Maines mighty microbreweries

Maines mighty microbreweriesMaines mighty microbreweriesAfter sailing Maines sparkling seas, kayaking and canoeing its pristine lakes, hiking its lofty mountains or schussing down its snow-covered slopes, what could be better than an icy-cold beer- especially a hand-crafted ale or lager from a local microbrewery or brewpub?Maine now ranks fifth in the nation for the number of breweries per capita. Even more amazing, Portland, its largest city, has the second highest number of breweries per capita after Portland, Oregon, where, most agree, Americas microbrewery trend began. The Maine craft beer revolution, steadily brewing for nearly 30 years, shows no signs of slowing down. In 2013, Maine had 35 breweries and brewpubs. Today, less than a year later, there are nearly 55. According to the Maine Brewers Guild, established in 1986, production will increase by 200% by 2018.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreBeer lovers, especially those in the East, who are familiar with offerings from top Maine microbreweries like Gearys and Shipyard, no longer have to head to the West Coast to tour breweries making hand-crafted ales, stouts and other brews. Nor do curious vacationers who might know little about hand-crafted beer but probably have heard that its taste, aroma and complexity rival that of fine wines. From Kittery, at Maines southern tip, clear up to Bar Harbor, you can visit microbreweries and sample one of a kind brews, or hunker down at friendly brewpubs to enjoy hand-crafted beers with fried clams or steamed lobster.The Maine Beer Trail, an informative map and guide to the states breweries, was designed by the Maine Brewers Guild to facilitate vacationers beer tasting adventures. Though sampling these fine hand-crafted brews is reward enough, the Maine Beer Trail Pass, downloaded free from the guilds website, offers gifts to the intrepid. Visit 10 breweries, and get a trucker hat. Stop at 20, and youll get a T-shirt. Visit all 50-odd breweries and brewpubs, and receive a special Prize Pack.Several breweries are off the beaten track, but most are along the coast in prime tourist territory like Kittery, Ogunquit and Kennebunk in the south the City of Portland Sebago and Naples in the Lakes Region northwest of Portland Freeport, where thousands flock year-round to the famous outdoor gear emporium, L.L. Bean and Mid-Coast Maine, home to Acadia National Park, seaside towns like Boothbay Harbor, Belfast, and Monhegan Island, site of a centuries-old artists colony.Whats more, in addition to sampling one of a kind beers, visitors get an up-close look at the brewers art and, in many cases, a chance to talk with brewers who all share a passion for creating ales and lagers reflecting centuries-old home brewing traditions.For families, a visit to one of Maines microbreweries offers young people the opportunity to learn about an industry thats a model of old-fashioned Americana, helmed by husbands and wives, fathers and sons, and sometimes entire families.Many microbreweries are in interesting locales. South of Portland, in the town of Lyman, just inland from Ogunquit- where Rocky Coast Brewing serves unfiltered English ales in a cozy brewpub- Funky Bow Brewery Beer Company gives tours and offers tastings on an organic farm.In Newcastle, in the Boothbay Harbor area, the Oxbow Brewing Co., with a distinctive logo of an owl bearing a keg in its talons, is a small farmhouse style brewery where you can taste seasonal ales as well as its experimental Freestyle Series, and buy limited release barrel-aged bottles and big jugs called growlers.In Bar Harbor, at the Atlantic Brewing Company- whose quirky logo depicts a fishing boat with a banner proclaiming, Save the Ales- taste award winning Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale and deep, dark Coal Porter on a 10 acre farm surrounded by hops fields and pine woods. While in town, also stop at Bar Harb or Brewing Company, home of nationally known beers like Thunder Hole Ale and Cadillac Mountain Stout, and Bar Harbors first microbrewery, established in 1990.Not actually a farm, Brays Brewpub Eatery, in a turn of the century Victorian farmhouse in the popular Lakes Region town of Naples, serves up Brandy Pond Blonde, Quaker Ridge Oatmeal Stout and other brews, as well as burgers and light fare. Also in the Lakes Region, stop in Harrison at the recently opened Pennesseewassee Brewing Company, or in Gorham at the brewery of Sebago Brewing Company, which opened in 1998, and has brewpubs in Kennebunk, Scarborough, Portland and Gorham.There are even a couple of resorts where you can immerse yourself in the brewery experience. One is the Boothbay Resort Craft Brewery, a mile from downtown Boothbay Harbor. Watch brewers work while dining indoors, or head to the outdoorbiergarten, and quaff in-house offerings as well as those by local brethren brewers. Along with tours, the resort has a bocce court, pool table and a game room to keep the little ones engaged. And, if you dont have time for a tour or meal, take your beer to go in a growler. Another resort brewery, northwest of Skowhegan and a little bit off the beaten path, is the Kennebec River Pub Brewery at Northern Outdoors resort. Rent a lakeside cabin or pitch a tent along the Kennebec River, and enjoy white water rafting, fishing, hiking, ATVing and snowmobiling, along with hand-crafted brews.Sooner or later, Maine vacationers find their way to charming, seaside Portland, the states largest city, the site of a dozen microbreweries and the place where the Maine craft beer revolution began with the opening of the D.L. Geary Brewing Company in 1986, the same year the Maine Brewers Guild was established. Gearys is still owned by husband and wife team David and Karen Geary and, despite its logo of a big Maine lobster, its beers have a decidedly English flair. Not surprisingly, David Geary got his training while vi siting the breweries of England and Scotland under the tutelage of Scottish nobleman and brewer Peter Maxwell Stuart.The brewery gives half-hour tours Monday through Friday, with tastings of signature beers like Gearys Pale Ale, Hampshire Special Ale, Gearys IPA and London Porter, seasonal brews like the refreshingly light Summer Ale, and limited edition beers like Oatmeal Stout and Oakie Doakie Scotch Ale. Gluten intolerant visitors can try IXNAY, the first gluten free beer made in Maine. For non-tipplers, as well as children, the brewery makes root beer.Another well-known Portland microbrewery that also makes its own root beer is Sea Dog Brewing Co. Established in 1993, Sea Dog has two brewpubs, one in South Portland and one in Topsham, northeast of Freeport and home to L.L. Bean. At Sea Dogs two brewpubs, enjoy innovative fare while tasting year-round and seasonal brews, including Blueberry Wheat Ale, made with Maines signature crop. For a tour of Sea Dogs brewing facilities, you ll have to go to Bangor. There you can visit the citys second brewery, recently opened Geaghan Brothers Brewing Company, and just north in Amherst, another newcomer the Square Tail Brewing Company.Also in Portland, nationally known Shipyard Brewing Company, which opened in 1994, runs a year-round brewpub in Eliot, and seasonal brewpubs at the Sunday River and Sugarloaf ski resorts. At the Portland brewery, video tours are given daily, and full 1 -hour brewery tours (which must be reserved) are given Tuesday nights and, in June, July and August on Thursday nights. Along with familiar beers you might have tried at eateries throughout the country or bought at your local supermarket, youll find rarities like the Shipyard Bourbon Barrel Aged Series, including Imperial Stout, Double Scottish Ale, Smashed Pumpkin Ale and Barley Wine. The brewery also makes Captn Elis Soda, a line of soft drinks.Allagash Brewing Company, established in Portland a year after Shipyard, bills itself as New En glands original maker of Belgian style wheat beers. Its range of brews includes Allagash White, flavored with curaao liqueur, orange peel and spices, and Allagash Double Ale, made with seven different malts and in the style of Belgiums Trappist Monks, whose beers are among the worlds most coveted.Allagash has yet another distinction. Its on Industrial Way, a short block of warehouses considered Maines craft beer crucible. Here, some of Maines top microbreweries got their start. Today, a new crop of microbreweries, run by recent college grads, has moved into the same quarters and is making their own brand of history. Given Maines growing prominence in the microbrewery industry, its no exaggeration to say that these fairly nondescript warehouses might one day be National Historic Landmarks.Among the brightest newcomers is The Bissell Brothers Brewing Company at 1 Industrial Way, the same building where two prominent Maine breweries were born. One is Rising Tide Brewery, a family owned concern that makes international style artisanal ales and is now the largest brewery in Portlands booming East Bayside neighborhood, known as East Bayside for its concentration of breweries. The other is Freeport-based Maine Beer Company, founded in 2009, and known not only for its fine beers but for its commitment to good causes, expressed in the company motto, Do The Right Thing.As for Bissell Brothers Brewing, the microbrewery is co-owned by Noah Bissell, in his early 20s, perhaps the countrys youngest brewery owner, and 30-something older brother, Peter. In a relatively short time BBB has garnered a stack of laurels. In March 2014, a headline in theBoston Globecrowed Why Bissell Brothers is the New Must-Have of New England Craft Beer Fanatics. Interestingly enough, BBBs fame is based largely on a single beer, The Substance, an IPA so remarkable that it regularly flies off the shelves. Another BBB offering is Heartstrings Red Ale, originally made for a top Portland beer bar, Nov are Res Bier Caf, whose Latin name, appropriately enough, means to start a revolution.Also on Industrial Way is newcomer Foundation Brewing Company, co-owned by 30s-ish Joel Mahaffey and partner John Bonney, who both cite a passion for brewing, making farmhouse style ales, including spicy, fruity Belgian-style pale ales known assaisons. Some of their top brews are Blaze, an IPA Undertow, a darksaisonwith raisin, plum and caramelized sugar flavors and Wanderlust 1, with aromas of tropical fruits, peach and Maine pine and flavors of peach and mango.In 1 Industrial Ways Suite 8 is Austin Street Brewery, whose young co-owner Jake Austin began brewing beer at home on Austin Street in Westbrook, a Portland suburb. In the tasting room, open Friday and Saturday, sample brews by Austin and partner Will Fisher, like Patina Pale, an American-style pale ale with flavors of citrus and pine Kon-Tiki, made with New Zealand and Australian hops, and redolent of tropical fruit Oliver, an American bro wn ale fermented with coffee and the lovely and very drinkable Catherine, a double IPA.Portland is a relatively small city, but if you dont have a car, take heart. A young Maine couple, Zach and Allison Poole , have established a Portland based brewery tour business. Tours on the lime green Maine Brew Bus cost $45-$65 per person, and are given virtually every day, and several times on Saturday and Sunday. Youll visit old-timers like Allagash and Rising Tide, and newcomers like Infiniti Fermentation Distillation on the Old Ports waterfront and Bunker Brewing Company in East Bayside. (In some cases, youll also get a chance to taste homemade sausages, hot dogs and brews at The Thirsty Pig, another top Portland beer bar.) On the York County Bounty tour, visit Banded Horn Brewing Company in Biddeford, as well as Gneiss Brewing in Limerick and Funky Bow Brewery in Lyman. A Northern Exposure tour takes in the Maine Beer Company in Freeport, Baxter Brewing Co. in Lewiston and a couple of b rewpubs, including Ebenezers in Brunswick.For years, vacationers have headed to Maine to eat lobster and fresh seafood, often ending a meal with blueberry cake or pie. Along with great sailing, canoeing, hiking and skiing, generations of Americans have discovered that theres good eating in Maine. But who knew you could also drink so well in Maine?This article first appeared on Travel Squire.