Unknown Maine Beers

Oxbow makes some amazing beers

 

Austin Street is indeed really good. I greatly prefer them to Foundation and Maine Beer Company (outside of Another One, Dinner and a couple of the Hop Program beers). Sebago's BBA barleywine is amazing. Oxbow is also fantastic.

 

All the ones you've mentioned are the locals that stand out to me. Orono and Marsh Island are both putting out great beers right now but a lot of people don't make it farther north of Portland, although both have been sending kegs and cans to Portland pretty regularly lately. Marsh Island also just put out another NE IPA called Swhazye which is delicious.

And I second Austin Street and Oxbow. Both make awesome beer.

 

Just last night I had a beer from a Maine brewery I hadn't heard of: Barreled Souls. The beer was barrel aged deep space and it was phenomenal.

 

I have a keg of Austin st Patina Pale on tap presently. Outstanding session beer - juicy/crisp and cloudy yellow. Highly recommend

 

Oxbow is one of the best breweries in ME period. Rising Tide is a hop and skip away from oxbow and thier beers are noce and different enough from what everyone else is brewing that it makes a nice accompaniment to any other brewery trip.

I'm big on Austin St. Barreled Souls is probably the most under the radar brewery in the area.

Liquid Riot is also awesome with many solid taps and a few beers that really wow.

 

I like Baxter Brewing. They make some interesting brews. Every time I am in Maine I pick some up.

 

I'll echo Oxbow, Rising Tide, Austin St., and Barreled Souls. Oxbow's blending and bottling space in Portland is one of my favorite brewery stops in Portland. I've enjoyed a few from Banded Horn within the last year or so, namely Daikaiju, Luminaire, and Norweald.

 

I feel like Banded Horn and Barreled Souls fly under the radar because they're not in Portland. I like both of their taprooms as well. Oxbow has my favorite tap room in Maine. I like Austin St more than Foundation, but I have no idea how they plan to grow because they're tiny.

 

Last time at Thirsty Pig I had an Orono Ozone and it was fantastic, juice and bitterness were both there. The 5.5% abv I saw afterward was surprisingly low, am anxious to get my hands on more of their beers on future visits...

 

Would also mention these places south of Portland, all making very good beers: Hidden Cove in Wells, SoMe in York, and Tributary in Kittery.

 

I'd go further and say Oxbow makes some of the best beer in New England. I think I drank my mortgage worth of catalyst recently.

 

Banded horn and Barreled souls too.

 

Gneiss Brewing makes some good brews, Sebago is big and popular but keep your eyes open for cask versions of their beers on tap because they are phenomenal, Foul Mouthed brewing (brew pub with some great Belgian renditions and awesome food), Liquid Riot (and try the Bier Schnapps), Fore River Brewing, Lively Brewing, Rock Harbor Brewing, Bunker Brewing if you're a big fan of Lagers. And I'll echo Austin St, Banded Horn, Barreled Souls, Lone Pine, Marsh Island, Oxbow, and Rising Tide. There is a ton of beer in Maine and a lot of it is Wicked Good.

 

I'll second Bunker doesn't get enough love. Their Salad Daze is one of the tastiest hoppy lagers around. Also Banded Horn and Barreled Souls make amazing stouts.

 

Didn't even think of sebago. Good everyday stuff. Nice food. BA stuff is out of this world. Always put the BBABW ahead of sucuba.

Good call.

 

liquid riot and great rhythm. Not from Maine be Deciduous in NH on your way to Portland is awesome too..

 

I've been going up to Maine regularly for my entire life but I don't live there and obviously think that Allagash is the big daddy of them all. And yes, Bissell is probably the best in the new class for IPAs. But of the new new class - Austin Street stands out to me as the stand out. They do a great job with the hoppy stuff and their collaboration with Hoof Hearted this summer called Yann Bandana was the best IPA to come out of Maine in my opinion. Also, their wilds / saisons are always awesome. Their only problem is they haven't learned, or have been able to get the funding or interest to scale the brewery. The other standout is Barreled Souls - these guys are a small brewery on Route One in and ultra chill spot that pretty much just nail everything they do. Worth stopping in some time. Their schtick is that all their beers hit a barrel at some point or other - same deal with them - they're small and I don't know if they are going to scale any time soon but as a transient Maine guy, I'd love for them to stay small and off the national radar!

 

Hey guys, nice to see Austin Street come up so many times in this thread. I have to admit I'm a little confused about comments relating to scaling up. When we started almost three years ago we were brewing on a 1bbl(yes one bbl, 31gallons) system with a total of 8bbls of fermentation space. We have since upgraded to a 10bbl brewhouse and currently have 50bbl of fermentation capacity, with 50bbl more going online by the end of summer. We may still be a small brewery but we've been constantly growing and evolving over these past few years and will continue to do so. We may not be expanding as rapidly as other breweries but slow, measured, sustainable growth is very important to us. Jake- Austin Street Brewery