These past few days my family and I went on a mini vacation to Maine. We planned on spending the days freezing and only braving the temperatures and elements to find the necessary food and drink, however; we ended up finding some great microbreweries and a distillery! We toured Allagash Brewery, Geary Brewery, and an up and coming distillery. And the convenient thing is they were all within a half mile radius of each other! Allagash was a larger brewery than we expected but they use and take pride in local suppliers.
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| SP seemed to enjoy the brewery! |
We then happened to stumble upon the up and coming New England Distilling, right next to Geary's Brewery. The owner, operator, distiller, and basically one man show, Ned, was kind enough to give us a private tour. Although he was in the middle of setting things up he showed us his layout and explained to us his plans for the first years. He will be distilling rums, gin, and whiskey, including one that is 110 proof and triple distilled. Ned hopes to be up and running by this coming January.
Our last tour of the day was that at D.L. Geary's Brewery. I had not heard much of them or their efforts but apparently they distribute to a vast area. Steve, a brewer there, gave us a private tour. Here they use brick covered kettles, open fermentation, and brew solely English stylish brews. We sampled their Hampshire Ale (we highly recommend).
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| Summer label scholarship entries. |
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| Who will win? Find out Summer 2012! |
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| Bottle line |
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| Flaked hops |
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| Open fermentation. |
We ended the day with a sampler of brown ales and nachos at The Great Lost Bear pub that hosts over 50 brews on draft! So in conclusion, we highly recommend stopping in at any one, or all, of these great spots if you find yourself in Portland.
