Have you ever heard of the Maine Brewers’ Guild? You certainly should have. They are Maine’s first line of defense for promoting, growing, and protecting breweries throughout the Vacationland state. The person that you see above is the sole employee and spokesperson Sean Sullivan, The Executive Director of the Maine Brewers’ Guild. With many Guild members, Sean works hard to make sure craft beer in Maine thrives.
The Maine Brewer’s Guild is returning with their annual beer festival this summer. Last summer they teamed up with Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp when it came to Thompson’s Point for a gigantic and laid back beer festival. Beer Camp was a massive beer festival that traveled to 7 different locations throughout the country. They delivered breathtaking beers that you’ve heard of and ones that you haven’t to many destinations including Portland, Maine. The Maine Brewers’ Guild helped brew a special beer with them that was on tap during each festival.
The Beer Babe says it best in her latest piece on beer festivals “A well-run festival is a social event where you learn things, a chance to try new beers and meet new people.” Through my last 5 years of attending beer festivals my favorite ones have been organized by the Maine Brewers’ Guild. They’ve been around long enough to know how to run a good fest. Gone are the long lines, the pre-gaming attendees (mostly), and lack of facilities.
The year before that the Maine Brewers’ Guild hosted a sunny festival in 2013 on the Maine State Pier in Downtown Portland, Maine. The year before that in 2012 they hosted their yearly festival in Boothbay Harbor where it was also sunny and full of good company and good beer.
This year in 2015 the Maine Brewers’s Guild plans to return with their own festival at Thompson’s Point. They are planning to host 40+ Maine breweries which is the most Maine beer being poured in one place…ever. The festival this year is more innovative than ever before. They are allowing each Maine Brewery to invite one out-of-state brewery to the festival. This will bring a variety of beer that you can sample on July 25th from in-state and out-of-state breweries.
Sean was explaining how the festival this year is going to have a beer school related event during the festival that attendees can participate in while they enjoy the samples. This will offer some educational aspects to the festival that most fests don’t offer.
What makes this fest even better is that the proceeds to this festival go to the Maine Brewers’ Guild. So basically, your drinking beer in support of beer. The Maine Brewers’s Guild challenged the brewers to make session beers (beers of lighter ABV%) for the VIP session. The VIP session is one hour before the actual event starts. The session beers allow the attendees to try one-of-a-kind beers from the brewers and still be able to drink throughout the festival.
Here is a list of breweries as of May 31st:
- Allagash Brewing Co.
- Andrew’s Brewing Co.
- Atlantic Brewing
- Austin Street Brewery
- Banded Horn Brewing Co.
- Barreled Souls
- Baxter Brewing Co.
- Bigelow Brewing Company
- Bissell Bros. Brewing Co.
- Black Bear Brewery
- Boothbay Craft Brewery
- Bunker Brewing Co.
- Cambridge Brewing Company
- Foundation Brewing Company
- Funky Bow Brewery
- Geaghan Bros. Brewing Co.
- Geary Brewing Company
- Gneiss Brewing Company
- Gritty McDuff’s
- Hidden Cove Brewing Co.
- Kennebec River Brewery
- Kennebunkport Brewing Co/Federal Jack’s
- Lord Hobo Brewing Company
- Liberty Craft Brewing
- Liquid Riot Bottling Company
- Lively Brewing Company
- Maine Beer Company
- Medusa Brewing Company
- Moat Mountain Brewing Co.
- Monhegan Brewing Company
- Orono Brewing Company
- Other Half Brewing
- Oxbow Brewing Co
- Peak Organic Brewing Company
- Penobscot Bay Brewery
- Pennesseewassee Brewing
- Proclamation Ale Company
- The Prodigal Brewery
- Rising Tide Brewing Co
- Rock Harbor Brewing Co.
- Sebago Brewing Co.
- Sheepscot Valley Brewing Co.
- Shipyard Brewing Co.
- Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
- SoMe Brewing Co.
- Smuttlabs (NH)
- The Run of the Mill Public House and Brewery
- Tree House Brewing Company
- Troegs Brewing Company
- Tributary Brewing Co.
- Tumbledown Brewing
We sat down with Sean to talk about the summer beer festival.