The Dilgers placed the creativity, variety, and limitless experimentation that they loved about homebrewing at the core of their business plan for Foulmouthed, their brewery in South Portland, Maine.
In Westbrook, Maine, 33 Elmwood has elevated the food-and-entertainment game by pairing bowling with a beer list and dinner menu that stands up to the city’s fine dining restaurants.
Hermit Thrush Brewery in Brattleboro, Vt., Christophe Gagné showcases local microorganisms by nurturing house cultures of wild yeast and bacteria and embracing spontaneous fermentation.
Maine’s reputation as Vacationland, and millions of yearly tourists, have allowed a food and beverage scene to flourish here in a way normally reserved for huge metropolises.
Brewed on a Peter Austin brick kettle open fermentation system with the Ringwood yeast strain, Geary’s Pale Ale set the standard for malty, English-style ales.
When the father-son duo opened up the Funky Bow Beer Company on a southern Maine farm, they turned it into a massive indoor-outdoor living room, replete with pets, bonfires and bluegrass music.
Looking to tap into the huge demand for India Pale Ales, the monks of Saint Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Mass., say they have brewed the first Trappist IPA in the long history of monastic brewing.
Proclamation Ale Company’s origin story is simple: Dave Witham thought his beers were tasty, and his friends thought they were tasty, so he founded a brewery.
Made up of a cozy wooden bar area with some adjacent tables, a small back patio, a swanky retro lounge, and a ballroom area for the music, The Outer Space hosts acts most days of the week.
Ben Low chose a career in brewing as an alternative to a life as an academic specializing in classics. That one decision point resonates through Low’s approach to brewing at Baxter Brewing Company, the Lewiston, Maine-based beermaker where he serves as director of brewing operations.
Cask & Vine is a popular spot for locals in Derry, N.H. They come for the ambiance (soft lighting, no televisions, an oldies and jazz soundtrack) and the refreshing take on seasonal small plates. Oh, and there’s also 12 constantly rotating draft lines with plenty of local and regional beers.
The warehouse where Idle Hands Craft Ales, Chris and Grace Tkach’s Belgian-focused brewery, has been housed since its opening in 2011 will be razed to make way for Wynn Casinos Everett. They plan to reopen bigger and better.
Ryan Witter-Merithew is a man of many faces. There’s the inventive, open-minded brewer whose talent earned him a job at Hill Farmstead; the loyal friend for whom others come first; and then there’s the eternally mischievous malcontent who likes nothing better than to wind people up on Twitter.
A Providence, R.I., native, Julian Forgue started down a new career path when his father was diagnosed with cancer so he could stay close to home during his treatment. It was around this time that he opened Julian’s, a humble 20-tap eatery tucked away in the city’s Federal Hill neighborhood.
Boston has long been an old city with a newness problem. This adherence to tradition also applies to beer. But veer off the path—into Somerville, Charlestown, or Everett—and you’ll find a vibrant subculture of drinkers, brewers, and restaurateurs doing their own thing.
The owners of this sometimes-noisy, always-busy beer bar and restaurant pride themselves on serving great food, but also their community. Expect a draft list that includes locals like Hill Farmstead’s Edward and Lost Nation’s Gose, plus regional standouts like Allagash White and Unibroue Terrible.
The 20-year-old, Hew Hampshire operation Smuttynose Brewing Company moved in 2014 from a cramped and thoroughly analog brewery to a new facility featuring state-of-the art equipment.
The Oxbow brewery sits on 18 acres in mid-coast Maine and the brewhouse is housed in an old barn. Tim Adams, Oxbow’s co-founder and head brewer, brews for a living because he believes beer is an amazing culinary creative outlet.
In this book, Ben Keene’s brewery profiles are accompanied by gorgeous photos from Bethany Bandera, and they beckon the reader to take a craft beer tour of the Northeast, with recommendations for nearby museums, historic sites, and sports & recreation options.
As head brewer at Hampton, New Hampshire’s Blue Lobster Brewing Co., David Sakolsky brews innovative beers that nevertheless remain rooted in classic styles.
Tod Mott started as an all-grain homebrewer in the late ’80s; after an internship at Catamount, he landed a gig with Harpoon and then joined Portsmouth Brewery. Now Mott and his wife are opening Tributary Brewing Co., in Maine.
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