We’re dedicating this week’s edition to all of our veterans. We appreciate you and thank you for your service and for all you’ve done for our country. Not a veteran? Then we encourage you to treat a veteran in your life to a pint or two of their favorite beer. Even if it’s…Bud Light. Or, use this occasion to open their eyes to the wonders of craft beer! But honestly, just buy them whatever they want. They’ve earned it. Plus, potentially more craft beer for you. Win win!
Here’s this week’s guide to upcoming brewery events, the latest beer releases, and a roundup of Maine beer news.
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Upcoming Releases & Events
We try not to play favorites here at Beer This Week, but we feel like we need to give a long-overdue shoutout to the bomb-ass photo styling over at Definitive Brewing. Their images leave us drooling week after week, and this time they’ve really outdone themselves with the pic for one of their latest concoctions, Confectionary Wizards. We can almost taste the chocolate, coconut, and almonds while gazing upon this epic beer portrait. Keep reading to learn more about this, and other upcoming releases that will no doubt leave your mouth watering in anticpation.
Thursday, November 11
Allagash Brewing Co.
50 Industrial Way, Portland
From Maine, With Love #11 (9%)
From Maine, With Love #11 balances carefully on the thin line between wine and beer. On one side is a wild saison, with fruit-forward notes of orange and pineapple. On the other, a Muscat grape must—the freshly pressed juice of the grapes—filled with bold green grape notes. After blending, both parts are fermented with saison yeast, merging their flavor into a lightly tart balance.
Bigelow Brewing Company
473 Bigelow Hill Rd,, Skowhegan
Hop Yard Harvest, IPA (5.1%)
Hop Yard Harvest is a seasonal, limited-edition session ale brewed with Cascade and Centennial Hops from their own Bigelow Hop Yard and malts from the Maine Malt House and Blue Ox Malthouse. This straw-colored ale presents a soft mouthfeel with notes of grapefruit and a clean hoppy aftertaste, and it exhibits light bitterness and moderate carbonation.
Blaze Brewing Company
28 Pearl St., Biddeford
Working Vacation Lemon (6%) & Windward, Pale Ale (5.5%)
Working Vacation was brewed in collaboration with Heavy Reel Brewing Company. For this take, they decided to add lemon and vanilla. The result is a 6% liquid lemon bar! Working Vacation is the perfect antidote to colder weather.
Windward is the culmination of Blaze’s interchangeable series. Dry-hopped with Citra and Amarillo, Windward is a juicy fruit-forward beer with a modest ABV. Windward smells and tastes like mango nectar, kiwi, and lime.
Liquid Riot Bottling Company
250 Commercial St., Portland
Monovision: African Queen, IPA (6%)
Monovision: African Queen is a continuation of Liquid Riot’s Monovision single hop experimental series. This IPA was brewed with a new beautiful hop (African Queen) varietal from South Africa. We’re pretty sure Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart would give this brew their stamp of approval.
Friday, November 12
Definitive Brewing Company
35 Industrial Way, Portland and 318 US Route 1, Kittery
Iron Hatchet, Double IPA (8.5%) & Confectionary Wizards, Imperial Stout
Iron Hatchet is a Galaxy-loaded DDH DIPA brewed in collaboration with Fidens Brewing Company. It’s reminiscent of peach, passionfruit, and freshly squeezed guava.
Confectionary Wizards is a sweet and magical creation brewed in collaboration with Long Live Beerworks. A hefty grain bill provides the backbone of this brew while the chocolate, almond, and fresh coconut elevates this beer to another level. It tastes like rich Almond Joys, dark hot chocolate with coconut, and ice cold almond milk. Both beers are available Friday in Portland, Saturday in Kittery.
Saturday, November 13
Mast Landing Brewing Company
920 Main St., Westbrook and 200 Lower Main St., Freeport
Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Gunner’s Daughter, Stout
Aged for 11 months in Willett Sour Mash Bourbon Barrels, this absolutely gargantuan beer layers notes of fudge, whiskey, dark fruit, vanilla, and more over the foundation of Imperial Gunner’s Daughter. An awe-inspiringly complex and indulgent beer, this is perfect to savor with good times and close friends.
New Releases
With new stout releases from Bissell Brothers and Black Pug, a porter on tap at Gritty’s, a brown ale by Nonesuch, and the return of one of our cold weather favorites, Sebago’s Barleywine, it’s officially winter beer season!
Bangor Beer Co.
330 Bangor Mall Blvd., Bangor
4th Anniversary Double IPA (7.9%)
In honor of their 4th birthday, Bangor Beer brewed a full-bodied IPA with Maine-grown Cascade hops, as well as Citra, Mosaic, and Strata hops. It’s the perfect celebratory beer!
Bissell Brothers Brewing
38 Resurgam Place, Portland & 157 Elm St., Milo
Sigil XI, Stout (10.6%)
As fall gives way to winter, the days grow darker—and so does the beer selection at Bissell Brothers. Sigil XI is the latest entry in their ongoing series. Sigil XI is a combination of a wheat stout aged in bourbon barrels for 18 months, a 24-month rye old ale, and an oat stout aged in rum barrels for 11 months. The resulting brew is another well-balanced exploration of the magic that occurs when you mix beer, barrels, and time.
Black Pug Brewery
30 Bath Rd., Brunswick
Coco Globetrot: Madagascar, Stout (6.6%)
With notes of dark bitter chocolate, mocha, and vanilla, Coco Globetrot: Madagascar really packs a punch!
Fore River Brewing Co.
45 Huntress Ave., South Portland
Strata Magnolia, Double IPA (4.7%)
Strata Magnolia has notes of mangos, oranges, peaches, and berries all wrapped up in an 8% ABV of hazy goodness.
Foundation Brewing Company
1 Industrial Way #5, Portland
Fruit Punch Jam, Sour (5%)
Last released in June of 2020, this sour packs a majorly fruity, tropical punch. It’s fermented with cherry, currant, guava, and pineapple and lands at a crushable 5%. Oh, yeah! (IYKYK)
Gritty McDuff’s Brewing Company
396 Fore St., Portland; 187 Lower Main St., Freeport; and 68 Main St., Auburn
Old Port Porter (6%)
Old Port Porter has a complex grain bill of six different ingredients and was hopped with Northern Brewer, Centennial, and East Kent Goldings for that “far-away taste.” With notes of dates, molasses, and dark biscuits, Old Port Porter is the perfect beer to enjoy while watching the last of the leaves fall to the ground.
Lone Pine Brewing Company
219 Anderson St., Portland and 48 Sanford Dr., Gorham
Cloud Cake Milkshake, Double IPA (8%) & Go Green Lemon Lime Hard Seltzer (5%)
Cloud Cake is a luscious and sweet double IPA clocking in at 8% ABV. Big flavors of lemon meringue, pineapple, and vanilla frosting compliment a big mouthfeel with almost no trace of bitterness.
Go Green Lemon Lime Hard Seltzer is clean and light with zesty lemon and lime and, fun fact, is the official hard seltzer of the Maine Celtics!
Mast Landing Brewing Company
920 Main St., Westbrook and 200 Lower Main St., Freeport
Arizona Sun, Double IPA (8.1%)
This all Citra-hopped double IPA is a treat for the palate. Pale straw in color with a thick haze; citrus dominates the aroma and flavor profile with notes of orange zest, blood orange, clementine, and passionfruit. The mouthfeel is super soft with a balancing touch of malty sweetness.
Nonesuch River Brewing Company
201 Gorham Road, Scarborough
Oh Brown Ale, Where Art Thou, (5.9%)
This is a smooth and elegant brown ale dipped in chocolate with blended notes of dried cherry and plum. The wheat malt adds body, and a touch of spice compliments the restrained bouquet of English ale yeast esters.
Orono Brewing Company
61 Margin St., Orono and 26 State St., Bangor
Everlasting Farm, Mixed Fermentation Saison (5.5%)
Everlasting Farm was aged in oak barrels and finished in stainless steel with Calamondin oranges 100% sourced from brewmaster Asa’s family farm in Sidney.
Sebago Brewing
Multiple locations
Barleywine (13.75%)
The 2021 edition of Sebago Brewing’s Barleywine really packs a punch. This year’s batch of bourbon barrel-aged ale has more rich chocolate and bourbon character, with less vanilla, cherry, and caramel flavors than in years past. Barleywine is available on draft and in cans at all Sebago Brewing locations.
York Beach Beer Co.
33 Railroad Ave., York
Dancing Madly Backwards, IPA (6%)
Dancing Madly Backwards is York Beach Beer’s flagship New England IPA, brewed with Vic Secret and Cashmere hops, and boasts notes of peach and citrus.
Maine Beer in the News
This week, learn more about the world of Oxbow Brewing Company founder Tim Adams, and some of southern Maine’s top bars and breweries to play trivia. OK, technically the last one is a bit of a stretch since it’s not technically about beer. But, it does focus on places where you can drink beer. Side note, some of the Beer This Week team may have gone on an epic, years-long string of trivia dominance at one of the spots listed in this article. We will neither confirm nor deny, but rather leave you to draw your own conclusions, dear reader.
Loud Beers From Quiet Spaces — Oxbow Brewing Company in Maine
A profile on Oxbow Brewing Company’s founder, Tim Adams
It’s all about the little things at these trivia nights
The weekly tradition has returned to bars and restaurants around southern Maine.
We hope you enjoyed this edition of Maine Beer This Week! If you own a brewery or other beer business and would like to be featured in upcoming issues, please email or call us to learn more at beerthisweek@gmail.com (207) 209-2094
