Portland, Maine has a lot of cool breweries and bars. I’ve included some of our drinking finds below, some of our drinking finds were also part of our dining experiences so those will be included in the final post, Portland (The Food) next week. To see some of the views from around Portland, make sure to check out last week’s post.
Allagash: We took a taxi from downtown to Allagash, and did the tour. The ride there was not too costly, I think running us around $20 (one-way). Honestly, most of the time if you’ve been on one brewery tour, you have been on a million. The only interesting part for me was the barrel room, and that was mostly due to the fun names of the beers. I was disappointed with the selection of beers on draft in the tasting room, offering none that you are not able to get on a regular basis. The upside is that the tasting is FREE. If we did it again, I think we would just skip it. If you do decide to make the trip to the brewery, reservations are required for the tour.
Rising Tide Brewery: Is just a brewery with a simple tasting room, and great beers. The staff was very friendly, and they had a great selection. The beers we tried were quite good and not something we see in North Carolina. I recommend grabbing a taxi to Rising Tide and then walking to the next two establishments listed below. While this area is not too far from downtown, it does not really have a great walking route, and planning on going here and the next two places makes it worth the trip.
Maine Craft Distilling: This was a fun find. It is located right beside Rising Tide Brewery. The owner was very nice and even gave us a little tour. Their liquors were very unique. The vodka, tastes like no other vodka I’ve ever had, they had a spirit brewed from carrots, and in-house floor-malted grains for their whisky. P and I ended up picking up three bottles, knowing we would have to check a bag to bring it home. We just could not pass up such unique and good finds.
Bunker Brewing: Is around up the block from Maine Craft Distilling and Rising Tide. This is a really neat space, almost like a garage converted into a brewery. The brewers and fellow customers were all very friendly. Their selection of beers are a bit smaller than what you find at Rising Tide, but still worth a visit.
In’finiti Fermentation & Distillation: Is a brewery and distillery. It is a really nice space. The beers were only average in my opinion but I’m glad we stopped in to give it a try.
The Rest:
The North Point Lounge: We popped in for a drink after dinner. Very friendly staff, and good selection of local beers and plenty of cocktails. We actually found one of our favorite beers of the whole trip here, the Oxbow Saison.
Novare Res Bier Cafe: Large beer selection, with plenty of seating. Unfortunately, they were hosting a Belgium beer week, so very limited local brews for us to try.
Below is a Jauntful Guide I put together as we were planning our trip of potential breweries and drinking stops. Clearly, we did make it to all of these but maybe you will find it useful if you plan a trip 🙂
