Today’s What Ales You Column in the Press Herald reports on Allagash’s new products and a recent expansion in brewing capacity.

The bunker was designed so two more of the tanks can be added when business warrants, Perkins said. As of now, Allagash brews about 25,000 gallons — about 800 barrels — of beer a week.

Allagash also will be adding a new bottling line this year. Its bottling system handles both its 12-ounce bottles and 750-milliliter cork and cage bottles. The 375-milliliter (12.7 ounce) bottles used for the limited-release beers sold only at the brewery are bottled by hand.

The article also reports that both the new batch of Coolship Resurgam and the new honey beer Saison Mihm are both due out soon.

Both Novare Res and The Great Lost Bear have made it on to Draft magazine’s 2012 list of America’s Best Beer Bars.

Today’s Press Herald includes a Eat & Run review of Borealis Bistro,

The panini comes on your choice of bread, and you’ll have a large variety of choices, because all the bread is made right on the premises. The sandwich we tried consisted of a couple of slices of rosemary bread filled with real scrambled eggs, cheddar cheese (your choice of cheese) and sausage links (meat costs extra) that had been sliced in half and grilled. The sandwich stayed piping hot all the way to the office, and was large enough to share.

and a What Ales You column about the honey-based beers for sale at The Honey Exchange.

The favorite honey beer among my tasters — and they varied over the past month from a crowd of seven to just me — was Brooklyn Local 2, a strong, dark Belgian ale with 9 percent alcohol that cost about $8.50 for a 750-milliliter bottle.

The honey was just a background in this fruity, spicy and complex beer with a wonderfully thick body. The Belgian dark candy sugar combines with the wildflower honey. Seven people tasted this one, and they all loved it.

This week’s edition of the What Ales You column suggests a few brewery alternatives to Champagne for ringing in the New Year,

Curieux, an ale with 11 percent alcohol aged in bourbon barrels, is the first Allagash that comes to mind. It’s available year-round, it’s won all sorts of awards, and Allagash sells as much of it as it can make. The cloudy, golden color would be nice for a midnight toast.

The Press Herald has published a review of Moran’s Market.

Here’s another way to judge a market: If it prices food by the pound instead by some predetermined serving size, you know you can bulk up. At Moran’s, the hot bar costs $4.75 per pound. I loaded up a pound-and-a-quarter of some of the best home-cooked food you can find for this price anywhere in Portland.

Today’s paper also includes the latest edition of the What Ales You beer column.

For the third and final podcast in their series on Maine Beer Week, the Maine Culinary Podcast has posted an interview with chef Paul Dyer from the Porthole and Jay Silevinac, the brewhouse manager at Shipyard.

Beer columnist Tom Atwell relays some of his tasting notes from this past weekend’s Maine Brewers Festival.

I was surprised by the complexity of the Honey Rye from Kennebec River Brewing Co. in The Forks. When I have had their beers, both at their pub while on fishing trips and in bottles, they have been good middle-of-the-road brews. But the Honey Rye had a wonderful sweetness upfront from the honey and an absolutely dry finish. I could see this as a superb beer for warm days.

The Press Herald has published a review of Artemisia Cafe.

Artemisia Cafe continues to stand the test of time as one of my favorite lunch spots. I don’t go there nearly enough, but every time I do the food is sensational, and this visit with a friend was no exception.

Today’s paper also includes a preview of this weekend’s Maine Brewers Festival.

For the 6th episode of the Maine Culinary Podcast, host Dan Bodoff interviewed Jay Villani, owner of Sonny’s/Local 188, and Dan Kleban, co-owner of Maine Beer Company. They discuss plans for the upcoming Maine Beer Week and the experience of scaling up from a home brew set to a commercial operation.

Additionally, Villani lets the cat out of the bag on Bunker Brewing, a new brewery being set up by Villani in Bayside which will initially be sold at Local 188 and Sonny’s.

Mainebiz has published an article about Bull Jagger, Portland’s newest brewery.

A new beer will soon join Portland’s growing batch of homegrown brews, but this one is a bit different.

Tom Bull and Alan Jagger have launched Bull Jagger Brewing Co. in a 1,500-square-foot facility in Portland’s Riverside Industrial Park to make lagers, which they say is rare among microbrews.

“Tom and I love lagers,” Jagger says. “And we saw a void. Most of the microbrews are making ales, and we thought Maine could use a new lager.”

For additional reporting see the Press Herald.

The What Ales You column in today’s Press Herald reports on Rising Tide Brewing’s new black ale called Atlantis.

“This differs quite a bit from the black IPAs that are coming out,” said owner and head brewer Nathan Sanborn. “There is quite a bit of hops, but it’s not that bitter. We added a little bit of cherry wood-smoked malt, but it’s not a strongly smoked beer. It just adds a little bit of character with it.”

The What Ales You column in today’s Press Herald talks about seasonal Fall beers.

Sebago’s Local Harvest Ale, one of my favorite beers from last year, came out last Friday, and I stopped by Sebago’s Portland brew pub after work to try it out.

This beer is brewed with two-row barley grown in Aroostook County and with hops grown at Irish Hill Farms in Monroe and at various local gardens.

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a report on the Portland Brew Festival.

They were among more than 500 people who filled the Portland Co. Complex for the first of three brew festival sessions this weekend. Situated on the waterfront, the old foundry seemed to be the perfect venue for the festival that continues from noon to 3:30 p.m. today.

The Press Herald has published an interview with Mark Sprague, the organizer of this weekend’s Portland Brew Festival.

Sprague is putting his own stamp on the festival. First, the brews will be coming from all over New England, not just Maine. Second, the brews will include cider, mead and even kombucha, a kind of fizzy fermented tea, in addition to beer. Third, attendees will be able to watch people brew beer and make cider. And fourth, Sprague is not planning to bring in live bands as entertainment.

Brews and Books blogger Josh Christie has posted an interview on Hop Press with Mark Sprague, the organizer of the Portland Brew Festival.

Nationally and locally, beer festivals are becoming more popular every year. How is the Portland Brew Festival different than the other Maine beer fests?
Maine has some awesome beers and nearly every festival in the state focuses on just these great in-state brewers, but I made the conscious decision to invite brewers from across the region–there are so many up-and-coming brewers and unknowns who should be known… I want the people who come to this festival to leave with an “aha” moment about a brewer or beer or cider they discovered here.  I’m also coming at this from a homebrewer background.  I’ve been to a number of festivals, but never one where they are brewing live at the event.