Portland, ME

Portland, Maine is consistently rated one of the best beer cities in the US and is super gorgeous! I highly recommend this cute little city!

​Portland Tips: 

• Walk! Portland is small enough that you can walk from spot to spot most of the time instead of needing to drive/Lyft.

• Go whale watching! But don’t be surprised if your tour is cancelled multiple times due to weather.

• Portland is pretty small so you don’t need much time here, 2-3 days is perfect. Acadia National Park is another great spot in Maine to explore, check out my guide here! are It is also easy to hop on the Amtrak to another Northeastern city if you’ve got more time! Check out my guide to Boston here!

Adventures & Ales Top Recommendations:

• Novare Res Bier Cafe: A great beer bar with a killer selection! They also have a nice patio and food options—I highly recommend the charcuterie board!

• Tandem Coffee and Bakery: Delicious breakfast spot! I’d recommend ordering online as it can be quite busy.

• Mast Landing Brewing: Fantastic spot just outside of town in Westbrook, Maine. They have a huge tap list exploding with delicious IPAs and a small food menu—I highly recommend the pretzel!

• Maine Beer Company: Located in Freeport, Maine, about 30 minutes north of Portland, this is a must-visit. They have a beautiful space, delicious pizzas, and phenomenal beers.

  • Mast Landing Brewing has their second location right around the corner in Freeport as well!

• Belleflower Brewing: An under the radar brewery that is crushing it. Definitely recommend checking out this little spot, particularly for their IPAs.

• Oxbow Blending & Bottling: A terrific brewery specializing in Farmhouse Ales. This spot has awesome vibes plus they have Duckfat onsite for drool-worthy fries and other goodies.

• Bissell Brothers Brewing: A great brewery with tasty IPAs and a full food menu. They’ve got a nice patio and a large taproom. Heads up, you’ll need to pay to park.

• Brewery hop on Industrial Way:

  • Allagash Brewing: Easily the most popular brewery in Portland and for good reason! They have fantastic beers and don’t sleep on their onsite food truck Bite Into Maine!

  • Definitive Brewing Company: Industrial vibes, tasty beers, and frequent food trucks.

  • Foundation Brewing Company: Solid brewery with a variety of beers to choose from.

  • Battery Steele Brewing: Another option on this brewery-packed street!

Allagash Brewing Company

touristy things in portland worth doing:

• Hang out on the Eastern Promenade: Walk the trail and gaze at the sailboats!

• Wander around the adorable downtown and pop into shops!

• Peak’s Island: Grab the ferry and adventure around! We rented a cheap and fun little golf cart to go around the island for a couple hours.

• Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse: Gorgeous and totally worth the short drive from downtown Portland!

Portland Head Lighthouse

Other Portland things to do:

• Liquid Riot Bottling Company: A variety of local beers + check out the view from the back deck!

• Rising Tide Brewing Co.: Another great brewery in Portland! They have cute little flight trays and a wide array of options!

• Austin Street Brewery: Located right next door to Rising Tide, this is a solid brewery with a small tap list.

• Little Tap House: A restaurant with a farm-to-table menu and a large tap list. This spot is especially great for brunch and happy hour!

• Lone Pine Brewing Company: Solid brewery with nice staff members and a large patio outback. The Oh-J is a must try!

• Goodfire Brewing: Right behind Lone Pine, this a cool spot with experimental flavors + shuffleboard in the back.

July 2021

Y’all. July was insane. I visited Columbia South Carolina, Portland Oregon, Hood River Oregon, part of the Oregon Coast, Bend Oregon, Seattle Washington, Boston Massachusetts, Portland Maine, Bar Harbor Maine, and had some killer beers at home in Charlotte in-between. Trying to narrow down this list of my top beers in July was ridiculously difficult after visiting 65(!) new breweries in July, a few of which are some of the top breweries in the country. Check out my top beers in July below:

Everything from Great Notion Brewing in Portland, OR

Hi it’s me, already cheating for choice number one. It is impossible for me to pick one favorite beer from Great Notion that I had—I visited two of their taprooms and had a flight at each, so I had 10 beers on tap and 4 beers in cans throughout my trip. Some highlights were: Carnibaal Smoothie-Style Ale with raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, cotton candy, and marshmallow flavor that is a collaboration with @baabaabrewhouse, Orrerey Imperial Pastry Stout, Big Papaya Fruited Sour with papaya, Shepherd of the Forest Imperial IPA with Strata, Galaxy, Citra, and Vic Secret, and The Mad Batter Imperial Stout with chocolate, vanilla, almonds, and coconut.

Native/Wild Estate Honey From Oxbow Blending and Bottling in Portland, ME

Native/Wild Estate Honey is a Spontaneously Fermented Barrel Aged Farmhouse Ale with Maine grains, aged hops, well water, and estate honey. We enjoyed everything we tried at Oxbow and the highlight was definitely this bottle. Duckfat also has a location onsite to pair your beers with some killer fries.

Everything from The Ale Apothecary in Bend, OR

It is impossible to choose again here, so why not just talk about all of the beers? Ale Apothecary is a super unique little spot in Bend where all of their beers are 100% barrel aged, wild fermented, and naturally carbonated. I had every beer available when I visited: Pear Sauvie with @meccagrade barley and rye malts, @sauvieislandhops Crystal hops, and pear juice; Sahalie malted barley & wheat and @goschiefarms Cascade hops, house lactobacillus culture, aged up to 1 year in oak barrels then a month-long dry-hopping in oak barrels; Walking Fish dry-hopped brew transferred onto freshly harvested Crystal hops from @sauvieislandhops; Sahati barley & rye malts with @goschiefarms Cascade hops brewed in a fallen spruce tree; Farmhouse with barley, rye, wheat, and oats aged in barrels 3-4 months, dry-hopped in the barrel, and naturally carbonated with Oregon honey.

Twice the Daily Serving From Trillium Brewing in Boston, MA

I always love this series from Trillium! This version of Twice The Daily Serving is a Berliner Weisse with blackberry, plum, and raspberry. Visiting Trillium was incredible and of course we left with a plethora of cans for the rest of our time in New England! I enjoyed this one with the sunset over the bay in Southwest Harbor, Maine near Acadia National Park.

Speling van het Lot VIII.ii: Schaarbeekse On A Toast (Medium) - Blended & Alive (Season 17|18) Blend No. 47 From Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen in Lot, Belgium

Did you get all of that? 3 Fonteinen always produces some of the best Lambics around and this one was no exception! It was incredibly smooth and had a nice hint of cherry without being overwhelming. Here is their description of this brew: Speling van het Lot” (Twist of Fate) is a series of small batch experimental brews, barrel maturations, fruit macerations and/or blends. This 8th version features the maceration of Schaarbeekse cherries on charred/toasted barrels. This Schaarbeekse On A Toast has macerated for 265 days on a fresh 1,000 liter medium toasted French oak barrel, in a proportion of 1 kilo of Schaarbeekse cherries per liter of Lambic. After the maceration, the fruit Lambic was blended with young Lambic for a continued fermentation in the bottle.

Pear Mary 2019 From Cascade Brewing in Portland, OR

Cascade is a must visit in Portland! I absolutely loved getting to taste a bunch of their Sours and hanging out in their patio space. My favorite beer I had was Pear Mary 2019, a blend of sour blond ales aged in oak wine barrels then naturally fermented with juice from Northwest-grown pears and infused with fresh rosemary. I also enjoyed Chêne des Fous 2018, Apricot 2019, Garden Party 2017, and Belmont Street Bramble.

Double Dry Hopped Fort Point from Trillium Brewing in Boston, MA

Fort Point is Trillium’s classic juicy Pale Ale, and the DDH version of it was absolutely incredible. It is the classic Fort Point recipe with Columbus hops and then double dry hopped with Citra hops.

Eleanor from Fair Isle Brewing in Seattle, WA

Eleanor is a Farmhouse Ale refermented on elderberries with Hallertau Mittelfruh hops. It has a berry body with notes of cinnamon, clove, and earthy flavors. Fair Isle was my absolute favorite stop in Seattle! They specialize in creating mixed-culture Saisons and they absolutely crush it. I can’t wait to visit them again in the future!

The Purple Kriek From de Garde Brewing in Tillamook, OR

The Purple Kriek is a Spontaneous Wild Ale aged in oak barrels with black and red raspberries and Montmorency and Morello cherries. de Garde is a must visit on any trip to Oregon! They are consistently ranked one of the top breweries in the country, with good reason.

Back in the Zone collaboration From Mast Landing Brewing in Westbrook, ME and Orono Brewing in Orono, ME

Back in the Zone is an Imperial IPA with Citra, Mosaic, and Rakau hops. Mast Landing’s IPAs were absolutely stellar. I loved everything at the taproom outside of Portland, Maine and luckily they were on tap at several spots in Bar Harbor as well!

CHECK BACK NEXT MONTH TO SEE MY TOP BEERS OF August!
CHEERS —ALEXIS