Announcing the Maine Beer Writers’ Guild

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Announcing the Maine Beer Writers’ Guild

Published March 27th, 2008 in Maine, Other Beer Sites | 2 Comments »

After a “get together for a beer” at Great Lost Bear last week, Russ from Beer, Maine & Me, Luke from A Blog About Beer, and I formed the Maine Beer Writers’ Guild. Beer and Maine seem to go together like beer and, well, just about anything really. Microbrewed “craft” beer flourishes here, as does its appreciation. So it should come as no surprise—especially with the recent rise in popularity of both craft beer & blogging—that a number of beer-themed blogs and print publications have been popping up across the state. But there has been no way to connect these local beer writers and enthusiasts with one another—until now.

While similar organizations exist on a national scale (The British Guild of Beer Writers & the North American Guild of Beer Writers), the Maine Beer Writers’ Guild is believed to be the first such organization which exists on a local, state level.

Our goals are simple: to promote better beer writing and celebrate Maine’s craft brew culture. Meetings will be held on a monthly basis, beginning with an April 2nd meeting at Gritty McDuff’s on Fore Street in Portland.

For more information on the Maine Beer Writers’ Guild and its members, to join (writers), or to help with a future meeting (publicans & brewers), visit www.mainebeerwriters.org.

Update: Giving credit where credit is due, the MBWG is apparently not the first state beer writers’ organization. The New Jersey Association of Beer Writers pre-dates us by at least a year. Oh well.

Portland, Maine - A Beer Destination

Published March 24th, 2008 in Maine, Other Beer Sites | No Comments »

While surfing the web for stories about beer and Maine, I came across a nice write up on my new hometown on a site called beerfestivals.org. As I’ve said before, when I moved here I was not expecting Portland to be the beer city that it is. BF.org offers a little history lesson in just how it got to be the beer destination it is today:

If you love beer, you’re probably familiar with Portland, Oregon. But it may surprise you that America’s original Portland, in Maine, is a top beer destination in its own right. This old port city of 60,000 turns out an amazing quantity, and variety, of good beer.

Portland’s evolution into a beer Mecca began in 1980, when Alan Eames, who later won fame as a beer historian, opened Three Dollar Dewey’s (241 Commercial Street). While its name comes from the favors offered by Klondike prostitutes, its atmosphere is reminiscent of Britain, not the Yukon. According to a Portland beer writer, Eames’s pub “educated an entire generation of beer drinkers.” Having discovered a world beyond mass-market lagers, they were ready when craft brewing came to Maine.

The pub is large and roomy, with brick walls, wooden floors, and low ceilings. It’s full of long wooden tables where locals meet and visitors relax after shopping or a harbor cruise. The three-sided bar in back is perfect for reading the paper and munching popcorn while enjoying one of the three dozen beers on tap. Most are brewed by New England micros, but there’s also a good selection from the British Isles, including an “Irish Blacklist” of combination drinks made with stout.

I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve never actually been in Three Dollar Dewey’s. For some reason I’ve always just walked by on my way to other Old Port destinations. I will have to correct that oversight the next time I’m downtown. The article goes on to mention such other Portland beer stalwarts as Gritty McDuff’s and the Stone Coast Brewing. And, of course, what description of Portland Maine would be complete without a mention of our nationally acclaimed beer destination, The Great Lost Bear?

Overall, this was a very nice little write up. I might have added mention of the Sebago Brew Pub as well, it certainly hits most of the highlights. Plan your own trip up here and see for yourself. And if you’re looking for a beer festival near you, be sure to browse over to BeerFestivals.org.

A Pub Glass for the Ladies

Published March 19th, 2008 in General, Other Beer Sites | 2 Comments »

My wife, Amber, is also a fan of good beers (not quite a full-fledged hophead yet, but she can certainly appreciate the difference between a nice brown ale and a good Belgian ale). One of her chief problems, however, is that she’s not a very big woman, so a single pint is often enough for her in terms of both volume and alcohol. She’s always very pleased when she can get a “tasting” sized glass (like, for instance, the tasting lineup at Sebago Brewpub in Portland). We do not have any similar glasses at home, and there’s just something wrong with pouring a half pint into a full size glass. Thus, I was especially interested in a posting by Ron today at Hop Talk:

Jasmine of Beer at Joe’s was kind enough recently to write about herself on Hop Talk as part of our Women of the Beerosphere series. She pointed out that she prefers pubs and microbreweries that offer half pints of beer so that she could sample more than one brew. One full pint would fill her up, not to mention that women absorb and metabolize alcohol differently than men.

I received a good review from a friend of The Pub Shoppe, an online store that sells all sorts of pub related items, including 10 oz English style pub glasses. They actually list them as ‘ladies size.’ The Pub Shoppe also sells things like signs, dartboards, and clothing.

If you know of a good place to get beer glasses and other beer related items, please let us know!

© Hop Talk — A Pub Glass for the Ladies

(Via Hop Talk.)

I think I’ll need to order a few of these to complement my beerware collection. We both drink some stronger beers at home and having a proper sized glass would allow us the opportunity to enjoy more than one. It would also make splitting those 22 oz. corked, caged bottles I’ve been buying lately a bit easier.

Harry Potter Just Got a Whole Lot Cooler

Published February 29th, 2008 in Beer News, Other Beer Sites | No Comments »

Thanks to the following item from blogaboutbeer.com, Harry Potter (well, Daniel Radcliffe anyway) just got a whole lot cooler in my eyes. Would that I knew at 21 what I know now, and that I were a movie star, some Trappist beer straight from the monastery gates would definitely have been my first legal drink!

Some of you may remember a few months ago (November, 2007 to be exact) when the story of the The Trappist monks at St. Sixtus monastery and their famous Westvleteren beer vaulted to everyday stardom, thanks to this story in the Wall Street Journal. Well, apparently their mystique has caught the attention of another high profile star - Harry Potter. According to England’s Daily Star, Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe will travel to the monastery in Westvleteren, Belgium to purchase some of the monks’ famous beer - beer that is regarded by many as some of the best in the world.

Supposedly one of the monks told the Daily Star,

‘[Daniel] appreciates fine wine and beer and is fascinated by Westvleteren. He wanted it to be the first alcoholic beverage he legally drank.’

Radcliffe has reportedly agreed to purchase two cases each of Westvleteren Blonde, Westvleteren 8 and Westvleteren 12, all of which can only be bought at the monastery gate. For more on the the Westvleteren Monks and their ‘holy grail of beers’, click here (WSJ) and here (wikipedia).

(Via blogaboutbeer.com.)

Looking for Beer Specials in Portland?

Published February 27th, 2008 in Maine, Other Beer Sites | No Comments »

Looking for beer specials in Portland, Maine? Don’t mind some less-than-stellar web design? Take a look at PortlandOldPort.com. This is apparently a Joomla! site for the Old Port, Portland’s social center. There’s also a MySpace page, which I don’t care for, but the drink special list is quite handy. Just be sure you have your pop-up blocker turned on before you visit.

Origin Ale, Made with the Seeds of Hades

Published February 26th, 2008 in Breweries, Other Beer Sites | No Comments »

The Beer Activist posted this fun little intro to He’brew’s Origin Ale. Methinks I’ll need to ask the local candy store to order me up some.

According to mythology, Persephone ruled as the Queen of Hades when Pluto, God of the Dead, absconded with her for the nether world. Persephone’s mother was Demeter, the goddess of grain. Demeter’s Roman equivalent is Ceres, the goddess whose name gave us the word ‘cereal’ and the Latin root word for beer yeast, ‘cerevisiae.’ Being the goddess of grain and fertility, Demeter failed to produce any crops while she mourned the loss of her daughter to the god of the underworld.

Eventually, Zeus, the supreme god of the Greeks, convinced Pluto to allow Persephone to return to her mother. But before she left, Pluto fed her a few kernels of pomegranate. The fruit was so sweet that Persephone agreed to return to Hades for part of each year so she could enjoy its succulent seeds.

The He’brews over at Shmaltz Brewing have combined the many elements of this myth - pomegranate juice, grains and yeast - and achieved a supreme drink indeed. This ale is pink. Perhaps not indicative of its underworldly origins but more suggestive of it’s seductive, she-devil sweetness. Moderately strong at 8.5% ABV, Origin has a tight foamy head with lasting lace, and a complex body that ranges from sweet to tart. Lemon, cherry, and pineapple each make brief appearances in this modern day performance of the great myth of Persephone, Queen of Hades.

(Via Beer Activist.)

Beer-fueled Social Networking

Published February 14th, 2008 in Other Beer Sites | 1 Comment »

Looking for other beer discussion outlets? Already have a membership on BeerAdvocate.com and RateBeer? David at “Musings Over A Pint” points out a few new social networking sites that are devoted to beer and the people who drink it.

Democracy’s Drink, ‘devoted to beer and the people who enjoy it‘ was founded by Rich Gallagher in July of 2007. Rich describes his thoughts behind the site in Beer, Blogging, and the Pursuit of Content. The membership role is approaching 200 beer lovers as of this writing.

The Aleuminati is another new online beer community, and is described as ‘an online community of men and women dedicated to the preservation, propagation and proclamation of fine ales, lagers and specialty beers.’ The Aleuminati site was begun by Shawn, the Beer Philosopher in January of this year.

(Via Musings Over a Pint.)

I’ve thus far resisted the call of MySpace and FaceBook. However, a social network for beer drinkers might be something worth looking into. I’ll be sure to post some more info when (and if) I set up accounts on them.

BeerBloggers.com

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