Greetings, I'm lucky enough to being taking a week in Maine this September. As with all my trips I try and take advantage of hitting local breweries and picking up local bottles to take back home to Chicago. Below is the list of breweries I currently have on my list, and am hoping for some input from those in the area or others who while visiting found a great spot. I will be staying the first half in Portland and the remainder about 75 miles further up the coast, so my radius is in that area of the state versus central and northern areas. Atlantic Brewing Co -- Bar Harbor (after an early morning trip to Acadia) Austin Brewing - Portland Belfast Bay Brewing - Belfast Bunker Brewing - Portland In'Finiti fermentation - Portland Maine Beer Co - Portland (we get this in Chicago but looking forward to freshly poured Old Wheelbarrel) Marshall Wharf - Belfast Oxbow Brewing - Newcastle Rising Tide - Portland Shipyard - Portland (history buff, whenever in NE I look for Chamberlain Pale Ale) Appreciate the recommendations and advice -thanks.
Allagash (don't skip - there are often special bottles available), Foundation, and Bissell Brothers are next to Austin. Easy to hit all four. While at Marshall Wharf, hit their neighboring restaurant, Three Tides. They have many more beers available on tap than in the brewery itself. No visit to Portland is complete without visiting Novare Res. (Other good choices: Little Tap House, King's Head, Mama's Crowbar)
Gneiss - Limerick Out of the way but worth adding if you have the time. Great guys, great beer, great middle-of-the-woods location.
Portland - Allagash/BBB/Austin/Foundation & RisingTide/Bunker/Shipyard would make for two solid sets of visits. But as referenced above, you'll find plenty pours of all these across the many solid Portland bars/restaurants. Maine Beer Co - Keep in mind that they are now in Freeport ME, rather than Portland. Should be pretty easy to hit though if you're driving to Newcastle for Oxbow anyway (and you should 100% definitely do that, Love that place) Belfast - Agree on the comment above RE: Three Tides. The MW tasting room isn't much, and inside Three Tides will have sooooo many more beers available. A must stop for MW beers, with Oysters and Bocce outside. Only other brewery recommendation(s) would be SOUTH of Portland - Banded Horn in "Biddeford" is solid and have heard great things about "Barreled Souls" in Saco, which just opened maybe 2+ weeks ago
Terrific. Thanks a ton to each of you for providing the info. Looking forward to the trip all the more.
To 2nd Wesfoxlove's recommendations, I would take it a step further and organize your venues by geographical area (even within Portland). There are multiple venues within each district, so planning would help. For example, my recommended schedule would be something like: 1. Start outside of Portland and work your way in, starting at Allagash/Foundation/Bissell/Austin St breweries. 2. Come in via Forest Ave and hit your bottle shops: RSVP, then Bier Cellar, then downtown. Great Lost Bear is also on Forest, just before Bier Cellar. 3. Continue on downtown. Stuff your car at your hotel (not sure where you are staying). Continue on to Novare/Infiniti/Kings Head and others. Already that will be a full day and lots of beers. It gets your tours, bottle shops, and driving in before you've had a bunch of drinks.
