Our Maine Travel Report

[Chris of thebeergeek.com]

Our trip to Maine was the last of three successive quickie beer trips. Centered on Portland, Maine's largest city and brewing center, we also managed visits to breweries in small town Maine during our short visit.

In our two day visit, we experienced Maine's craft beer pioneers such as Geary's and the Great Lost Bear plus the newcomers Novare Res Bier Café and Maine Beer Company. And we ate a lot of lobster too.

We both reached the 500 brewery mark on the trip. Chris added eight breweries (503 total) and Merideth, nine (501 total). The next milestone, 600 breweries, is just around the corner.

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Chowdah, Lobstah and Bee-ah

Not sure why we started keeping track of the breweries we visit. It’s not like either of us are obsessive list freaks. But back in the early 90s, we decided after visiting a few dozen breweries to keep a list. The pace the first 15 years was a bit leisurely. In that time we visited 300 breweries. But with the frenetic pace of the last several years, we were on the brink of reaching the 500 milestone.

In planning our trips for this year, we knew it was going to be sometime in 2009 when we reached 500. But when we finalized this Maine trip back in April, it was hard to predict that the Pine Tree State would be where we reached this lofty plateau...

http://www.thebeergeek.com/blog/?p=849

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The Maine Event - Reaching 500 Breweries

We gained three breweries on the first day in Maine leaving myself at 498 and Merideth at 495. We had five Portland breweries on our itinerary for Friday. Thus, if all went well, we both would reach 500 on the same day. How romantic!

Our first stop on Friday was Maine’s newest brewery, Maine Beer Company. A partnership between brothers David and Dan Kleban, I learned about Maine Beer Co. from my contact at the Brewers Guild...

http://www.thebeergeek.com/blog/?p=825

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Nursing on our Laurels

After our night (and early morning) at Novare Res, we were a bit slow to get moving on Saturday morning. I felt better than my little Spring Peeper but unfortunately, there was no sleeping in for either of us. We still had two more breweries in Maine before we headed back to Boston for a beer festival.

Our first stop, Shipyard Brewing’s production facility in Portland, was a big one for Merideth. I had been to Federal Jack’s, Shipyard’s original location in Kennebunkport, in 1995. Therefore, according to our rules, the Portland location didn’t count for me, but it did for Merideth. Once she tried their beer, she would be only two behind me...

http://www.thebeergeek.com/blog/?p=973