☘️ Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Maine beer fans! ☘️ While Guinness is a traditional beer to reach for on this day, there are plenty of Maine brewers who have created their own takes on classic Irish-style beers. We recommend you also add them to your rotation for today (or any day)!
Here’s this week’s guide to upcoming brewery events, the latest beer releases, and a roundup of Maine beer news.
Sponsored by: Tigpro Stainless Fabrication
Upcoming Releases & Events
Buckle up for some conflicting emotions this week. Allagash is showing us yet more Love, while SoMe is feeling Angry. The good news—in both cases it means fresh new beer for you!
Thursday, March 17
Allagash Brewing Company
50 Industrial Way, Portland, ME
From Maine, With Love #14 (4.9%)
From Maine, With Love #14 is a dark lager that was dubbed Schwarzbier de Garde by Allagash’s pilot team. It’s a melding of two of their favorite styles of beer—dark German lagers and French farmhouse-style ales. This 4.9% ABV beer will be available on draft and to go in 4-packs of 16oz. cans.
Liquid Riot Bottling Company
250 Commercial St., Portland
Nama, Lager (5.3%)
Japanese for “fresh,” Nama is a light, clean lager inspired by the 100% malt Japanese lagers.
SoMe Brewing Company
1 York St., #3, York
Angry Inch, Dry Irish Stout (4%)
Brewed every year for St. Patrick’s Day, Angry Inch is a dry Irish stout served on Nitro.
Friday, March 18
Definitive Brewing Company
35 Industrial Way, Portland; 318 US Rte. 1, Kittery; and 8 Timberline Dr., Newry (Sunday River)
Jewel, Double IPA (8.3%)
We’re wicked excited for the return of this gem of a DIPA. Jewel is jam packed with a fruit-forward blend of Australian and Pacific North Western hop varieties. This new concoction boasts big notes of freshly squeezed guava, stone-ground peach, and ripe red currant.
Jewel will be available Friday in Portland, and Saturday at Kittery and Sunday River.
Island Dog Brewing
125 John Roberts Rd., Unit 15, South Portland
St. Hubbins Black Currant, Gose Fruited Sour Ale (4.2%)
This wheat ale brewed with black currants is a mild sour with salty notes and a crisp smooth finish.
New Releases
Federal Jack’s and Nonesuch are both seeing Red, it’s a Sun Soaker over at Foul Mouthed, Foundation is ready to pump up the (Tropical) Jam, and careful if you stop by Mast Landing—they might be Dreaming.
Federal Jack’s
8 Western Ave., Kennebunk
Bluefin Stout (5%) & Celtic Red Ale (4.75%)
Bluefin is a classic dry Irish stout with prominent roasted barley flavor, and dark chocolate and coffee bitterness—balancing the soft herbal hop notes in the finish. It’s “carbonated” with a blend of 75% nitrogen and 25% CO2 for a smooth and creamy texture.
Celtic Red Ale is a full-bodied, deep ruby-colored Irish red ale with rich caramel malt and mild roast character.
Flight Deck Brewing
11 Atlantic Ave., Brunswick
P-3 Pale Ale (5.1%)
A smooth, full-bodied pale ale whose name honors the iconic P-3 Orion, an aircraft that called Brunswick Naval Air Station home for nearly 50 years. Flight Deck has brewed this beer since they opened in 2017, though it’s evolved slowly over the last few years to create the P-3 you know and love today.
Footbridge Brewery
25 Granary Way, Boothbay Harbor
Ma’s Genny, Cream Ale (5%)
Ma’s Genny is a crisp, light-bodied cream ale that is refreshingly reminiscent of watching mom pull her favorite beer out of the refrigerator after a long day.
Foulmouthed Brewing
15 Ocean St., South Portland
Four more beers are coming your way at Foulmouthed:
The Way a Pale Should Be is a pale ale (5%) brewed with 90% locally grown and malted barley and Amarillo hops. This is the first time this particular beer has been canned, so be sure to stock up.
Sun Soaked is a sour wit brewed with orange peel (4.5%). Just in time for our recent spring forward, this is springtime in a glass.
Vanilla Cream Stout (6.5%) was brewed with oats and pure lactose milk sugar for an extra creamy sweetness. It’s then aged on real Madagascar vanilla for a luxurious flavor to complement the decadent mouth feel.
Grawlix is a West Coast IPA (6.4%) brewed exclusively with Maine-grown hops.
Foundation Brewing Company
1 Industrial Way #5, Portland
Tropical Jam, Sour (4.5%)
Even as the days get incrementally warmer, there’s nothing like these last few wintery weeks to make us crave a tropical getaway. While the folks at Foundation claim they can’t afford to take all of us on a trip to Cancún (boo), they told us that they can offer up the next best thing—the return of Tropical Jam! This sour is brewed with milk sugar and fermented with a bright and juicy medley of pineapple, guava, and passionfruit. It’s a sunshiny, 4.5% ABV vacation for the taste buds.
Mast Landing Brewing Company
920 Main St., Westbrook and 200 Lower Main St., Freeport
Find Me Dreaming, West Coast Style IPA (6.6%) & Oceans, Double Dry Hopped IPA (6.5%)
Find Me Dreaming is brewed with bold hops from the Pacific Northwest. It has a balanced flavor profile designed to be easy drinking and enjoyable, and is the type of beer that might lull you into a relaxing afternoon fantasy.
Brewed with Strata and Citra hops, Oceans punches in with a balance of candied fruit and subtle, pithy bitterness.
Nonesuch River Brewing Company
201 Gorham Rd., Scarborough
Red, Irish Style Ale (4.4%)
This is a well-rounded, red-hued, slightly toasty beer.
Rising Tide Brewing Company
103 Fox St., Portland
Spinnaker, Hefeweizen (4.5%)
With a nod to the traditional hazy wheat beers of Germany, Spinnaker balances sweet yeast esters and spicy aromatics with a refreshing bready body. Prost!
Maine Beer in the News
A new study revealed that some of the challenges faced by Maine’s craft breweries include the tension between: experimentation and mass production, local authenticity and geographical expansion, and independence and corporate partnership. Not the best news, but nothing that our Maine brewers can’t overcome, right?
New research highlights challenge of Maine craft breweries growing authentically
New research shows that as the industry continues to grow, owners need to make decisions about scale and growth, which can be tough for brands whose success is built on local values.
We hope you enjoyed this edition of Maine Beer This Week! If you own a brewery or other beer business and would like to be featured in upcoming issues, please email or call us to learn more at [email protected] (207) 209-2094
