Portland recommendations

Hope you dig it! We ate on the patio and loved it; in addition to some nice views, the patio is MUCH quieter than the dining room. The Fore Street restaurant group is legit.

 

My wife loves the lobster roll (I'm boring and don't like seafood). But I always enjoy the small but well-curated beer list and their burger and fries are great.

 

Headed there this weekend. Stopping at Spyglass (on the way), Barreled Souls, Bissell and probably MBC if Dinner is still around. Boone's for a nice meal too. Hotels (as well as Airbnb) are crazy expensive in Portland right now.

 

Yeah...I'm heading back in December most likely. Went in 2019 in December and it was awesome. Hotels are dirt cheap then, and less of a crowd.

 

I was there the same time that year and we decided that we need to be back in the summer to see what it's like at the peak season

 

Oh yeah, summer’s pretty fucking awesome in Portland.

 

Planning a short trip to Portland in a few weeks with my wife for our anniversary. Lots of good stuff in this thread, but I have a basic question about Maine breweries:

In PA, breweries are also allowed to serve other PA-produced hard cider, wine, or liquor under the basic brewery liquor license. And so almost every one does, which is great as my wife is not a beer drinker. Is it similar in Maine or is it typically only their beer?

Looking at the Allagash website I don't see anything about any non-beer beverages. But I see that Bissell lists a couple wines and a cider, so wasn't sure if that was common or not.

I see that Urban Farm does a mix of gruit, kombucha, mead, and cider. I don't see them mentioned at all in this thread and there are only a few reviews here on BA. Anyone have an opinion on them?

 

Hmm, this is a good question. Allagash's Little Grove might be a good "meet you halfway" kind of thing. I also feel like Oxbow, with their mixed ferm and fruited stuff, kind of toes the line between beer and wine.

Oddly enough, I was going to boost this thread up for two, non-beer things:

1.) Golf. How's Riverside Golf Course? Looking at sneaking in a quick nine one morning before beer hunting.
2.) Best coffee in town? I've liked Bard.

 

At least one place we went during our trip in July (I *think* it was Austin St.) had a guest beer on draft.

 

Definitive would be a good bet. They have PLENTY of non-beer alcoholic offerings, and one could argue most of their beer offerings aren't even "beer-like".

Bard, Speckled Ax and Tandem Roastery.

If you go to Tandem's bakery you'll just get regular drip coffee, so if you want to geek out and get a pour over...etc., go to the roastery. Although their bakery is fucking amazing, albeit has a HUGE line...maybe the biggest line in Portland.

Roastery is way more chill, and is near Oxbow. Check their hours first.

 

2nd time this year my Portland trip has been cancelled last minute (this time because of the Hurricane). Maybe I should take it as a sign and not go back.

 

to the best of anyone’s knowledge, has their been a collab between any of these places and a brewery. Speckled Ax did one with Austin but anyone else?

 

Barreled Souls just announced a beer where they're doing three variations, one witih Speckled Ax, one with Tandem, and one with Elements.

 

Oh, that's interesting.

I've never had anything from Barreled Souls. Nothing against them, but they have never seemed to produce anything that interests me. Looking at their menu now filled with fruited gose, marshmallow stouts, and additional double digit ABV monsters doesn't really appeal to me.

 

Absolutely fair. I'm not a huge fan of their IPAs (for one, they don't date them...), and fruited Gose isn't my thing, but I have a barrel society membership because the Barrel Aged beers / Pastry Stouts / Barleywines that they do are great. I'm not downing a pastry stout every night or anything, but every couple/few weeks I'll crack a bottle to share with some friends.

 

Their BA stuff is fantastic, but my favorite beers in the world are high ABV barrel aged monsters. They also apparently make great fruited sours, which I don’t fuck with at all. If neither of those styles are your thing, probably not worth going out of your way for. They do nothing at all in the lager/Belgian lane, which I believe tends to be more your jam.

 

I want to say I’ve seen wine/cider at a couple of places, but I’m not certain and don’t remember where, so this post probably isn’t very helpful. But I think it’s legal, so may be worth calling around a bit. You can always go to Kings Head or Novare, which have awesome tap lists and non beer variety.

No one talks about Urban Farm because it’s terrible. Unless you like gruit and kombucha, in which case maybe it’s great, who knows.

 

#LowABVGang

 

There’s a Kombuchery (sp?) right near Radici, Oxbow…etc that does hard Kombucha too.

@jmdrpi in addition to Definitive to give your wife options, there’s also a distillery at Industrial if I recall correctly. And Lone Pine also has a line of hard seltzers.

 

FWIW Rising Tide appears to have seltzer and wine options. I prefer the beer next door at Austin St, but if you are getting after it on a "Yeast Bayside" crawl...