The outdoor mask mandate is no more (except in large gatherings, where you can’t easily physically distance, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah, you know the drill) and sunny weather is (allegedly) on tap for this weekend.
Between that and new releases involving donuts, brunch, maple syrup, champagne, margaritas, and (checks notes) murderous rabbits (?!), we’re pretty stoked for this week and hope you are too. Just make sure to be on guard if you see something cute and furry out of the corner of your eye while out enjoying all of this week’s beer-y goodness.
Here’s this week’s guide to the latest beer releases, rundowns of what’s on tap, upcoming brewery events, and a roundup of Maine beer news.
Beer This Week is Sponsored by: Tigpro Stainless Fabrication
Tigpro specializes in the design, fabrication, and installation of high-quality, custom-built brewing systems, tanks, process piping, and supporting equipment to the brewing industry. With more than a decade of experience, the Tigpro team can design a brewing system to meet your brewery’s unique needs.
Upcoming Releases & Events
Lone Pine’s newest craft seltzer involves margaritas and donuts and…wait, come back, we have more to tell you about! We get it, we had you at margaritas and donuts, but there’s lots more also going down this week. Blaze Brewing is ready to serve up brunch, which would probably pair well with Fogtown Brewing’s newest maple offering. It’s the Sweet Life over at Definitive, and Allagash Brewing is reopening its tasting room after more than a year!
Before you head out, Foulmouthed Brewing would like to remind everyone that we still need to wear Pants.
Thursday, April 29
Blaze Brewing Co.
28 Pearl St., Biddeford
One Way #9, IPA (6.7%)
One Way #9 is the newest edition of Blaze Brewing’s constantly evolving IPA series. It was dry-hopped heavily with Mosaic and smells and tastes like ripe mango, honeysuckle, and pineapple. It’s incredibly refreshing and a perfect showcase of how delicious Mosaic hops are.
Foulmouthed Brewing
15 Ocean St., South Portland
Foulmouthed has three new releases dropping today. Grawlix is a West Coast IPA (6.4%) brewed exclusively with Maine grown hops. Peel Me Hefe is a Hefeweizen (5%) brewed with MAPS bar in Portland and it contains notes of banana and plenty of wheat. Where Are My Pants? (a relatable name for many of us who have worked from home for the past year plus) is an IPA (7%) and ready to help remind you to make sure you’re wearing proper attire before reentering society.
Friday, April 30
Definitive Brewing Company
35 Industrial Way, Portland and 318 US Route 1, Kittery
Sweet Life, Double Fruited Sour IPA (6.3%) & 35, IPA (3.5%)
A little birdie told us it’s time for a new Sweet Life crowler drop! This all-new variant of Definitive’s Double Fruited Sour IPA series is made with raspberry, tangerine, vanilla, and lactose. It’s like a blended fruit smoothie in a can.
35 is returning to bring us good times during the upcoming warmer months. This delicate session IPA clocks in at a modest 3.5% ABV and presents a hop flavor and aroma profile that suggests a gathering of peach rings, tiny melons, and fresh produce. Both beers are available this Friday in Portland and Saturday in Kittery.
Foundation Brewing Company
1 Industrial Way #5, Portland
Raspberry Limeade Jam, Kettle Sour (5%)
Foundation’s newest kettle sour is brewed with milk sugar and fermented with jammy raspberry and a kick of tart lime. This 5% beauty is the ultimate refresher. Available in the tasting room starting Friday and in distro early next week!
Saturday, May 1
Allagash Brewing Company
50 Industrial Way, Portland
Tasting Room Reopening
Allagash is reopening their tasting room for the first time in over a year, and they told us they can’t wait to see you! Their space has been reimagined in order to bring you a safe and fun way to enjoy your favorite Allagash beers, and it’s highly recommended that you make a reservation as seating will be limited. You can reserve a table and check out FAQs at allagash.com/visit.
Bigelow Brewing Company
473 Bigelow Hill Rd., Skowhegan
Celebrating 7 years this weekend by kicking off their music season with Stonewall Chrome who will be performing 1-4 pm, as well as a new Scary Gary Do Good Ale release! 
Open at noon! Event is free but you can RSVP here for a reminder.
Fogtown Brewing Company
33 Cottage St., Bar Harbor
Sad Sappy Sucker, Dry-hopped Maple Ale
This super-limited release is a brand new collaboration with Goodfire Brewing in Portland. Sad Sappy Sucker is brewed with Maine-grown barley, wheat, and flaked spelt freshly harvested maple sap, and a blend of select-reserved syrup from Pumpkin Hill Farm in Lowell, Maine. It’s then dry-hopped with Motueka and Amarillo. Refreshingly clean and dry, with lots of fresh citrus up front and just a hint of maple sap in the background.
Lone Pine Brewing
219 Anderson St., Portland, and 48 Sanford Dr., Gorham
Holy Donut Margarita, Craft Seltzer (5%)
When the worlds of clean water, craft beer, seltzer, and donuts collide, what do you get? We bet you weren’t expecting the answer to be a Holy Donut Margarita Craft Seltzer made with real Maine potato donuts. Loco, right?
Made with real donuts, Holy Donut Margarita possesses notes of freshly squeezed key lime and crisp lemon that finish with a lingering Cointreau sweetness that will leave you feeling as though you just took the first sip of a pleasantly tart margarita. Holy Donut Margarita is being released alongside The Holy Donut’s new Margarita donut in celebration of Cinco de Mayo. Thanks to the amazing team at The Holy Donut, Lone Pine will be offering free Margarita donuts throughout the day during the release. And, like all of their seltzers, 1% of the proceeds from Holy Donut Margarita will be donated to Sebago Clean Waters to conserve the forests that protect Greater Portland’s water supply.
New Releases
van der Brew is ready to get down to the Nuts and Bolts; forget a pox on both your houses, Belleflower’s dishing out Barn Hex(es); Geary’s is honoring the hard work that goes into getting lobsters from the sea to your table; Liquid Riot is schooling us in French winemaking history; Mast Landing is bringing us bunnies that may not have the best intentions when it comes to your continued time on this earth.
Belleflower Brewing Company
66 Cove St., Portland
Barn Hex, IPA (8.5%) & Magpie, Pale Ale (5.5%)
Barn Hex features Rakau, Moutere, and Nelson Sauvin in the dry hop. It’s a tropical delight! Pours a light straw color with a heavy haze and the aroma features mango, peach, and ripe papaya. On the palate, you’ll taste the white grape, grapefruit juice, and other light citrus flavor, rounded out with a light minerality.
Magpie is Belleflower’s signature New England Pale Ale. For this beer, it was very important to the Belleflower crew to utilize as many Maine-grown ingredients as possible. They started out by using 100% base malt from Maine Malt House and gave the beer a moderate body with malted wheat and oats from Blue Ox Malthouse. They then dry-hopped Magpie with Maine-grown Cascade from The Hop Yard. Pouring Magpie brings aromas of hop perfume that is dank and sappy with pine, along with some light notes of white pepper and lemon/lime. This beer is pillowy on the tongue, lightly bitter, and leaves a pleasant lingering fresh grapefruit zest.
Corner Point Brewing Company
1 Sullivan St., Berwick
Totally Caved, IPA (6.6%)
For all you hazy, crazy people out there, Totally Caved is back on tap and in cans!
Geary Brewing Co.
38 Evergreen Dr., Portland
Pulling Traps, IPA (6.8%)
This New England IPA is dry-hopped with juicy Mosaic and finishes with just the right amount of bitterness. At Maine’s first craft brewery, they believe in the same traditions of hard work and simplicity that made lobster fishing a symbol of Maine life. Just as fishermen harvest a day’s catch by hand, Geary’s brewers craft a day’s batch by hand. And, might we say, we think the two pair well together too.
Liquid Riot Bottling Co.
250 Commercial St., Portland
1911 Extra Brut, IPA (6%)
In 1910 and 1911, local grape growers in the Champagne region of France — following years of hardship due to crop losses, other stresses on vineyards, and the discovery that wine producers had been using grapes from outside the region — revolted in what became known as the Champagne Riots. This dry ‘Extra Brut’ India Pale Ale is named for the climax of this uprising, which occurred in January of 1911. It’s extremely dry and crisp, with tropical, piney hop notes and a Champagne-like finish.
15 Brewer St., Brewer
Killer Bunny, New England IPA (7%)
Killer Bunny is a New England IPA dry-hopped with Citra, Topaz, and Amarillo. This beer has wonderful aromas and is hazy and tropical thanks to flavors of lime, grapefruit, and mango. And, may we say, the can art is KILLER!
Moderation Brewing Company
103 Maine St., Brunswick
Brojuice, Double IPA (8.5%)
That quad-dry hopped DIPA Brojuice is back, bursting with Citra, El Dorado, and Chinook. Super crushable, with flavors of ripe, dank, tropical stone fruit, and citrus.
Rising Tide Brewing Company
103 Fox St., Portland
Downstream, Double IPA (8%)
This double dry-hopped, soft, and pillowy Double IPA with tropical fruit, citrus, and spice is the best catch of the day. Get yours before they swim away!
van der Brew
30 Summer St., Winthrop
Nuts and Bolts, Porter (5.5%)
Get a handle on Nuts and Bolts, a malty, roasty brown English Ale with a sweet edge.
On Draft
Help support local breweries while sampling these flagship beers and rising stars. Here’s a taste of what you’ll be able to enjoy at select breweries this week.
Geaghan’s Pub & Brewery
570 Main St., Bangor
- Presque Isle Honey Blonde, American Blonde Ale (5.3%)
- The Refueler, American Hefeweizen (5.2%)
- Smiling Irish Bastard, American Strong Pale Ale (6%)
- Bangor Brown, American Brown (5.5%)
- The Dark Night, Baltic Porter (8.1%)
- Big County, West Coast IPA (6.2%)
Island Dog Brewing
125 John Roberts Rd., Unit 15, South Portland
- St. Hubbins, Blackberry Gose (4.2%)
- A Beer Called Blue, Blueberry Wheat (4.8%)
- ClearCut IPA (6%)
- Smitty’s Irish, Red Ale (5.2%)
- None More Black, Black IPA (7%)
- Berliner Weisse, Sour Ale (4.2%)
Maine Beer Company
525 US-1, Freeport
- Another One, IPA (7%)
- Black Barn No. 20, Oyster Stout (4.3%)
- Lunch, IPA (7%)
- MO, Pale Ale (6%)
- Peeper, Pale Ale (5.5%)
- Post Ride Snack, Session IPA (4.9%)
Maine Beer in the News
Orono Brewing honors Maine grads, Machias may be getting a new brewery, and Mason’s Brewing is expanding to Little Rhody. All that and more in this week’s rundown of Maine beer news.
They may not have a normal graduation, but they’ll have their own beer
Orono Brewing Company launches a ‘Congratulations Class of 2021’ IPA this week to honor UMaine seniors.
Machias landmark may be turned into a brewery, restaurant
The Clark Perry House may soon be a place to stop and have a craft beer or a cocktail and partake in a meal made from local produce.
Mason’s Brewing Company Signs with Horizon Beverage Group to Line the Shelves in Rhode Island
Starting this week, beers from Mason’s Brewing can be found on shelves all over the state of Rhode Island, thanks to a recent distribution deal with Horizon Beverage Group.
Allagash Brewing starts co-op to help beer-based businesses recycle hard-to-dispose items
The co-op launched in late March and includes Bissell Brothers, Foundation, and Maine Beer Company.
The Craft Beer Industry Is Hopping Again After An Unprecedentedly Tough Year
After some major pandemic changes, breweries are prepped for a strong summer.
In photos: Breweries of the Midcoast
Craft beer is a staple element of Maine’s culture, and the Midcoast region is no exception.
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 us to learn more.
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