Portland!

Brad, John, Troy, and I spent a very short but very sweet weekend in Portland, Maine. Our objective was to experience a bit of the town and a bit of its craft breweries. As for the town, we stayed downtown, which we really liked, and we're excited to return another time and see more. We went to three breweries. The first was Rising Tide. It's only two years old and pretty small. We loved their beer and we loved the brewery. We learned that the name Rising Tide comes from the fact that just as a rising tide lifts all boats, the craft breweries in Portland work together to raise each other up; kind of cool if you ask me. This picture is at Rising Tide. The entire brewery is in this one large "room." We spent almost 90 minutes learning a lot from their knowledgeable and super friendly staff. And we left as the proud owners of some of their beer.

An unplanned stop was at Shipyard Brewing. By chance this brewery was next door to our hotel. It's a fairly large brewery. Although we liked some (but definitely not all) of their beers, the whole operation definitely felt "bigger."(Example: the "tour" consisted of a video and a quick visit to their bottling room only.) Still, it was a good learning and a good contrast to the two other breweries we visited.

The objective of our visit (and highlight of our trip) was our to visit Allagash Brewing. John and Troy love their beer, and after they introduced us to it over John's graduation weekend, Brad and I became fans too. All of their beer is Belgian style. Although most of their beer is sold on the East Coast, you can get it in Chicago and Los Angeles too.

At all of the breweries, but particularly at Allagash, the tastings were generous. (And, shockingly, free.) We tried five beers there. This is Allagash White, a low-alcohol Belgian Wheat Ale.

John and Troy toasting with the Allagash Fluxus. It's a seasonal beer that none of us had had before. It was so good we brought some home.

Brad, Troy, and John on the tour at Allagash.

Allagash was a great end to a great day. Afterwards it was time to walk to dinner, and then it was back to the hotel for two in the group (guess who) and the other two walked to the bars to sample some more beer (guess again who it was).