cutting-edge and not resting on their laurels. If White was all they brewed, there might be some brand fatigue, even with that beer as good as it is.