The craft beer industry in Maine has really blossomed since a 2011 law made it okay to serve and sell beer in 4oz to 16oz samples in brewery tasting rooms. Before that, all beer had to be consumed in bars and not at the site of creation. There are over a dozen breweries in the city, and it ranks as one of the top beer destinations in the country (don’t worry, my heart is still in Asheville!)
After our duck boat tour (at around 11am) we visited the first brewery of the day – Sebago Brewing Company. Overall, their beers were good. These were my favorites:
Simmer Down – Session IPA 4.9% – 47IBU
Frye’s Leap IPA – 6%, 55 IBU
Austin Street Brewing
Austin Street was a tiny brewery in the shadow of Alagash’s giant facility. It was one of the breweries I was most looking forward to visiting in Portland, and it did not disappoint. They had four beers on tap, and offered generous 5 oz samples for $2 each. Their Patina Pale Ale (5.3%, 40 IBU) was my favorite – crisp and delicious and incredibly refreshing.
A close runner up was the Kon-Tiki, an American Pale ale (5%, 40 IBU) with a fruity flavor palette.
Honorable mention to Rally, a 3.8% Session IPA that was easy drinking and incredibly tasty.
Austin Street’s assistant head brewer is a woman – one of the only in all of Maine from what I understand, and kudos for that (not having only one woman, but for Austin Street having her!)
Sharing the same small industrial building was also Foundation Brewing. I’m glad I visited, but am not sure it would be worth a second trip. They were playing (too) loud music, and their beer was meh. The music was so loud you couldn’t have a conversation with the people at the table. Maybe that was a ploy to increase turnover? Or more than likely the “sound system” was just poorly designed in that the bartenders weren’t in line with the speakers and kept turning it up to hear their tunes. The brewery was mighty popular, but they managed to handle the crowd quickly and efficiently, so that is a plus.
Allagash Brewing
Across the street from Austin Street and Foundation was Allagash. Since I’d had their white before many times, it wasn’t on my list of must-tastes when I arrived in Portland. But everyone at Austin Street and Foundation said we had to visit and I’m so glad we did! The tours for the day were “sold out” (though not really, since they were free!) but they were still giving away free samples. Each of us got a token and a hand stamp that we turned into the bar for a free flight. As in four, four ounce pours of beer each.
Allagash is probably the oldest craft brewery in Maine, having been around since 1995. They can brew 70,000 barrels a year (compared with the 1994 Highland Brewing in Asheville, which brews about 50,000 a year). The tasting room featured a great outdoor patio, flower arrangements on every table and free beer. FREE BEER! We each got to sample four beers – Allagash House, a bourbon barrel aged tripel, a Chardonnay aged saison and Hoppy Table Beer. All were very good.
Teardrops & Ales 