Old Friends, New Discoveries in Maine Up until fairly recently, the only Maine breweries I’d sampled and enjoyed were Allagash Brewing and Maine Beer Company. A recent visit to Southern Maine as part of a biennial pilgrimage to visit...

Old Friends, New Discoveries in Maine

Up until fairly recently, the only Maine breweries I’d sampled and enjoyed were Allagash Brewing and Maine Beer Company. A recent visit to Southern Maine as part of a biennial pilgrimage to visit friends and family in New England gave me the chance not only to get re-acquainted with Allagash, but also to discover a couple other craft brewers that really had me wondering whether I should take up permanent residence in the Pine Tree State.

Reality check: according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, Winter average temperatures range from 25°F in the far south to less than 15°F in the northern and interior portions of the state.

Let’s just agree that Maine is a good “Vacationland” (Maine’s other nickname) for me and about 25 million other summer visitors. We’ll leave the snowplows and frozen plumbing to year-round residents. Actually, Eleanor went to summer camp in Maine, her great-grandparents built a place in Castine, and her grandfather was a contributor to the iconic Bert & I Stories from Down East, so I feel like she’s closer to being an honorary Mainer than I could ever be.

On our visit this summer, we started with Portland, made a stop in Freeport to worship at L.L. Bean (alas, no beer), and then spent a few lovely days in Bath.

PORTLAND

Barreled Souls “Summer Jam” at Duckfat

Barreled Souls is located in Saco, Maine. Co-owners Chris Scholfield and Matt Mills grew up in Wells, ME and have been friends since the fourth grade. According to a blurb about Barreled Souls on the Maine Land Conservation Assistance Network website, “The idea of opening a brewery together came up many times over the years, usually while imbibing on some stellar examples of the craft. The conversation got serious in the summer of 2012 and two years later Barreled Souls was open for business.”

According to the Barreled Souls website, “The brewery operates a fifty gallon brewing system. All of the beer produced at the brewery undergoes primary fermentation in oak barrels. The fermentation system is based off of the Burton Union system, which was a method of fermenting beer developed in England in the 1800’s.” Bottom line, this system allows a brewer to create a “selectively bred strain” of yeast that gives a brewery a terroir unique to their brews.

Matt Mills, the operations manager, developed his fine dining chops both as beverage manager at The Cliff House in Ogunquit, Maine and at Portsmouth, New Hampshire’s exclusive 100 Club. Starting off as a home brewer in 2002, Chris Schofield, the head brewer, honed his craft at Federal Jack’s brewpub in Kennebunkport, which eventually led to a gig as a lead brewing consultant for the design and development of the Railroad Seafood Station Restaurant and Brewpub in Texas. Kennebunkport? Texas? That rings a bell…

A word about Duckfat, where I enjoyed the Summer Jam. Duckfat Restaurant in Portland, Maine, is a high-end, gourmet pub that serves Belgian frites fried in duck fat as well as duckfat poutine served with duck gravy and, if you so choose, duck eggs and/or duck confit. This is a favorite place for our daughter Francesca, whose tastes run toward the extravagant.

Bath

Bath, population 8,766 as of the 2020 census, is the seat of Sagadahoc County, Maine’s smallest county by geographical area. “Sagadahoc” is an Abenaki word meaning “mouth of a big river.” That river, which we traveled thanks to a Maine Maritime Museum tour boat, is now called the Kennebec. Unsurprisingly, Bath was settled in the 18th century by people from Bath, England.

Fun Fact: English colonists in Popham (aka Sagadahoc) Colony built the first New World ocean-going vessel in 1607-08. A replica of that pinnace, the Virginia, floats on the Kennebec behind Eleanor and Chauncey.

The Bath Iron Works, a major regional employer, has been building boats on the river since 1884–particularly warships for the U.S. Navy. The Iron Works now operates as a division of the General Dynamics Corporation.

Allagash “Sixteen Counties”

I have known about and enjoyed Allagash ales for many years. Most often available on tap and the shelves of beer cases in Southern California is their White Belgian-style wheat ale. Once, a student hoping to curry favor and possibly improve his grade in my writing class, gifted me with a 22 oz bottle of Allagash’s “Curieux,” a barrel-aged Belgian-style tripel golden ale. It was a boozy (10.2% ABV), vanilla-caramel-bourbon experience that I’ve never been moved to duplicate. The kid had taste, but his grade remained as it was before the gift.

On this trip, after a day of too much driving, I stumbled into a Hannaford supermarket at Cook’s Corner in Brunswick to stock up on essentials, which included a couple of four-packs of Maine-brewed beers. One of those four-packs was Sixteen Counties. As the Allagash website informs me, this golden ale features ingredients grown in Maine — and I mean two types of malted barley, raw wheat, and oats; and four kinds of hops, including Hopyard Nugget and Northern Brewer. The taste was sublime. A bit of that yeasty Belgian character, honey, citrus, and the satisfyingly round mouthfeel that you get whenever oats are involved. Allagash says that “the beer’s flavor is meant to showcase the next generation of quality farming in Maine.” I say, the quality of Maine’s farms is in good hands.

Mast Landing Brewing “Tell Tale”

The other four-pack I picked up at the Hannafords in Cooks Corner was from Mast Landing Brewing of Westbrook, Freeport, and South Portland. Founded in 2016, the brewery is named after a region in Maine where the King of England sourced masts for ships in the precolonial period of European settlement. The founders were home brewers first, and took some of their inspiration from the exploding San Diego craft beer scene, where two of the group were stationed before returning to Maine with ideas and passions to share.

The double dry-hopped pale ale we selected, Tell Tale, is named after the piece of yarn or fabric attached to the mast that sailors use as a guide for trimming their sails. Tell Tale is brewed with Citra, Simcoe, and Mosaic, the combination that gives your beer a “tropical” character. As I was traveling with Eleanor, this was by far her favorite of the two — though since it was only a pale ale, and not a New England hazy, she found herself longing for a richer, higher alcohol version of the beer. It was also preferred by younger beer drinkers we encountered later in our travels.

Trinken “Basin Bomber” at OystHers Raw Bar & Bubbly

After settling in to “historic Bath Maine” and finding lines and wait times at a nearby popular riverside eatery, we asked the hostess for a recommendation. She said she and her friends had a great time the previous weekend at OystHers Raw Bar & Bubbly, which had just opened at the end of June.

I love a flight of raw oysters and the establishment also featured some tap beer and charcuterie board options. Eleanor favors a glass of bubbly on occasion, so we abandoned the popular eatery and walked the block and a half to OystHers, so named because it is owned by two sisters whose father had been a lobsterman on Georgetown Island, just up the coast from Bath.

Like many authentic small businesses, OystHers is committed to supporting the community and sourcing locally when that’s possible. The oyster flight featured shellfish from four local oyster farms (including one owned by sister Sadia). In fact, the farmers were having a meeting in the restaurant when we showed up. I was very happy to discover Trinken Brewing from West Bath, and enjoyed not one but two “Basin Bomber” hazy session (4.8% ABV) IPAs from OystHers limited taps. When I later learned that Trinken specializes in German-style beers, I wished I’d had the chance to try a kolsch or dunkel, but neither was on tap.

Bath Brewing Flight, with a Mystery Guest Tap

Our final craft beer exploration was also our most disappointing. How many times do you find yourself in an unfamiliar place that happens to have a brewery named after it? I don’t know about you, but the answer for me is, “not often.” So perhaps my expectations of Bath Brewing Company on Front Street in historic Bath, Maine were a tad high…

I ordered a flight of three Bath Brewing brews and a guest tap.

“Sea Trial” is a 4.5% ABV cream ale. I remember that designation from my youth, brewed by Genesee back in the day. The link goes to a well-written, deeply-researched article on cream ales written by Cat Wolinsky on vinepair.com. “The Essence” is a 7% ABV IPA with “pineapple and tropical notes” “Traverse” is a 6.5% ABV IPA that is “tropical and citrusy” Guest Tap, “sour” — this was actually the best pour of the four, but frustratingly our server didn’t know who made it, but repeated a couple of times that it was “like a sour shandy.” Did I hear her mutter “Trinken” as the brewer?

I did research (of course I did research!) and decided that maybe the sour I liked so much was a collaboration between Lost Valley Brewing and Trinken called “Tall Grass Lemon Hat.” It’s described on Untapped as a kolsch-style Belgian pale ale. The only problem is that the photo on Untapped is not at all opaque and apricot-colored like the photo of the sour above, at the far right. Frustrating!

mainebrewersguild.org

Before I leave, I just wanted to mention the Maine Brewers Guild as an excellent source and site for further exploring all the exciting and worthy brewers who make their homes and ply their trades in Maine.

Until next time, cheers!

— Chauncey B, aka, the So Cal Craft Beer Blogger

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