About Dan Kleban
Dan is a small business owner whose story many Mainers share: navigating hard times, building something lasting, and staying true to your values.
Dan’s values were shaped early on. He grew up middle-class, the youngest of three. When his mother was diagnosed with scleroderma, a rare autoimmune disease, Dan helped care for her while still in high school. After she passed away when Dan was 16, a network of siblings and family friends helped him stay afloat. That sense of community stuck with him.
Like a lot of people, Dan spent many years trying to figure it out. He couch surfed, bartended, DJed, and delivered food to get by. He went to and dropped out of college more than once. He and his brother ran a spray finishing business in Biddeford doing honest hard work.
At the age of 26, Dan went back to school again and earned a degree at the University of Southern Maine in 2004 and graduated from Boston College Law School in 2007. It was while working at a Portland law firm that a colleague introduced him to homebrewing—first in his kitchen, then with a lobster cooker out back. That hobby became a calling, and Maine Beer Company was born.
Dan began his career as an attorney in Portland, but after being laid off during the Great Recession, he took a risk: with more than $200,000 in student debt, he and his wife Beth cashed out their 401(k) so he could start a brewery with his brother. Brewing had been a shared hobby, but they turned it into Maine Beer Company (MBC) with a clear mission: Do What’s Right.
For Dan, that meant more than good beer. It meant paying every worker a living wage, providing fully paid health care for employees, sharing profits, and supporting workers with a retirement plan. Since 2009, MBC has donated 1% of all annual sales to environmental nonprofits and invested deeply in Maine communities. Dan has led efforts at the state and national level to cut red tape for small businesses, serving as head of the Maine Brewers’ Guild and the National Brewers Association.
Dan lives in Cumberland with his wife Beth, a nurse from Lubec. They are the proud parents of twins, Madeline and Oliver. Dan was a former candidate for U.S. Senate.
