This November, vote as if your life depends on it. If that's not enough — vote as if your BEER depends on it. This isn't a tongue-in-cheek effort to make voting as “cool” as drinking beer. We depend upon our elected officials to express our will through the legislative process. This dynamic …
Almost without exception, breweries don’t start big. In most cases the men and women creating these companies are not rich, and aren’t getting into the business to become so. The dream, then, is to arrive at a scale where achieving a type of financial success doesn’t forsake hands-on guidanc…
Fall is invariably a period of both literal and figurative transition. As temperatures begin to swing downward and nightfall hits just a bit sooner with each passing calendar day, the halcyon glow of summer often fades into a gnawing urge to re-establish routine in preparation for the cold m…
Chris Gamble first had the idea for an urban winery over 10 years ago. He had always had a passion for good wine, and had the very specific goal of opening a winery in the city, not the countryside. He had the palate, but not the background, so he sold his house on Munjoy Hill and moved down…
It’s hard to be sure which “wave” of breweries Maine is currently experiencing. Inarguably, the OGs like Geary’s, Shipyard, Gritty’s, and Sebago represent the first. But with such a proliferation of newcomers since the late twenty-aughts, it’s probably anachronistic to even think of them as …
I'm dedicating these sweltering days to sipping beers infused with fruits and berries. Last week, we sampled some raspberry beers, and this week, we're moving on to something more closely associated with Maine. Vaccinium sect. Cyanococcus, known as the American Blueberry, is the berry most c…
Home brewers become brewery owners — it’s a well-worn narrative at this point. But far less cliché is “the couple that brews together stays together.”
Alisson’s is the kind of place you’re just as likely to find a salty local fisherman as you are a tourist in from Quebec. The bar and restaurant in Kennebunkport’s Dock Square has long been a watering hole for locals and a go-to for visitors seeking authentic fare and atmosphere. It’s the ki…
David Redding and I went back and forth a few times trying to set up an interview. “Thanks for the reminder,” he wrote in a recent email reply, “we’ve been putting out fires.” Goodfire is small, new, and popular. As of this writing they only have four full-time employees, but already they’ve…
It’s been three years since I sat down with Ned Wight of New England Distilling, and not a lot has changed within his product line in that time. But don’t confuse patience for stasis. The barrel aging that goes into producing good whiskeys and rums is a waiting game like few others in the be…
The Portland beer scene is crowded. We’ve got a brewing culture regarded highly enough to attract tourism from around the world. But unlike other beer meccas, this isn’t a “big city.” Everybody knows each other. So when a dude with a CV like Dylan Webber steps out on his own, heads are bound…
2017 was a tremendous year to write about beer. The memories I made in 2017 are so...wait...where are they? All I'm coming up with are a series of jerky, hazy images involving double IPA, punctuated by the occasional burp. Thank goodness I took good notes. Consulting them, I can see that I e…
As the weather cools, and old man winter blows his frigid breath down my neck, my taste in beer changes. I'm no longer as interested in lighter, fruitier beers. No, I need a beverage with some authority — enough hops to lacquer my tongue, and enough alcohol to make me forget that I won't see…
After a long excursion into unusual beers, we've returned to sampling more conventional styles, starting with Double IPAs. This style features a heavy wack of hops, and higher alcohol content than an “ordinary” IPA. A subset of the style, New England Double IPA, is typically less sweet, and …
Winter is back, readers, and this beer writer is tried of fruits, berries, and funky adjuncts. With the sun setting at 4 PM, I'm done with fluff and back to basics, which, at this point in the year are, #1. Alcohol and, #2. Hops! What better way to resume appreciation of more convention beer…