February 22nd, 2007
Portland. No, the other Portland.
Saturday afternoon, Sean, myself, Kristen and Amber headed up to Portland, Maine for a weekend of beer adventures.
We started off early, as we went straight to Sebago Brewing in Gorham to meet with Tom Abercrombie. He took us inside, gave us a sample, and took us on a tour of the facility. He talked about the brewing system that they purchased from Rocky River Brewing Company in Tennessee two years ago. They literally acquired everything from them, from the grain silo to the kitchen cabinets. The system is a DME system, and it takes four people to operate the brewery on a brewing day. We talked about sales and marketing opportunities on the North Shore with Tom before leaving for Portland.
We went to the hotel, checked in, and headed out to Gritty McDuffs for dinner and a couple beers. I was personally not very impressed with their beers. We left Grittys and went to the Sebago Brewpub.
We had a few beers there, really enjoyed the Fryes Leap IPA, Slick Nick, and Runabout Red Ale, all while watching Gerald Green win the slam dunk competition. We left Sebago and, on the way back to the hotel, detoured and stopped in at the Brian Boru Publick House.
Kristen had her first ever Guinness, then Sean and I hung out on the roof deck for a while and talked up 2 Beer Guy site. After a while, we went inside and found Kristen and Amber. They were talking up 2 Beer Guys to the band, and we generated some goodwill with them. We went back to the hotel and goofed around for a while. The highlight was when Amber opened a beer bottle (not the twist type) with her hand and a cutting block. Then all went to bed.
Next morning, Kristen, Amber and I went to breakfast downstairs. Amber and Kristen headed off for their spa appointments, and Sean and I packed up the hotel room, got the car, and went to pick up the girls after their treatments. We went over to Shipyard Brewing and met up with Jason Silevinac. We spent 3 hours at Shipyard, as he took us all the way through the four floors of the brewery, from the brick surround, gas fired Peter Austin boilers to the open air fermenters that were all doing work.
They have six 50 bbl, nine 100 bbl and three 300 bbl fermenters. They brew about 65 different beers, with a bunch of contracts in addition to their house brews. We went into the hop room, then saw the grain room with all the original graffiti that was in the building. The facility was unoccupied for 12 years before Shipyard moved in. After touring the facility, we went into the tasting room, had samples of the beer, and just chatted for over an hour. The Ringwood strain of yeast is unique to Peter Austin installed brewing systems, and imparts diacetyl into the beers. In lower alcohol beers, it provides a smoothness. In higher alcohol beers, it contributes a buttery/butterscotch taste.
On Jason’s recommendation, we left Shipyard and went to Rosies for some food and one last beer before we left Portland. It was a good recommendation. Overall, it was an excellent beer journey.