Craft Beer Comes to Portland

If you know me, you know I’m passionate about craft beer. And living in Maine is heaven for such a person.

A few weeks ago we were blessed with the arrival of a beer festival that brought more than 70 breweries from Europe to Portland. The event was estimated to have generated as much as $1 million in economic activity in the city. (The post-festival grumblings from the organizers was unfortunate, but it started an important conversation that I hope to follow up on.) There were eight beer festivals on the schedule for this summer and fall.

This coming weekend, Portlandians — I won’t let Oregonites have a monopoly on this demonym — will have a chance to partake of the best of what Maine’s brewing industry has to offer.

The Maine Brewers Guild has for the past two years held a festival in Boothbay called Craft Beer Comes to Boothbay, which featured the majority of the state’s breweries pouring their brews for thirsty festival goers.

This year — the festival’s third — the event will be held in Portland, on the Maine State Pier, on Sat., July 13, from 1-4 p.m.

The event, dubbed Craft Beer Comes to Portland, will feature 25 breweries (24 from Maine, with one guest brewer from outside the state). The guild expects 500 to 600 people to show up, according to Dee Dee Germain, the marketing coordinator for the guild.

The usual suspects — Allagash, Geary’s, Marshall Wharf, Oxbow, etc. — will be at the event, but it will also feature three newcomers to the Maine beer scene: In’finiti Fermentation & Distillation in Portland, Funky Bow Brewery in Lyman, and Captain Dick’s Brewery in Wells.

The guild’s special guest brewer will be Victory Brewing Co. from Downingtown, Pa.

Tickets, which get you food as well as beer, are $50 for those drinking; $25 for designated drivers. Buy ’em here.

Whit Richardson

About Whit Richardson

Whit Richardson is Business Editor at the Bangor Daily News. He blogs about Maine business, entrepreneurs and the economy.