Last Updated on August 5, 2021 by Jeremy
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Portland, Maine, is a beer city. There is no doubt about that. It really doesn't take long after arriving that you really begin to appreciate just how many Portland breweries there are, and when you reflect on just how small the city is outright, the scale of the beer scene here is truly impressive.
While we didn't make it to all of the breweries in Portland during our visit, we did hit a good cross-section and share a summary of each in the round-up below!
Shipyard Brewing
Shipyard Brewing is another brewery in Portland that has been around for quite some time- it was founded in 1992 as Kennebunkport brewing. Presently it is considered to be the largest beer producer in Maine and the fourth largest in New England (although these are always prone to change).
Much with Allagash, we enter these breweries with a bit of apprehension as we are always curious on how much their beer styles reflect what was popular in the 90s and early 2000s as opposed to the trends of today (as we are clearly on board with the latter).
Thankfully, we were quite impressed with Shipyard's Portland-based taproom because they have a nice mix of brewery staples as well as a huge experimental selection you can only try there. We went half-and-half on our flight with a Melon Ale and Finder (NEIPA) from the classic menu and a Raspberry Milkshake IPA and Blood Orange Belgian from the experimental.
For the fruited beers, we were quite impressed with how well the flavors came out in their respective styles. While the milkshake IPA was lighter in lactose than we normally prefer, the fruit in all three was strong. In fact, the Melon Ale was one of the most intense melon beers we've had anywhere and resulted in me purchasing a six pack (at under $10 no less) to enjoy during the rest of our trip. Yes, it was that good.
So sign us up for Shipyard the next time we visit Portland, this one was truly impressive!
Shipyard Brewing is located at 86 Newbury Street in downtown Portland.Liquid Riot Bottling Company
If there is any brewery in Portland that you'll 100% not miss when walking around, it is Liquid Riot. This one has a prime location right on Commercial Street, is a massive space, and offers a robust draft list as well as a distillery, restaurant, and more. They really do it all!
In fact, the draft list is so robust here you can visit several times over for flights and still only be just scratching the surface.
So on my visit, I went heavy for higher ABV brews which historically have been my favorite styles at breweries with wide draft lists such as this one. My flight included What's In the Box (DIPA), #1 Dad (Quad IPA), Persuasion (Port Barrel-Aged Sour Brown Aged on Cherries), and Honey Riot (a Belgian Tripel on Maine Honey).
It may be cliche to say these were all clean-to-style iterations, but it is true. The IPAs came with that nice sweetness you expect from doubles and quads with a rather intense hop profile, the sour was quite tart thanks to the cherries but with some mellowed nuance from the barrel, and the Belgian was all the things we love about Tripels in every respect (although we'd say the honey just made the beer a bit sweet on the backend as opposed to having overt honey flavors).
Delicious all around!
Allagash Brewing
Liquid Riot Bottling Company is located at 250 Commercial Street.
If you know of any Maine breweries from outside the state, it is probably Allagash. This one has been making highly sought-after beers since 1995 and is known all over the country primarily for Allagash White (a staple on so many bar menus we've been to). Naturally, we had to make a pilgrimage to this impressive space just outside of Portland.
Unfortunately, we have to admit that we were slightly let down by our experience here. First was that even their small pours were quite large, 8 or 12 ounces pending variety (so we didn't get to try as many as we otherwise would've liked), and also that some of the flavors we were expecting weren't as pronounced. A juniper pale ale, for example, was more on the citrus side of things than what we'd expect from most juniper flavors and a black currant sour was only just lightly sour and had nominal fruit flavors. This was probably on us for the choices, but since we couldn't keep buying pour after pour, it kind of hurt the experience overall.
That being said, their Golden ale aged in apricot liqueur barrels saved the entire tasting outright as it had an intensely rich apricot flavor as well as an ABV to match thanks to being aged in barrels. Had we been able to order more, we honestly would've stuck to the barrel aged stuff here as this one was truly exceptional.
Definitive Brewing Company
Allagash Brewing is located at 50 Industrial Way in Portland. Make a day of it when you visit this one as there are many breweries located out in this industrial park on the outskirts of the city. We returned for a future visit to check out Definitive Brewing, below!
If Oxbow won our hearts over because of their wild sours, Definitive hit the mark with their New England IPAs and fruited sours (arguably rounding out our top three favorite styles).
While the hazy, juicy NEIPAs hit all the right citrus notes for us, we left talking about the fruited beers here most of all. Think pairings like tangerine, blood orange, and lime; tangerine and pineapple creamsicle; blueberry, maple, and vanilla; and other unique mixes thrown into the mix.
Pulpy, fruity, and some as high as 9% ABV? Sign us up.
Bissel Brothers
When we arrived at Bissel Brothers, we weren't sure what to expect. Of all of the breweries featured in this guide, this one felt a bit out of place in the quasi-industrial/shopping district just outside of the city center.
Our fears were quickly alleviated as the brewery has a pretty killer lineup with some delicious IPAs (Nothing Gold DIPA of special note) and some large format bottles that you can also purchase to enjoy on-site. We supplemented our first IPA round with a bottled of their Raked Wild Saison with Blueberry and thought it was very reminiscent to the wilds we sampled at Oxbow (above) with one of the biggest punches of blueberries of any beer we had in Maine.
Throw in their respectable on-site kitchen and you have the makings of a great destination brewery all around. The only downside is that you have to take a short drive out of the city center to reach this one.
Bonus - Maine Beer Company
We're calling Maine Beer Company a bonus for this one purely because it is not technically located in Portland but rather 20 minutes outside of the city in Freeport, Maine.
Bissel Brothers is located at 38 Resurgam Place.The reason we're including it in this guide is that Maine Beer Company is another pilgrimage spot for many visitors much like Allagash Brewing (above). Founded in 2009, Maine Beer Company has exploded in popularity all around the country with bottles available in many shops we've been in all over.
Their specialty? IPAs, of course, and during our visit, they only had about five on draft which, unfortunately, limited our options quite a bit. Personally, the styles we tried (Lunch, Dinner, and Another One) trended a bit more on the bitter side than we normally like for IPAs. But despite that this is a fun brewery to visit not only for its IPAs but also as an experience- the tasting room is massive and they also have an on-site pizza kitchen that would put most restaurants to shame.
But no matter what you do, be sure to get a reservation here- walk-up seating was welcomed when we went but we got one of the last tables. Despite the brewery's immense size (we cannot understate how big this place is), it was also packed!
Do you have a favorite brewery in Portland, Maine? Comment below to share! We'll be updating this guide on our next visit when we invariably try out more breweries!
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