By Stowell P. Watters
Staff Writer
    Now in its 26th year, the Christmas Prelude has become a massive celebration held in the Kennebunks that marks the beginning of the holiday season. Since its inception in 1982 the gathering has only grown; marked by caroling, festive dining, art shows, numerous tree lightings, Santa on a lobster boat and special offerings from local businesses.
    Federal Jack’s, a Kennebunkport brew pub, is one of seven Shipyard breweries in the state, but is unique because it is where, in 1992, Fred Forsley began the Shipyard name. Forsley, originally from Gray, Maine, was somewhat of a super-entrepreneur; he created his own realty business at age 19 and was involved in numerous business startups involving real estate, health care and the food and beverage industry throughout his career.
    According to the Shipyard Web site, the company grew out of the Kennebunkport Brewing Company and Federal Jack’s as a way to “turn around a troubled retail development in Kennebunk.” With these properties and the addition of Master Brewer Alan Pugsley, the company prospers today.
    “I came from England, where the ale is king. I came to America to build breweries,” said Pugsley.
    Among the vats and tanks at the Ringwood Brewery – one of the first breweries in England built by Peter Austin in 1977 in Hampshire County, birthplace of the Old Thumper Ale – Pugsley learned the craft. In spring 1994 he and Forsley bought an abandoned foundry near the Portland waterfront and built what stands today as Shipyard’s central brewery.
    “We have a hard working team and we produce a consistent, original, finely crafted beer that I am extremely proud of,” Pugsley said.
    In 1993 the company was still located at Federal Jack’s and Pugsley set out to pay homage to the extravagant Christmas celebration.
    “We thought, well why not make a Prelude ale for people to drink around the holiday season, something that will compliment food and have a warm flavor,” Pugsley said.
    Previously, the company had offered a few seasonal beers including a Winter Ale, and for 14 years the Winter Ale coexisted alongside the Prelude Special Ale. That is, until this year.
    “Stores can only offer so much shelf space for each beer company they keep in stock, so we sat down and decided to just focus on the Prelude Special Ale, and stop working against ourselves,” Pugsley said.
    Where the Winter Ale is a copper-orange beer with 5.2 percent alcohol, the Prelude Special Ale is a “rich, nutty, full bodied English Ale with an inviting amber hue and a hoppy finish,” with 6.7 percent alcohol by volume, according to Tami Kennedy, public relations spokesman for Shipyard.
    “In 2006, this beer was named one of the World’s 50 best beers in the UK International Beer Challenge,” Kennedy wrote in a recent press release about the Prelude Special Ale.
    In addition to discontinuing the Winter Ale, Shipyard is now selling the Prelude in six and 12 packs. That isn’t to say, however, that Prelude will be absent from the bar.
    “During Prelude the entire downtown area is shut down, its hard to get in here, people line up out the door to get a draft,” said Mike Pierce, a bartender at Federal Jack’s. “Four out of five people order the Prelude Special Ale, it’s a zoo.”
    Also new this year is the artwork on the Prelude bottle and packaging. A classic winter scene in Docks Square, created by Portland artist Paul Black, reminds imbibers that Shipyard is as much a part of the celebration as the falling snow. Black’s work, which includes, but is not limited to, paintings of greater Portland and coastal Maine, is currently being shown at the Fore Street Gallery in Portland.
    “This beer, all of our beers, are about real people crafting something with their hands. This isn’t machines and robots, this is real, there is passion in the work,” Pugsley said.