I will not lie: both the quality and ubiquity of beer options in the vicinity of Portland, Maine are among the very best in the country. In each of my three visits to the area, I've been able to stake out an itinerary of new and diverse breweries without ever encountering a single true dud. My most recent trip in August featured the most free time of all my visits, which allowed me to visit five new (to me) breweries. And I wasn't even really disappointed to "miss out" on some old favorites. Simply put, there is too much there, which means you will never get to see/drink it all, but you will also never be disappointed with whatever choices you make. That said, some choices are a little bit better than others, so let me educate you below.
13. Lone Pine Brewing Company (link) - 1.5 stars
The only misfire of my two trips to Portland, Lone Pine is nonetheless worth a brief stop on any walking tour of East Bayside for their reasonably good kettle sours. Blueberry Sparkler was the one on tap during our visit, and it was perfectly balanced: medium thickness, medium sweetness, good clean finish. The IPAs were not as good. Oh-J was smooth enough, but too acrid and muddled, especially compared to...well, everything else on this list. What might be a perfectly acceptable stop in most other markets suffers due to its company.
12. Austin Street Brewery (link) - 2 stars
It's easy for Austin Street to get lost in the shuffle, not just in rankings like these, but in a literal physical sense. The location I visited in East Bayside is near several other popular breweries like Belleflower, while the other location in the Allagash zone literally shares an edifice with a brewery higher up on this list. What this means is that two years hence, I can't honestly say that the dunkel and the DIPA I had at the time stick out in any way other than being "pretty good." I will make it a priority to revisit in any future trips, with the hopes of at least adding a little more definitiveness to my evaluation.
11. Mast Landing Brewing Company (link) - 2.5 stars
The downside of my dedication to ranking everything I can is that it inherently requires me to designate one of the breweries I judge to be "very good" as the worst such brewery. Thus I will offer the opposite of "damning with faint praise" to Mast Landing, a brewery that nonetheless has a lot going for it. Their primary offering (hazies) exhibit a wide range of quality, seemingly based on the ease with which a brewer can deploy their hops. Windbreaker features Idaho 7, the cheat code of hops, so it is good. Front Flips features Nelson, which generally requires a more delicate hand, and thus is less good. Other beers fell somewhere in between this spectrum, while their non-hoppy offerings (I had a kellerbier) are solid as well.
10. Belleflower Brewing (link) - 2.5 stars
One of the hype-iest entries on this list falls slightly behind others because of its same-ness. Yes, the hazies are solid, and yes, the kettle sours are solid. But not unlike the previous entry on this list, there's nothing that quite stands out enough for me to offer an endorsement over other breweries that are ever-so-slightly more remarkable. Specifically, I did not find the sours to be as pungent or noteworthy as what Foundation typically serves, and I did not find the IPAs, soft and precise as they are, to be as purposeful as Goodfire. But hey, a slightly disappointing brewery that still mostly lives up to the hype is a good "problem" to have.
9. Oxbow Blending & Bottling (link) - 2.5 stars
On one hand, there's nothing here that I haven't had a better version of elsewhere. But given the sorry state of sour and barrel-specific breweries, I have no choice but stan my reasonably good flight of beers. Amarelle and Blue Noir both did justice to their respective fruits (cherry and blueberry), but still, I'm left thinking about my favorite erstwhile brewery from the other Portland. Sure, the beers there were better, but more importantly were each distinctive to the fruit at hand. It's that ability to craft each beer to a uniquely purposeful end that separates a fine place like Oxbow from the greats. I got at this same idea when discussing my favorite IPA-monger; execution alone is not enough for excellence, there also has to be a vision. Oxbow may not quite have that, but it's still very good. Nothing wrong with that.
8. Foundation Brewing Company (link) - 2.5 stars
Yet another place that makes hazies and sours, but one that receives bonus points for three reasons. First, their flagship IPA (Epiphany) is one of those special concoctions that makes you fall in love with the style all over again (more on this in a minute). Second, some of their sours (ie. Raspberry's My Jam) really go all out in a way that would redeem the style for even the most skeptical drinker. And third, they actually brew a lot of other types of beer! Was I too busy drinking all the IPAs and sours to try any of them? Sure, but it's the thought that counts.
7. Goodfire Brewing Company (link) - 2.5 stars
Have you ever taken one sip of a beer and immediately thought of a different beer? Being me, I have done this a bunch, but it's never been as weird as it was at Goodfire. Specifically, the first sip of their very good IPA Prime had the same exact light and purposeful touch as the IPAs I sampled at Gezellig, a completely different brewery 1500 miles away in semirural Iowa. Now could it be that I was lying to myself, seeking profundity where it didn't exist? Possibly. But the fact that the very next beer (Light Sway, a New Zealand-inspired IPA) was a slightly superior version of the same exact thing confirmed if nothing else that Goodfire is good at executing their specific vision, regardless of whether or not they unknowingly share it with others.
6. Sacred Profane Brewing (link) - 2.5 stars
Look, if you're only going to brew two beers, they had better be good. Luckily for the denizens of Biddeford, both the Light Lager and Dark Lager are indeed high quality (and I will happily drop my "name your beers" rule for breweries that commit to the bit). The dark stands out every so slightly for its roast-y nature that befits an elite-level Czech lager.
5. Argenta Brewing Company (link) - 2.5 stars
One of my favorite places to stop on trips to Omaha is Triptych, located just south of Champaign, Illinois. They do many things well, but what stands out is their lagers, primarily because they make a lot of them. Whether any one such beer is hoppy, or bready, or otherwise malty, or just a clean little guy, they're pretty much always interesting, and often great. Argenta (which just opened in 2024) is not quite on that level yet. Specifically, they don't appear to make anything hop-forward yet, which makes sense given the ubiquity of hoppy offerings in the area. But the Blanc Pilsner was amazingly savory, the Dark Lager was a bready delight, and everything else was well executed. If they expand on this promising start, then watch out. But even if they don't change a thing, I will probably go here every time I visit.
4. Bissell Brothers (link) - 3 stars
3. Definitive Brewing Company (link) - 3 stars
Make no mistake; both of these breweries are great across the board. But they both share a very specific "problem" where their flagship IPA is such a stalwart of the form that everything else pales in comparison. The Substance is rightfully famous for being something of a little brother to the most famous IPA (Heady Topper) that, in my opinion, surpasses its sibling in both clarity of purpose and reliability. Definitive IPA, another worthy exception to my "name your beers" refrain, is, well, definitive. The Citra-forward hop profile isn't overly fruity nor overly cheesy (you know the taste) but a secret, third thing. That "secret" probably has something to do with the presence of my longstanding MVP of beer, Simcoe. It turns out you can't go wrong making your flagship beer with a perfect balance of the two best (?) hops.
The other uncanny similarity is that each makes a double version of these workhorse IPAs. And wouldn't you know it...each is thoroughly unnecessary (but they're still good don't get me wrong)! With the IBU wars in the rearview mirror, and an endless availability of formerly hard-to-get hoppy beers, I've really begun to hone in on what makes an IPA worth it. Perhaps no two beers have been as formative towards my maturing view that, simply put, "bigger isn't always better."
2. Allagash Brewing Company (link) - 4 stars
1. Maine Beer Company (link) - 4 stars
Legacy brewers often play an important role in the ecosystem of their local beer scenes, often as a standard-bearer of quality or, if not quite that, at least a familiar tentpole. The thing about occupying this place in an ever-crowded market is that you've usually been surpassed in hype (if not also quality) by some younger upstart. Or perhaps if you're like the other Portland, those legacy brewers mostly don't even exist anymore. Portland is different from this tendency in that the king(s) stay the king(s).
Allagash needs little introduction: their ubiquitous White makes all other versions of the style unnecessary, and every other Belgian/sour/barreled offering of theirs is at least interesting and often excellent. And beyond their own output, they literally put Portland beer on the map; three of the breweries I mentioned above (as well as a few others) have locations directly in their wake. Maine, on the other hand, exemplifies what I described as the true excellence in the Oxbow write-up: they are one of the few brewers in the world where everything they make has a clear and obvious purpose. Zoe is a perfectly balanced amber that highlights the excellence of Maris Otter malt. Weez is a black IPA that actually makes the style relevant. And, of course, Dinner is everything you think it might be: big and distinctive, while having a light enough touch such that every sip gives you something a little different. And when I had my last bottle, I noticed the "drink within 45 days of the date on the bottle" on the side. I honestly did not remember that the guideline I've used for the optimal lifespan of hoppy beers (for at least a decade!) came from them. Maine, both the brewery and the state, is truly a paragon of beer.
