In the early 1920's the Forsley family started making homeade root beer. As a young boy Eli Forsley used to grab some of the root beer from his father's supply in the basement and sold it around his neighborhood.

Eli grew up and become Dr Eli Forsley. He joined the navy and served in WWII. After the war he worked to assist war veterans and met Agnes who soon became his wife. After moving to Gray, Maine Eli decided to continue the family tradition of making root beer in his basement. To his family his spirit of fun is still alive in Capt'n Eli's Root Beer.

One of Eli's sons, Fred founded Federal Jacks Restaurant and Brew Pub in 1992. Two years later he partnered with another man to form Shipyard Brewing Company in Portland, Maine which soon grew into Maine's largest brewery. With the encouragement of his mother, Fred decided to bring back his family's famous root beer in 1996.

The popularity of Capt'n Eli's Root Beer kegs grew and in 2002 Fred decided to bottle it. The root beer label was created by Chris Hadden and illustrator Bruce Hutchinson. In the first year over 5000 cases of root beer was sold in Maine alone.

To help promote the brand a comic book was created. Jay Piscopo still writes and illustrates the graphic novel adventure story - The Undersea Adventures of Capt'n Eli's.

Today Capt'n Eli's Sodas are still handcrafted at Shipyard Brewing Company in Portland, Maine and only use all natural cane and brown sugars.