So last week we discussed the good people of Maine and their love of shots. But it would be a real shame not to talk about their beer and how much of it I guzzled on our trip. It’s a blog about beer too so it kind of makes sense right? Good, I’m glad we agree.
Now as I mentioned we stayed in the fine town of Bar Harbor, which is up there in Maine. Way way up there. So far up there that if you squint you can almost see Canada. But my point is because we spent most of our time in Bar Harbor we drank a lot of their local brews, namely the offerings of the Atlantic Brewing Company. Now the greatest thing I found about the Bar Harbor is that every bar, and I really do mean every bar, has good beer on tap. At the very least all the bars we hit had Bar Harbor Real Ale on tap which is made by the good people at Atlantic Brewing. Most have this and a few other offerings from the brewery. It’s like the life blood of the town, if they ever stopped making it I think Bar Harbor could close and everyone there would die. And it’s pretty tasty to boot. The wife and I had a chance to get out to the brewery for a tour and it was mighty fun. I’d suggest also giving their Special Old Bitter a sample also, it’s tasty to the max. The Mrs. Beer and Joe went pretty gaga for their Blueberry Ale also. Just about every brewery up there makes a beer with blueberry in it but we both thought this one was the best.
We also found Shipyard Brewing and Gritty McDuff’s offerings on tap in a lot of places. Shipyard we get down in the New Jersey way so I have to admit I didn’t drink a lot of their beers but we did make it to the brewery in Portland. They put on a good tour and I picked up a bottle of Smashed Pumpkin. before heading out. We got to sample last years batch which had been ageing and I have to admit I’m pretty excited to crack this one open.
I did drink a good amount of Gritty McDuff’s though. I became a big fan of their IPA during our time there and I’m going to miss being able to grab a four pack of it at the local store. We also got to hi their brewpub in Portland and I had what might have been the hottest wings my tender little mouth has ever partaken in. I was a mess.
Seadog was another brew pub we hit up in Bangor with a hearty selection of brews that helped me pass out during the hour long ride back to our place. I thank them for that, my wife hates them now though.
Allagash makes a strong showing up there also. If there’s a beer we saw almost as much as the Real Ale it was their white ale. Which is hella good son and cracking a few in the afternoon while downing seven or eight lobsters is pretty freakin awesome.
By the end of the week I’m pretty sure my liver was angry with me. The fact that there’s so much good beer on tap up in Bar Harbor was both a good and a bad thing. Good in the fact that you never had a shortage of good drinking options and bad… well probably for the same reason. The good news though is we made it home alive and I’ve only gotten the shakes three times since our return. I’m pretty excited.
