Portland, Maine is many things, including one of the most gorgeous settings in our country. For many, it’s the perfect place adjacent to both the beach and mountains in southern Maine. It has become a hotbed of craft beer over the past decade or so, with many breweries from the area becoming household names across the country.
Portland is home to two of the top 50 largest craft breweries – Allagash and Shipyard – and another large producer sits just up the road with Maine Beer Co. in Freeport.
My wife and I ventured to Portland over Memorial Day weekend, mainly to take in the craft beer scene. We were able to visit a total of 18 different breweries over our three day trip.
Day 1 – Maine Beer Co. and Industrial Way
On Day 1 we decided to hit the big dogs. After spending the previous night with The Avett Brothers at Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, New York, we took an absolutely gorgeous drive through Vermont and New Hampshire and made a beeline to Maine Beer Co. in Freeport.
This is actually the second location for Maine Beer Co., as they started just a bit south on Industrial Way before moving to their huge new location a few years ago. Their campus is pretty large but they focus on sustainability, with tons of solar panels and being a member of 1% For the Planet. The brewery is big, but also welcoming and bright and airy. There are multiple patios, as well as plenty of indoor seating. We grabbed lunch here in the form of some of their delicious pizza.
Maine Beer Co. are known for their IPAs, and the flight we got did not disappoint. A standout was Thank You 2022, the annual IPA that they brew to thank their customers and patrons.
Just down the road we visited another big name in Allagash Brewing Company. They were undergoing some renovations, so all patrons were outdoors for the time being. Thankfully it was a beautiful day and we enjoyed some beers in the makeshift beer garden from this bucket list brewery.
If you’ve heard of Allagash, then you know of their Belgian wheat beer simply known as “White.” The beer has one multiple medals at World Beer Cup, GABF, and the US Open. It was amazing getting to try the beer right from the source. Allagash is truly one of the best breweries in the country, and we also enjoyed sipping on their From Maine, With Love #14 – a schwarzbier – and From Maine, With Love #16 – a farmhouse ale.
Allagash is the anchor of a brewery complex on Industrial Way, with four breweries right across the street from them, including three in the same building. Foundation Brewing Company, Austin Street Brewery, and Battery Steele Brewing all stuck out for different reasons.
Foundation has one of the bigger spaces in the industrial building, which includes a large outdoor tent. They have lots of classic styles but also like to mix it up with some sours, including a fruited sour called Bumbleberry’s My Jam that we really enjoyed.
Austin Street’s original location is located in the middle of the building with an entrance around the back. They don’t really brew here anymore but use the space for storage and to keep a taproom open for nostalgia.
Battery Steele was started by homebrewers with more than 25 years of experience and they have a large taproom with both traditional beers – I enjoyed a Vienna lager called Saint Stephen – and more experiment stuff – Angie had a kiwi, passionfruit, and pineapple sour called Enjoy the Ride.
Just next to the industrial complex is Definitive Brewing Company, a literal 30-second walk. It’s a former scaffolding company building that opened as a brewery in 2018. They’re known for double fruited sours, pastry sours, and hazy IPAs. We caught them right after their fourth anniversary so we got to try some of the beers they brewed special for the occasion. Their Euphoric pastry sours were the standouts here – we had a strawberry, marshmallow, and peanut butter one as well as one with blueberry, raspberry, coconut, birthday cake, and vanilla ice cream.
Day 2 – Bissell Brothers and East Bayside
Bissell Brothers Brewing Company is one of the most respected breweries in Portland, so we opened up day 2 with them as our first stop. They started in the famed Industrial Way in 2013, but expanded to a new larger location at Thompson’s Point near the Children’s Museum in 2016. Their new taproom is a 100-year old former railroad repair building that sits right on the waterfront.
Inside the taproom is large and spacious, every bit the modern warehouse style brewery that has become popular across the country. Their beer is a mix of IPAs and lots of varied styles of lagers. I really enjoyed their Lux, a mosaic pale ale, as well as Precept, their German pilsner.
From Bissell Brothers we visited Bunker Brewing Company right as they were opening. They’re situated in a 1920s era garage that gives them a great hybrid indoor-outdoor space. We tried their Salad Daze, an India pale lager, and Hacienda Lime, a lime lager.
After Bunker we ventured to East Bayside to visit another couple of breweries that are located in the same building – Lone Pine Brewing Company and Goodfire Brewing Co. Lone Pine opened in 2016 and they’ve experienced massive growth since, including being named the 4th-fastest growing brewery in 2018. We visited their original space, but they moved their production brewery to a space in Gorham in 2019, leaving this as their experimental brewery. They’ve done some local collaborations, including an interesting Holy Donut Margarita Seltzer with Holy Donut that we tried. They also have a popular Sparkler sour series and we tried the Blueberry Sparkler version.
Goodfire is located just around the back of the building, and they’re known for mostly hop-forward beers. We actually visited them twice on our trip (more on that in a minute). On the first trip we had Rumble Rumble (dry-hopped Pilsner) and Lutte (salted lemon gose).
Our last two stops of Day 2 were Shipyard Brewing Co. and Brickyard Hollow. Shipyard is a large brewery that distributes pretty widely, and they’ve been around for awhile after being founded in 1992. Their building is a former foundry located on Casio Bay, and it feels like you’re walking into the basement of a ship. We tried their Export Ale, Finder (NE IPA), Summer Ale, and a non-alcoholic Blueberry CBD Seltzer.
Finally, we visited Brickyard Hollow, which opened a taproom and pizza restaurant in Portland to support their main base in Yarmouth. They have a prime location right on Commercial Street in an old industrial building that features a large garage door that opens in the front. They feature mostly traditional beery styles, and we had the ESB and 1901, a kolsch.
Day 3 – Maine Brews Cruise bike tour
I was introduced to the Maine Brews Cruise thanks to a great Portland episode of the Brewery Travels Podcast, which featured Don Littlefield from MBC. We realized that they offered bike tours in addition to their traditional tours, so we decided to give it a try. Don actually ended up being our guide, and the tour was really one of the highlights of our trip. It’s impossible to overstate the different experience of going to a brewery for the first time with a local who has been there many times and can give you the background and a insider tips before and during your visit. We also visited some of the best breweries in Portland during our bike tour, so that didn’t hurt either.
Our first stop on the bike tour was Oxbow Blending & Bottling. While all of their brewing is done at their main location in Newcastle, Oxbow blends their beers at this location in Portland’s East End. The location features lots of oak barrels and stainless tanks for blending. The space also features a rotating art gallery and food from highly regarded restaurant Duckfat. We visited before they were even technically open for the day, and got to try some amazing beers. Standouts were Blacklight, a dark farmhouse ale, and Second Season, a farmhouse ale with strawberry that was poured right from the bottle by our bartender.
After Oxbow we visited maybe my favorite brewery of the entire trip. Belleflower Brewing is a new brewery on the Portland scene, but they’re quickly making a name for themselves. The brewery, which is owned by two veterans of Trillium and their wives, opened in East Bayside in 2021. They took over for a closed brewery, meaning the space was basically turnkey.
While they come from a brewery known for its big, juicy IPAs, they decided to be so much more than that at Belleflower. The taproom is small yet inviting, with a bright interior and some colorful decor. There’s also an awesome mural painted on the side wall right by their beer garden. Every beer at Belleflower was special, but my favorite was The Awakening Place a Baltic Porter that just absolutely hit all the right notes.
As mentioned, we visited Goodfire a second time and really had a much different experience, getting to learn about the beer and the vision behind the brand.
Our final few stops were Liquid Riot Bottling Co., Urban Farm Fermentory, Rising Tide Brewing Company, and Austin Street Brewery in the East Bayside neighborhood. Liquid Riot is both a brewery and distillery located right on the waterfront in Old Port. It’s an industrial and dieselpunk style of taproom.
Urban Farm Fermentory is a unique spot offering mead (honey wine), gruit (herb beer), cider, kombucha, and jun (green tea/honey kombucha). They use local and foraged ingredients in many of their beverages and have offerings from non-alcoholic to over 10%.
Rising Tide was the first brewery in the neighborhood that has become known as “Yeast Bayside” now featuring more than a dozen fermentation producers. They have a large taproom and patio and varied beer styles from session IPAs to goses.
Our final stop was the now main location for Austin Street, located just beside Rising Tide. It’s a bright, airy modern taproom with a large patio. If you like greenery and plants, then this is the space for you.
Our final stop was not a brewery but a taproom, noted as one of the best taprooms in the country in Novare Res Bier Cafe.