Get that candlepin arm ready. It’s almost bowl time.

After candlepin alleys closed in Auburn and Lisbon in recent years, the owner of Sparetime Recreation in Lewiston has decided to convert a dozen of its 10-pin lanes into candlepin lanes this summer. 

“We’ve been getting calls,” Manager Tom Giberti said. “We reached out to the candlepin people we knew and we talked to them. There was definitely enough interest.”

The conversion will start in early July and he hopes to have it wrapped up by the end of that month. In the meantime, Sparetime is redoing 22 lanes of 10-pin with newer inlays and approaches from the recently closed Waterville location.

Bowl on!

Taproom

And from bowling to beer: Owners of the future Bear Bones Brewery on Lisbon Street are asking for the public’s help in putting finishing touches on their space through a Kickstarter campaign.

The $25,000 they want to raise would help set up a tasting room and cover expenses such as building materials, bottles and ingredients.

“We are now in the middle of our build-out,” the campaign description reads. “The demolition is finished, our walls are going up and the brew house is ready to be installed. We have been doing the work ourselves and with the help of our close friends who have been generously donating their time. We still have a long way to go.”

They’re offering logo’d glassware and swing-top bottles, the chance to get your name on the wall and wooden beer totes made from wood reclaimed from the space during renovations.

The Kickstarter campaign for Bear Bones, owned by Adam Tuuri and Eben Dingman, runs through June 1. Earlier this week, it had more than $20,000 left to raise.

Pedal power

He may not have won at regionals, but Gabriel Jacques’ bicycle-powered smoothies will still be coming to a festival near you (if you live in or around L-A).

Jacques, 17, won the local Young Entrepreneurs Academy competition and headed to regionals in New York last Friday to compete against YEA winners from 10 other states with his smoothie idea for a business named Les Ananas, French for “pineapples.”

“I had a great opportunity to get the contact information of many up-and-coming businesses,” he said. “To see them succeed would mean more to me than winning.”

Fellow students at Lewiston Regional Technical Center will soon help him outfit his red mountain bike with a platform and the pedal-powered blender.

He plans to offer mango/strawberry/banana smoothies at the Liberty Festival on July 4, but could be out cycling and smoothie-ing sooner if he finds another event, he said.

Quick hits about business comings, goings and happenings. Have a Buzz-worthy tip? Contact staff writer Kathryn Skelton at 689-2844 or kskelton@sunjournal.com.