Category: Beer

Under Construction: Mast Landing Brewing Co.

| Posted in Beer, Under Construction

mastlandingThe American Journal has published an update on Mast Landing, the new brewery under construction at 920 Maine Street in Westbrook.

Dorsey, the president and CEO of the company, and business partner Neil Fredrick were already hard at work Tuesday, creating their first “pilot batch” brew in the company’s new 12,000-square-foot space at 920 Main St…When work is complete, Mast Landing Brewing will open a tasting room, another first for the city, but it will also have room to expand. The Westbrook Planning Board approved a special exception for the building on Nov. 17 to allow it to be used as a microbrewery. Dorsey estimates the tasting room would be ready in three weeks.

Under Construction: Mast Landing Brewing Co.

| Posted in Beer, Under Construction

The Press Herald reports that Mast Landing(website, facebook, instagram) is under construction at 920 Main Street in Westbrook. Owners Ian Dorsey and Neil Fredrick hope to open in January.

The nautical theme is carried by the names of the company’s brews. Its flagship beer, the Tell Tale Pale Ale, is a reference to a ribbon of the same name that’s tied to a sail, indicating the direction of the wind.

It’s fitting, [co-owner Ian] Dorsey said, as the company will look to that beer’s reception as an indicator of whether it’s going in the right direction.

The company also has two India pale ales, a blonde ale, an amber ale, a milk stout and a peanut butter stout.

Under Construction: Fore River Brewing

| Posted in Beer, Under Construction

Fore River Brewing(twitter, facebook, instagram) received license approval from the South Portland city council Monday evening.

Co-owner John LeGassey tells me they have a few last tasks to complete to make the brewery operational and hope to start brewing their first official batch two weeks from now. If all goes according to plan, they will open to the public sometime in December.

Draft Top 25: Mockingfish & Beer II

| Posted in Uncategorized, Beer

draftmaptop25Two Maine beers are on Draft magazine’s list of the Top 25 Beers of the Year:

  • Mockingfish from Rising Tide “The tequila barrel’s earthy, agave character zips in at the finish to punctuate the tart lightly lemony sip. Unlike other tequila barrel-aged beers we’ve tasted, the spirit doesn’t contribute any alcohol prickle here, allowing the gose’s wispy salinity to bubble in the center of the sip like a breeze of ocean are.”
  • Beer II from Maine Beer Co. “The session IPA can be just as wonderfully flavorful as its high-octane cousin, and Beer II is proof. The flavorful turns of juicy grapefruit, fresh pine, grass, sweet tangerine and fennel are stunningly complex: just a touch of bready malt holds it together before a quick whip of bitterness pulls it to a pleasant conclusion.”

Rising Tide plans to have a new batch of the tequila barrel-aged available next year.

Tour of the Maine Malt House

| Posted in Beer

If My Coaster Could Talk reported on his tour of the Maine Malt House in Mapleton Maine.

The Maine Malt House is a pretty impressive operation, these guys were selling their barley to malting companies out of state, they knew they had a great product and they figured out what made it great and how to process it themselves. With an ever increasing demand on malted barley they were able to keep a homegrown product close to home and in turn closer to Maine brewers. It was kind of a wild, beer geek moment to be standing on the malting floor drinking a Geaghan Brothers Hop Harvest that was brewed with grains that had been harvested just outside and malted right where I stood.

Rob Tod’s 10 Beers

| Posted in Beer

First We Feast has posted an interview with Rob Tod in which he talks about the 10 beers that have had the biggest impact on his career in the beer industry.

“I love the creative process, and I’ve always loved working with my hands. Before beer, I didn’t think there could be one profession that embodied both.”

From epiphanies with Scotch ales, to mishap that spawned one of Allagash’s most innovative brews, here Rob Tod details the 10 beers that shaped his career.

Imbibe: The Maine Event

| Posted in Distilling & Cocktails, Beer

imbibe2015ndImbibe magazine has published a feature article on Portland in the November/December issue of the magazine. The article addresses Portland evolving cocktail scene, distilleries and breweries as well as touches on coffee roasters, retail shops and restaurants.

Mentioned in the article are: Allagash, Austin Street, Bissell Brothers, Bunker, Central Provisions, Cold River, Eventide, Foundation, Geary’s, Gritty McDuff’s, Hunt & Alpine, Liquid Riot, Maine Maine Craft Distilling, Mead Works, New England Distilling, Novare Res, Rising Tide, Shipyard, Sur Lie, Tandem Coffee, The Bearded Lady, Three Dollar Deweys, Urban Farm Fermentory and Vena’s Fizz House.

Vena’s Fizz House has a small stack of the new issue on sale at their Fore Street store.

Wild Beers in America

| Posted in Beer

Food Republic has published an article on the origins on wild-fermented beers in the US. The article relays details on a seminal trip in 2006 by the owners of 5 American breweries to Cantillon in Belgium: Allagash, Dogfish Head, Russian River, Avery and The Lost Abbey.

[Russian River Brewing owner Vinnie] Cilurzo wasn’t the only brewer inspired on that voyage. In 2008, Allagash Brewing of Portland, Maine, became the first to utilize a coolship, a large pan used for open-air “wild” fermentation. As Allagash brewmaster Jason Perkins recalls, shortly after the trip, “[owner] Rob Todd came in, and basically said, ‘Fuck it, let’s build a coolship. And let’s do it right.’” The brewery had been emulating old-world Belgian brewing techniques for decades, but had never taken on an experiment like this.

Maine’s Craft Beer Industry

| Posted in Under Construction, Beer

The Business section in today’s Press Herald features a report titled “Maine’s craft beer boom shows no sign of going flat“.

When it opens, Fore River will be the newest player in Maine’s exploding and intensely local craft beer scene. As of 2014, the state had the sixth-most breweries per capita in the nation, according to the Brewers Association, a national group. In 2013 and 2014, nine new breweries and brewpubs opened in greater Portland alone. There are currently 52 breweries in the state, but that number is set to jump even higher in 2016, and existing breweries are expanding.

The article includes details on Fore River Brewing(twitter, facebook, instagram) which is opening later this year in South Portland.