The Brew Dork Times: Allagash Brewery!

The (brew) highlight of my trip to Maine hand's down was my visit to Allagash Brewery in Portland!

Note the Eastern White Pine (Maine's State tree) reflected in the window.

It was a humble beginning for Allagash Brewery in 1995. Founder Rob Tod didn't have loads of money, a large staff, a 'dream' location or the luxury of a tried-and-tested blueprint to success.

What he did have were a few basic (and indispensable) building blocks:

Passion about his product (Belgian-style ales),
An open market (not a lot of people making Belgian-style ales) and
A willingness to work hard (essential when starting any business!)

Those three things, coupled with the fact that people all across American (yes, even Mainers) had grown tired of the same-ol-same-old beer scene and were beginning to actively seek out new and different beers set the stage for what is today one of the best breweries in the country!

Unlike every other brewery tour I've been on Allagash starts their tour in the tasting room (just one more example of doing things different than the status quo?). I was really hoping our 11:00am tour would stretch to noon before we hit the taps but what the heck, I suppose if AM-drinking was the "cards I was delt" I'd have to play them.

First they poured us the White, then the Dubbel, then the Tripple, then the Prince Tuesday IPA, then the Curioux, then--I lost count!

The "tastes" were more then generous, and as my mother (more of a wine-dork, than a brew-dork) kept handing me her glass after a sip ("don't let this go to waste") I had more than a bit of a buzz going before we started the tour.