Arcadia to Portland

You mean Acadia National Park, right?

Check out this thread:
http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/visiting-portland-me-some-ideas.30751/

I'm going up there in a few weeks and I'm planning to hit Marshall Wharf in Belfast on the way.

 

That's for the restaurant, 3Tides. According to their Facebook page, the tasting room opens at 12:00 noon Thursday - Sunday. I did email them a question a week or so ago and they never got back to me. :-(

I'm planning to make my first visit on the 18th. If you'd like to post here with your experience I'd really enjoy reading it!

 

FYI Acadia to Portland will be about 5-6 hrs roughly. Outside Acadia is Bar Harbor Brewing and Atlantic Brewing. Atlantic has a great BBQ place outside of it too, atleast did last time I was there.

 

Marshall Wharf tasting room is open thurs-sat from noon till 7pm and noon till 4pm on Sunday. 207.338.1707
Three Tides opens @ 4pm tues thru Sunday and has 17 Marshall Wharf beers on tap.

Acadia to Portland is 3.5 - 4 hrs max. take rte 3 from Belfast to Augusta, then 95 south.

cheers.
David
three tides
marshall wharf brewing co

 

3 hours 28 minutes according to google maps:

http://goo.gl/maps/FKMOQ

5-6 hours might be more like it if you take the scenic coastal route 1 and make a few touristy stops along the way.

 

Agreed! I'll be taking this trip as well in the near future so any current insight would be much appreciated.

 

To add to this, what are my best chances for bottle shops in the bar harbor area? I see that Global Beverage in Ellsworth was mentioned in a previous post, but are there any other recs? I'm hoping to grab some MBC Lunch, as I might not get to the brewery during store hours. Also, any other Maine brews not readily available in Boston.

 

Check out the Liquor Locker.

 

I did the Bar Harbor to Portland trip so I figured I'd share my experiences.

Bar Harbor/Mt. Desert Island:
Blaze - Best beer selection by far. Had DFH Burton Baton and Allagash Bourbon Black on tap. All taps are $5. Bar manager was incredibly friendly and very knowledgeable so it was a pleasant surprise. Got appetizers here too and they were delicious.

Lompoc Cafe - Not as good a selection as Blaze, but nice nonetheless. Very nice outdoor seating along with a great bocce court outside.

Atlantic Brewing - Pretty basic brews that I was unimpressed with. Their Real Ale was the only one I would drink again...possibly the stout, but their tastings served it too cold. Yet, the tour was very informative for the brewing process and how they grew over the years.

Bar Harbor Brewing - Skip it. It is owned by Atlantic Brewing, so you will be tasting the same beers if you went on the previous tour.

Others - We tried out numerous other bars and restaurants, which pretty much had the same selection of Atlantic/Bar Harbor brews, with an occasional Allagash or Geary's. If you're looking to try any of the local island brews, most of the places carry them.

Bangor/Surrounding:
Seadog Brewpub - Stopped in for a quick lunch on the way to Portland. Nice location on the Penobscot River. Got a 10 sampler to share; nothing to write home about, but stayed pretty true to the styles. Skip the food though. The wrap I got was very bland.

Black Bear Microbrewery - Was told to check out this place by a bartender at Blaze, and it was a nice stop. Very good brews that break the barrier with styles. Check the hours though as it is a small operation.

 

Sawyers Market in Southwest Harbor has an OK selection on MDI. I've found that most markets do a good job of carrying the locals plus a few other crafts. I make the trip a few times every summer and usually just bring my beer with from Boston. The corner shop market across the road from Atlantic has a good selection too. If you are BBQ fan, I've heard great things about the place attached to the brewery.

As a simple editorial note, I'd explore some of the restaurants outside of Bar Harbor. Not as crowded, equally as Mainey, and almost always a decent selection of beer. If you are looking for a great, but pricier meal, Fiddlers Green in SW harbor is great. Also, there was a review of a Mexican place that sounded excellent in the Boston Globe this past week called XYZ (http://www.xyzmaine.com/)

As for the travel times listed above, it is definitely closer to 3 hours to Portland, not 6. It usually only take me 5 hours, 6 in really bad traffic, to make the whole trip from Boston.

 

I finally visited Marshall Wharf brewery. It was a nice stop on the way up to Acadia, and great to pick up some growlers to enjoy during our week long stay there. They had just been at the Belfast Harbor Fest the day before where they sold out of a bunch of stuff so they only had five taps on. Their Phil Brown Ale was delicious and drinkable (really had to drink a full pint from the growler to appreciate how great it is). Also Big Twitch IPA was fantastic, I got two growlers of that one. At 9% I'd call it a DIPA, though. They also had Deep Purple Rauchbier which was nice and smokey, but I decided against getting a whole growler of it, bottles would be better for that one IMHO. They also had a 4% stout made from second runnings from their RIS, (Little Mayhem) and a 3% red ale (Pinchy Red) that I didn't care for. On the trip back to return the emptys I also sampled a Kolsch that was pretty good.
I was hoping their RIS Chaos Chaos would be available, but it wasn't. I was told that their restaurant next door has 17 of their beers on tap. I thought it was a little irksome that the beers were on tap just twenty feet away but still not available for tasting or growler fills in the brewery tasting room. But it is what it is. I'll be making this a regular stop every year from now on.

 

I don't know about bottles... but I keep hearing that they'll start canning by the end of August.

Thanks for the followup post - I haven't been up there yet, but it's on the list. Good to hear some recent feedback on it.

 

MArshall Wharf's annual anniversary gathering on the Sat. after Columbus Day is the event I wait all fall for, because I rarely get farther north than Boothbay during the summer season. Too many taps to count, (including some one-offs) laid out in multiple areas of the place - indoors & out. Good food, growler fills, an Irish band, and the massive chiminaea out back by the water keeping things toasty - always a swell time. If I am enroute to Portland from there, I usually enjoy a meal & beers at Lion's Pride in Brunswick. If you enjoy tapas/Spanish food, Cleonice in Ellsworth is the bomb!

 

I've heard that too, but I didn't see any cans. Maybe September.
I did ask howopeeps for his followup, I figured I should at least do the same. I also posted it as a review in the beerfly section, which, believe it or not, I didn't think to check before my trip!