Category: Beer

The Portland Phoenix has published an interview with Austin Street Brewery owners Will Fisher and Jake Austin.

KB: Stylistically you’re all over the place, but your favorites seem to be hop-forward ales and brett-fermented funky stuff, will you focus in more on specific styles once you have the big system?

J: I definitely have plenty more ideas and I know we’ll end up doing new beers at some point, maybe sooner rather than later. But stylistically, yeah, we’ll probably hone in on more light, dry, hoppy stuff, clean fermented, and then just do even more brett stuff. Typically any new beer you see from us now is going be a brett beer, I would say. Maybe push into some more true sour stuff, kind of flirting with the edge with some tart sorts of beers.

Tom Bull, former owner of Portland-based Bull Jager Brewing, will be launching Dirigo Brewing in Biddeford later this year, according to a report from The Beer Babe.

The Beer Babe, aka Carla Jean Lauter, has penned an article for The Bollard that asks “Are we reaching peak IPA?”

For those new to craft beer, IPAs can be hard to swallow. It takes awhile to warm your taste buds to their bitterness, and I often run into folks who need help finding beers on a tap list that “aren’t really hoppy.” As the IPA revolution rages, that’s becoming harder to do. Giving consumers a variety of entry points, whether that be through fruit beers, lighter beers, or other styles, is the smart way to convert and retain new craft-beer patrons.

The new issue of The Bollard provides some great advice on how to decide which beer festivals to attend and which should get a pass.

I used to hate beer festivals, but over time I’ve learned that they’re not all created equal, and some can be fantastic. A well-run festival is a social event where you learn things, a chance to try new beers and meet new people. It can be just as much fun as going to a concert. A poorly planned event can turn out to be a bro-fest promoting beers you already know too well. The tricky part is figuring out how to separate the hops from the chaff, so to speak.

Today’s Bangor Daily News includes an article on how brewery and coffee roaster byproducts are being used by Maine farms.

Average beer drinkers and java junkies probably don’t ponder the waste byproducts generated during the production of their favorite drinks.

However, behind the scenes, organic matter produced during brewing and coffee roasting processes is becoming a farming and gardening staple — an effective, low-cost alternative to commercial fertilizer and feed.

Allagash features prominently in an article in Wired magazine about wild-fermented sour beers.

A few miles north of Portland, Maine, inside Allagash Brewing Company’s gleaming fluorescent-lit beer factory, a heavy door leads into a climate-controlled room lined with barrels full of aging beer. Past those barrels, behind a second, smaller door, is one of craft brewing’s most sacred spaces. In here, the thrumming industrial drone of bottling lines and keg washers fades away. Wooden casks stand silent sentry. Dust hangs heavy. Cobwebs lilt. The owner of Allagash, Rob Tod, sets a small green bottle of beer on an upturned cask. Its contents were aged in this very room. He pops the cork and pours a fragrant, foamy measure into a yellow plastic KOA coffee mug.

Boston magazine has published their list of the 21 best breweries in New England. It includes Banded Horn(17), Marshall Wharf(16), Oxbow(6), Maine Beer Company(5) and Allagash(2).

Men’s Journal has posted their list of the 101 best beers in America which includes Bissell Brothers Substance and Allagash Interlude. Portland’s own Greg Norton, owner of the Bier Cellar helped assemble the list.

Finally, Maine Today has kicked off their Maine Beer Madness bracket survey.