If you’re a fan of celebrating events named for months that they’re not actually celebrated in, then this is the week for you! We’ve not one, not two, but THREE Oktoberfest events to tell you about, plus other assorted beer-related festivities, and tons of Oktoberfest beers ready for your drinking pleasure.
Here’s this week’s guide to the latest beer releases, upcoming brewery events, and a roundup of Maine beer news.
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Upcoming Releases & Events
Hi, us again. Basically, this section is where it’s at if you want to learn about the upcoming Oktoberfest and other beer-related events going down this weekend. We’ve also got plenty of non-Oktoberfest beers to tell you about, including a Blueberry Cobbler Sour, a Scotch Ale, and a beer that’s all about ‘dem beets. Or was it bears?
Thursday, September 23
Allagash Brewing Co.
50 Industrial Way, Portland
Fall Foliage, Belgian-style Dubbel Ale (7%)
Fall Foliage is a malty and crisp Belgian-style Dubbel Ale, bursting with notes of toffee, caramel, and classic Belgian fruitiness, all at 7% ABV.
Ambition Brewing
295 Main St., Wilton
Just Beet It, Sour
We didn’t get a description of this beer, other than it being part of the Beets Being Sour Series. But we CAN tell you that the phrase “bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica” is now stuck on a loop in our minds. That, and a certain 80’s hit.
Bigelow Brewing Company
473 Bigelow Hill Rd., Skowhegan
Tin Can Sailor, Scotch Ale (6%)
Tin Can Sailor is back! It was initially brewed in collaboration with The Hight Family of Dealerships as a celebration of their 110-year anniversary of selling cars in Maine. This dark brown beer boasts amber hues and pours with a rich, tan head. Aromas of toffee and treacle give way to notes of dates and cherry and slight hop spiciness. This malt-forward and complex beer drinks smooth and creamy. Sweet bread and caramel notes mix with dark stone-fruits before being balanced by earthy, spicy hop notes and slight alcohol warmth. Tin Can Sailor is a full-bodied beer perfect for an after-dinner sipper or to keep you warm on cool evenings.
Blaze Brewing Company
28 Pearl St., Biddeford
Blazing Love Blueberry Cobbler, Pastry Sour
A collaboration with Branch and Blade Brewing, Blazing Love Blueberry Cobbler was conditioned on blueberry, vanilla, cinnamon, and marshmallows and—spoiler alert—smells and tastes like blueberry cobbler.
Foulmouthed Brewing
15 Ocean St., South Portland
Autumn Sweater is a Wet Hopped Amber Ale (5.8%) brewed with Comet hops fresh from The Hop Yard in Gorham.
Knightvillain is a Black Ale (4.5%) cold fermented with flavors of a Stout and the mouthfeel of a Lager. 
Groove IPA is a Session IPA (5.6%) heavily dry-hopped with Cashmere and Idaho-7 hops to be bold, but with a nice, easy-drinking light body and mild ABV.
Liquid Riot Bottling Company
250 Commercial St., Portland
NSFW, Triple IPA (10%)
Definitely “Not Safe For Work,” NSFW was quadruple dry-hopped using Amarillo, Mosaic, Simcoe, and Citra.
Friday, September 24
Definitive Brewing Company
35 Industrial Way, Portland and 318 US Route 1, Kittery
Definitive Ale, New England IPA (6.7%) & Lens, Triple IPA (10.3%)
Definitive Brewing’s signature IPA, Definitive Ale, returns in a fresh batch this weekend. This quintessential New England IPA is dry-hopped with Pacific Northwest and Australian hops and bursting with tropical fruit flavors and aromas.
Get ready for a weekend of “Triple” fun with the return of Lens, a Triple Dry Hopped Triple IPA. This beer dials in at a 10.3% ABV, with a fruity, fluffy body that will put a smile on your face. It tastes and smells like hazy pineapple clouds, orange creme popsicles, and the first days of summer. Both beers are available Friday in Portland, Saturday in Kittery.
Footbridge Brewery
25 Granary Way, Boothbay Harbor
Okcovidfest, Märzen
Footbridge Brewery will be celebrating their 2nd Annual Okcovidfest Friday, September 24 through Sunday, October 3. They will be kicking it off with the seasonal beer release of Okcovidfest, a full-bodied Märzen with hints of fruit courtesy of the strong but gentle Vienna and dark Munich malts, which is balanced out by a crisp, clean bitterness.
Island Dog Brewing
125 John Roberts Rd., Unit 15, South Portland
Black Forest, Chocolate Cherry Porter (5.2%)
Brewed with cocoa and fermented on cherries, Black Forest is a taproom favorite.
Sebago Brewing
Multiple locations
Local Harvest Ale, IPA (6.5%)
Local Harvest Ale has been a fall tradition for more than a decade. The 2021 batch uses Cascade and Comet hops from The Hop Yard, plus four different styles of grain and malt produced by local producers Maine Malt House and Blue Ox Malthouse, making this year’s brew even more local than usual.
Immediately after harvesting the hops, the brewery team subjected them to “cryo-whacking,” a technique they’ve perfected over the past several years. They use liquid nitrogen to freeze the fresh hops so that they can be shattered easily with a weed whacker in order to break apart the hops so that the lupulin glands around the core of the hop cone are more easily introduced into the beer.
Local Harvest Ale will be available soon at all five Sebago Brewing locations. Find more info about Local Harvest here.
Saturday, September 25
Banded Brewing Co.
32 Main St., Ste. 102, Biddeford and 82 Hanover St., Ste. 6, Portland
Oktoberfest
Come one, come all! Oktoberfest is back this year! It’s time for stein hoisting, hammerschlagen, German lagers, and, of course, BRATS! Chef Carrie has put together a special menu for the occasion and the staff at Banded have dusted off their best lederhosen (oh yeah, costumes are definitely encouraged).
As always, this event is free to attend, but Banded has brought back their Stein/Beer/Meal deal. $25 gets you a German lager of your choice, 2-3 delicious special menu items, and a custom Oktoberfest stein.
Foulmouthed Brewing
15 Ocean St., South Portland
Billtoberfest
Billtoberfest (Foulmouthed’s spin on Oktoberfest) will go down from 12-8 p.m. There will be a stein-hoisting competition at 2 p.m., and German-style beers and food available for purchase all day.
Maine Beer Company
525 US-1, Freeport
Beers in the Barn
Held in the historic Mallet Barn, Beers in the Barn supports Wolfe’s Neck Center in training the next generation of farmers, and connecting people of all ages with their food, agriculture, and the environment. Beers in the Barn offers two sessions, each capped at 100 attendees. The evening session is already SOLD OUT so if you want tickets to the day session, we recommend you act fast. The historic Mallet Barn is located at 625 Wolfe’s Neck Road in Freeport, Maine, past the entrance to Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park.
Sunday, September 26
Sunday Brunch at Lost Valley with Baxter
200 Lost Valley Rd., Auburn
The 2nd Annual Sunday Brunch will be held outside on the Lost Valley lawn (weather permitting) in conjunction with Baxter Brewing. Enjoy a delicious brunch, cold drinks, great music, and good times with friends.
Tickets are required for this event. Tickets are $20 per person ($10 per person for kids 12 & under) and include entry into the event, served brunch buffet 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and live music from the band Clockwork from 12-3 p.m.
New Releases
We run the gamut this week, from hard seltzers for those of you who want to pretend it’s still summer (nope, that ship sailed yesterday) to Märzens for folks ready to jump into a pile of leaps and break out the decorative gourds.
Bangor Beer Co.
330 Bangor Mall Blvd., Bangor
Raspberry Moon, Raspberry Wheat Beer
Raspberry Moon was brewed with Central Street Farmhouse and the Maine homebrew competition winner, James Rausch.
Bath Brewing Company
141 Front St., Bath
Oktoberfest, Märzen (5.5%) & FineApple, Double IPA (8.1%)
Accordion squeeze please (you know, instead of a drum roll) because well, it’s German and Bath Brewing has Oktoberfest on draft! Go enjoy a pint of this crisp and malty traditional German Märzen. Oktoberfest is sure to send you into the autumn season with a pep to your step. Prost auf das Oktoberfest! Translation: Cheers to Oktoberfest!
Not your average pineapple but a lot more fine! FineApple comes in at 8.1% ABV and has a fruity, tropical taste with a little hint of pineapple.
Battery Steele Brewing
1 Industrial Way, Units 12 & 14, Portland
Golden Path, Pilsner (5%)
The journey to find elegance in simplicity begins on the Golden Path. Traditional Bohemian Pilsner malt and Saaz hops come together with a classic yeast strain from the Czech Republic. After a lovingly extensive lagering period, this Bohemian-style Pilsner was packaged in its natural, unfiltered state to retain a full range of flavor. Notes of freshly toasted bread and earthy, herbal spiciness give way to a clean and crisp finish to ensure a highly agreeable drinking experience.
Bissell Brothers Brewing
38 Resurgam Place, Portland
Assume Positive Intent, Pale Ale (6%)
Assume Positive Intent is a double dry hopped Pale Ale that packs a tropical punch with Sabro, Callista, and Southern Passion hops on a fluffy base of Maine-grown oats. Notes of piña colada, limeade, and blackberry will have you second-guessing whether you’ve got an adjunct on your hands—but nope! Just hops (and water and grains and yeast) in here.
Foundation Brewing Company
1 Industrial Way #5, Portland
Purple Berry Jam, Sour (5%)
Purple Berry Jam is back and tasting positively fabulous, with a fresh new label to boot. This 5% Sour is brewed with milk sugar and fermented over heaps of blueberries and blackberries. Purple Berry Jam pours a deep, regal purple, like a gemstone shimmering in its glass. Every sip delivers waves of bright and jammy goodness – full of the berry-licious flavor we crave.
Lone Pine Brewing Company
219 Anderson St., Portland, and 48 Sanford Dr., Gorham
Red Berry Lemonade Craft Seltzer (5%)
Ready to give your weekend a little razzle-dazzle? Lone Pine is keeping it clean with a fresh new craft seltzer that features real additions of raspberry strawberry and lemon purée. It has fresh fruit, a clean body, and a tart bite for those of you looking to keep it light.
Maine Mead Works
51 Washington Avenue, Portland and 8 Western Ave., Kennebunk
HoneyMaker Chai Mead (6.7%)
This semi-sweet mead is blended with amazingly aromatic black tea from Chai Wallah of Maine, seasoned with cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and clove then lightly carbonated and canned.
Nonesuch River Brewing
201 Gorham Rd., Scarborough
Freshly Hopped & Hazy (6%) & Märzen the First, Märzen (5.6%)
The annual hop harvest is a special time for brewers and beer lovers alike. Once a year, brewers get to brew with freshly harvested and unadulterated hops. These “wet” hops head straight from the hop yard to the brewery. This year, local Cascade and Comet, added just before fermentation, impart noticeable textures and aromas that dried hops just can’t provide. This beer is sticky and sweet, just like a fruit snack from your grade school days.
Märzen the First is an Oktoberfest-style Märzen, Nonesuch’s first-ever lager bier. They stayed true to style with this one, bringing you a most exquisite malt-forward beer. The multitude of caramel notes finishes up cleanly like the crust of freshly baked whole wheat bread.
Rising Tide Brewing Company
103 Fox St., Portland
Cutter, Double IPA (8%)
In a sea of IPAs, Cutter stands tall. This Double IPA sails with citrus and tropical fruit aromas and a balanced hoppy finish. Big, bold, and beautiful.
Maine Beer in the News
Learn about some history you won’t find dull (or cringy): the history of craft beer in Maine! You can also find out about Mast Landing’s plans to branch out and get a look at local Oktoberfest beers (in case you haven’t already gotten your fill from our listings).
Revisiting Beers that Launched Maine’s Brew Revolution
From Geary’s Pale Ale to Allagash White, these heritage beers paved the way for the craft beer movement in the Pine Tree State.
After Another Year of Growth, Mast Landing Looks to Expand its Offerings
When Westbrook, Maine’s Mast Landing released its Gunner’s Daughter peanut butter stout in 2016, the brewery didn’t expect it to become a top-selling item. But the stout became a fan favorite and eventually took over 50% of the brewery’s production.
Tap Lines: Oktoberfest beers make change of seasons easier to swallow
Bissell Brothers’ Festbier joins the offerings from Maine breweries.
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
