ExploringMaine.com

Alan Pugsley, called the Johnny Appleseed of microbreweries, has left his footprints all along the newly created Maine Beer Trail.
By NANCY ENGLISH, Special to the Maine Sunday Telegram

Mainers enjoy a little self-improvement in their pastimes, like spending time at a brew pub. Fortunately, the state's thriving brew pubs and their local beers are worth devoted studies.

It's fun to learn about beer.

Terms like cask-conditioned, Ringwood yeast and specific gravity come up in conversation with brewers quickly enough. The cask-conditioned beers known as real ales are naturally fermented and pumped by hand from the cellar into the glass at the bar.

If you can get to Bray's Brew Pub in Naples on Aug. 1, for instance, when every beer they have ever made will be on tap, you could try cask-conditioned Pleasant Mountain Porter, hand-pumped from its barrel into your glass.

Bray's Brew Pub is one of more than 20 brew pubs in Maine. Two large new brew pubs, an offshoot of Shipyard Brewing Co. in South Portland and a new Scarborough Sebago Brewing Co., have just opened up, and their owners are confident Mainers and its visitors will help them succeed.

And all this enterprise has prepared a wealth of choices to imbibe, from the warm reddish brown of Sebago Brewing Company's Runabout Red with its caramel tang, to the smooth, mild golden glitter of The Liberal Cup's Bug Lager, made in Hallowell and in Saco at Run of the Mill.

History

First on the scene in 1988, Gritty McDuff's of Portland, with outposts in Freeport and Auburn, regales its loyalists with Original Pub Style Pale Ale, the mother of all Maine ale.

Or is that sister?

According to David Geary, owner of D.L. Geary Brewing Company, the brewers at Gritty McDuff's trained at his brewing company, which was incorporated in 1982 and began producing its famous Geary Pale Ale in December 1986. Geary said his brewers learned the English brewing system alongside master brewer Alan Pugsley.

Pugsley is now a partner and co-owner, with Fred Forsley, of Shipyard Brewing Co. and eight brew pubs, including three Sea Dog Brewing Company brew pubs in Topsham, Bangor and now South Portland.

Pugsley brought to Maine a strain of English yeast called Ringwood from Ringwood Brewery in Hampshire, England, a yeast that his mentor, Peter Austin, had brought from a Yorkshire brewery. Pugsley also recreated in Maine what he calls the original Peter Austin brick kettle brewing system.

Other Maine brewers and a trade magazine call Pugsley the Johnny Appleseed of microbreweries. After Gritty McDuff's arrived on the scene, Pugsley oversaw the creation of Federal Jack's along the Kennebunk River in Kennebunk, open in 1992.

Head brewer Mike Haley, who has been working at Federal Jack's for 11 years, said "We brew 1,100 barrels of beer a year, which works out to 34,100 gallons."

One summer beer found in every brew pub in Maine is a wheat beer, and Haley's version, called Sirius, is filtered, "with a clean, crisp flavor." Haley said he is also perfecting a new beer made with fruit – possibly peach and grapefruit, which should be on tap later this summer.

Specific gravity, by the way, is a measure of the sugar in beer. Every recipe starts with its own specific gravity, Haley said, and as the yeast ferments the sugar level drops, raising the alcohol content. How much sugar is left in the beer affects the beer's body and smoothness.

Haley said his beers are moderate in alcohol, so patrons can enjoy more than one. The classic ale Old Thumper is highest in alcohol here, at 5.8 percent, Haley said, and begins fermentation at a higher specific gravity but ends with a lower, producing its somewhat dry taste.

The Brew Pub Trifecta

Incredibly, Federal Jack's Brew Pub opened in 1992 without a kitchen. A next-door caf used to be the source of a sandwich – the pub owners let their customers bring in food.

"It was three years into it before we established a kitchen," Pugsley said. "Five years into it before we really had good food, good chefs and high standards."

Today you can rely on the Inn on Peaks Island, one of Forsley's and Pugsley's brew pubs, to serve well-made dinners. The work of Executive Chef Christopher Gordon makes a meal at the Inn on Peaks Island a memorable event. That inn, with a 15-gallon brewing system, hits the brew pub trifecta – great beer, great food and a great location overlooking Casco Bay and Portland's skyline.

Another candidate for that trifecta is Run of the Mill in Saco.

Geoff Houghton, owner of The Liberal Cup in Hallowell, also owns Run of the Mill, which opened last year on the Saco River with an outside deck, overlooking the water and the grand hulks of Saco's textile mills.

The food is well made, with fresh seafood emphasized, and a new deck menu being rolled out offering deck patrons lobsters, steamers and other Maine standards.

Houghton also goes way back in the Maine beer scene – David Geary still has "a soft spot for Geoff Houghton because he used to work for me and I like him a lot."

Since then Houghton has changed his brewer's yeast, allowing the malt and hops flavors to predominate. He calls his lage Bug Lager after the Portland Harbor lighthouse and a pun on the national brand. Bug Lager is delicate, with a light body and a clean taste all its own.

The wheat beer at Run of the Mill and The Liberal Cup is somewhat cloudy, with the yeast not filtered out, an effect Houghton likes for its creamier texture. And brewer's yeast, he remarked, is nutritional anyway – some folks buy it by the bag in a health food store.



Down East, Inland and Far North

Lobsters and mussels in summer and scallops in the winter are part of the tapas menu at Three Tides Waterfront Bar in Belfast, with its 14-table deck overlooking the Passagassawakeag River and a bocce court below.

Strong and hoppy brews like the Cant Dog Imperial IPA and powerful T2-R9 Barleywine (named after an unorganized township north of Millinocket) with 8 percent alcohol are some of what's on tap.

Barbecued ribs and beer are a perfect match, and one you can enjoy at Atlantic Brewing Company's brew pub, The Knox Road Grille, open seasonally in Town Hill near Bar Harbor.

On Saturdays the all-you-can-eat barbecue is the perfect finale after a tour of the brewery, perhaps paired with a dark and rich porter called Coal Porter, with northwestern hops and dark malts. The wheat beer is made with freshly ground ginger, another candidate for the perfect summer beer.

Inland on the Androscoggin River, Gritty McDuff's Auburn Brew Pub has a spectacular location – and an excellent lamb burger topped with feta cheese.

And to the north, Kennebec River Pub & Brewery in The Forks holds fort in a log lodge, where white-water rafters, snowmobilers, kayakers and others can find refuge from outdoor adventures.

A copy of the Maine Beer Trail brochure can be downloaded at www.mainebrewersguild.org or picked up at an information center or local brew pub, for more information on brew pubs and breweries in Maine.

MAINE BREW PUBS

SOUTHERN MAINE

FEDERAL JACK'S Restaurant & Brew Pub, 8 Western Ave., Kennebunk. 967-4322 Federaljacks.com

GRITTY MCDUFF'S Brew Pub, 396 Fore St., Portland, 772-2739; Lower Main Street, Freeport, 865-4321 and 68 Main St., Auburn, 376-2739. Grittys.com

INN ON PEAKS ISLAND, 33 Island Ave., Peaks Island; 766-5100. Innonpeaks.com

RUN OF THE MILL, 100 Main St., Saco, 571-9648. Myspace.com/ runofthemillbrewpub

SEA DOG Brewing Company, 125 Western Ave., South Portland, 871-7000 and 1 Main St., Topsham, 725-0162. Seadogbrewing.com

SEBAGO Brewing Company, 201 Southborough Drive, Scarborough, 874-2337; 164 Middle St., Portland, 775-2337; and 29 Elm St., Gorham, 839-2337. Sebagobrewing.com

SHIPYARD Brew Pub in Eliot, 28 Levesque Drive (Route 236), Eliot, 686-2026. Shipyardbrewpub.com

DOWN EAST

ATLANTIC BREWING Company, 15 Knox Road, Bar Harbor, 288-2337. Atlanticbrewing.com

MARSHALL WHARF Brewery and the Three Tides Waterfront Bar, 2 Pinchy Lane, Belfast, 338-1707. 3tides.com

MAINE COAST Brewing Company/Jack Russell's Restaurant, 102 Eden St., Bar Harbor, 288-5214. Bhmaine.com

INLAND

BRAY'S BREW PUB, Routes 305 and 32, Naples, 693-6806. braysbrewpub.com

KENNEBEC RIVER BREWERY, Route 201, The Forks, 663-4466. northernoutdoors.com

THE LIBERAL CUP Public House and Brewery, 115 Water St., Hallowell, 623-2739. Theliberalcup.com

SEA DOG Brewing Company, 26 Front St., Bangor, 947-8004. Seadogbrewing.com

SHIPYARD Brew Haus at Sunday River, 824-5138 and Shipyard Brew Haus at Sugarloaf, 237-6837. Shipyardbrewhaus.com. Both open only during the ski season

Nancy English is a freelance writer who lives in Portland.