Maine Weekend/ Breweries
Maine Weekend/ Breweries
So my wife and I, plus our good friend Will traveled up to Maine for the weekend. The group kind of gave me free reign over the schedule as my birthday had been on Wednesday. So, it was kind of cool I got to be in charge. Obviously I picked my favorites : Beaches, Breweries, and Bowling (as well as some descent food). I had a blast doing all three and need to mention right here that OMI in South Portland is amazing and a must try (Omi's Coffee shop 372 Cottage Rd., South Portland, ME 04106). My go to order is to get the Omi 2.0 breakfast sandwich on one of there homemade herb and cheddar biscuits, and a coconut cold brew (which I then take down to the beach and eat watching the waves). This place is amazing and has a sneaky good beer cooler (especially for a tiny coffee shop).
But, I am going to focus on the breweries on this blog post (for more food blog posts see last week's post and stay tuned I have a write up coming about Shojo in Boston's Chinatown). We went over to the riverside neighborhood in Portland and tried a few of the breweries there (we did not have time to make it to 2 others and there is a distillery there as well.). We went to Foundation, Definitive, and Allagash. One of the great things other than the high quality and volume of breweries in the Portland area is that they seem to appear in pockets. This is one of those pockets, you can take a relatively inexpensive Lyft ride over and walk from one spot to the next, or get a DD and park over near one and wander. It was a great time very sunny each spot had outdoor seating and a great selection.
First we went to Foundation (1 Industrial Way #5 Portland, ME 04103) where I had an Epiphany (pictured below) a self described Maine IPA. It was great citrusy IPA that was very juicy and possibly the best beer I had that day. It says it is brewed with Columbus, Cascade, Citra, Ella, and Mosaic Hops I felt likely the Mosaic and Citra hops shined through. Definitely give it a try. If you don't mind sour beers I would also recommend on a hot day both the Raspberry's My Jam (you can see off to the right) and the Topical Jam (off to the left). Both are refreshing, fruity, and have a slight sour touch.
Overall it was a great beer weekend and I had an absolute blast. This was a bit longer than my normal post but I felt like I needed to go over each brewery a bit. I hope to do more posts like this and possibly try a few more beers at one brewery to give a better overall sense of the brewery as a whole. Next post as a stated before will be a food post and it is possible after that we will get another Maine brewery (fingers crossed). Stay tuned.
See you out there
John
So my wife and I, plus our good friend Will traveled up to Maine for the weekend. The group kind of gave me free reign over the schedule as my birthday had been on Wednesday. So, it was kind of cool I got to be in charge. Obviously I picked my favorites : Beaches, Breweries, and Bowling (as well as some descent food). I had a blast doing all three and need to mention right here that OMI in South Portland is amazing and a must try (Omi's Coffee shop 372 Cottage Rd., South Portland, ME 04106). My go to order is to get the Omi 2.0 breakfast sandwich on one of there homemade herb and cheddar biscuits, and a coconut cold brew (which I then take down to the beach and eat watching the waves). This place is amazing and has a sneaky good beer cooler (especially for a tiny coffee shop).
But, I am going to focus on the breweries on this blog post (for more food blog posts see last week's post and stay tuned I have a write up coming about Shojo in Boston's Chinatown). We went over to the riverside neighborhood in Portland and tried a few of the breweries there (we did not have time to make it to 2 others and there is a distillery there as well.). We went to Foundation, Definitive, and Allagash. One of the great things other than the high quality and volume of breweries in the Portland area is that they seem to appear in pockets. This is one of those pockets, you can take a relatively inexpensive Lyft ride over and walk from one spot to the next, or get a DD and park over near one and wander. It was a great time very sunny each spot had outdoor seating and a great selection.
First we went to Foundation (1 Industrial Way #5 Portland, ME 04103) where I had an Epiphany (pictured below) a self described Maine IPA. It was great citrusy IPA that was very juicy and possibly the best beer I had that day. It says it is brewed with Columbus, Cascade, Citra, Ella, and Mosaic Hops I felt likely the Mosaic and Citra hops shined through. Definitely give it a try. If you don't mind sour beers I would also recommend on a hot day both the Raspberry's My Jam (you can see off to the right) and the Topical Jam (off to the left). Both are refreshing, fruity, and have a slight sour touch.
Next up was Definitive (35 Industrial Way, Portland ME 04103) where I had a 35 (pictured below) which is a Session Ale (I switched to a session ale because of how hot it was that day) It was very good but they have some other beers on there list that I will definitely be going back for. They have a number of hazy IPAs that I have to try at some point soon. The 35 was refreshing and fruity while maintaining a good hoppy flavor. Not as good as the Epiphany from Foundation but still very good (also a different beer that was picked based on the situation and it is unfair to compare the 2). My friend had the Contee which is a Kolsch style ale and was great (you can see the remnants of it off to the left) and my wife had a variation of the 35 with blueberries (very Maine!) also a good option.
Finally was Allagash, which is probably the most famous brewery we went to (possibly one of the most famous breweries in Maine) and it is strange that it took me this long to make it there. I had been seeing on my Instagram (@johnny_cakes87) for awhile pictures of River Trip (pictured below) over and over so I had to try it. It was a solid beer and perfect for the summertime and has a relatively low ABV so it is great for hanging with friends and being outside. The other two beers definitely had more going on but being in this famous brewery and having some much needed AC (so hot) definitely moved it up in the rankings and I will be going back. The general description of it is a Belgian-style session ale with grapefruit and hop flavors.
Overall it was a great beer weekend and I had an absolute blast. This was a bit longer than my normal post but I felt like I needed to go over each brewery a bit. I hope to do more posts like this and possibly try a few more beers at one brewery to give a better overall sense of the brewery as a whole. Next post as a stated before will be a food post and it is possible after that we will get another Maine brewery (fingers crossed). Stay tuned.
See you out there
John
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