Bar Harbor Brewing Company, Maine, USA

Amongst all the cargo hauled back up north the other day were more than a few 22 ouncers from Maine micros like these two from Bar Harbor Brewing Company of that sea coast town about an hour south of the US-Canadian border. Bar Harbor is a bit of a hot bed of micro-brewing, being also the home of Maine Coast Brewing as well as the Atlantic Brewing Company whose Coal Porter and Blueberry Ale I have enjoyed in the past. Pretty good for a population of about 5,000 folks. But that is not including the 476,452 tourists and 345,958 seals. I split these bottles with my kin as we watched the Braves spank the Phillies Saturday night. I received a “hmmm…pretty good” on each. High praise.

The Thunder Hole Ale is described as an english brown and I would say it is meant to be a southern english brown as opposed to the slightly tangy style of Newcastle Brown. It is a good moreish brown without the high hoppiness of many US brown ales. It is on the lighter side of browns but has a malty richness cut with layers of grain, pear and chocolate fruit and various sugars. Lighter than you would describe as dried fruit like in a Belgian brown. The hops provide structural support a bit green working with the pear, a bit twiggy and a marked astringency. All very medium which for a brown is usually a good thing. Well crafted rather than amazing as befits the style, this would make a great session ale. A long long finish. Advocates approve. I have not been able to identify the alcohol content.

Their Cadillac Mountain Stout was on my list of beers to buy as it came first in a recent All About Beer review of stouts and porters. I am starting to think that Maine is one of he hotbeds of world stout making, given the consistent excellence I have found there. This beer pours a big dark beige rocky head. It is rich and creamy, even buttery, and maybe is more smokey than dry burnt roasty. It has some of that fruitiness that Maine Coast’s dry stout provides in large measure. There is some mint to the hops but also a characteristic I can only call hardwood. Notes of treacle and cocoa, too. In a way, it is more like a more complex and less sweet caribbean stout like Royal Extra from Trinidad. Certainly one of the best stouts I have ever had. Up there with Freeminer. Here is what the advocates said. Again, no info on the alcohol content.

47 seconds later…

Paul Martin did very well. But he’ll lose the election.

Harper did not do well. There is nothing stopping Paul Martin from the TV spot and Harper was wrong to imply here was any type of convention relating to the Prime Minister presenting on the TV. Harper wrongly said that Martin asked to be the one to fix the scandal. Martin said the opposite. He said he will call the election for 30 days after the final report. In the election in June or January, we may all learn what duds the Grits are but we will also get another bucketful of twisty Harper. And then likely a minority Tory government.

Ottawa Sky Stuff

I marched around Ottawa this noon hour as my hearing was adjourned to 2:00 pm from 9:30 am. All was well in the end judicially speaking – but on my march I took a photo of the biplane at the top of the Department of Justice in its weather vane with my snazzy new zoom lens. Little did I realize I took the inset shot of a jet in the sky in one corner of the 4 MB picture as well. I am liking the zoom.

I also got some nice panoramas from behind Parliament looking north including Hull from Place Du Portage to the Museum of Civilization. No sign of Paul back there hiding or anything.

No sponsorship money went into the following photo:

Gritty McDuff’s, Portland and Freeport, Maine, USA

Gritty McDuff’s Brewpub, Portland
 

I got to visit both the Portland and Freeport locations of the oldest brewpub in Maine within 24 hours. I am glad to say the brew in each is fine even if the setting of the Freeport pub is a bit rough. It is a bit like drinking in an old storage shed though – to be very fair – it is clearly a summer spot and dropping in during a late winter snow storm did not show it to its best. I liked the food in both spots.

 

 

 

 

If I was in Freeport again I probably would stop in for a stout but if you are heading to visit just one, go to Portland. In each you can see bench seating which is fairly common in New England and Atlantic Canada but less so as you move west. Superb. Their use of rolled raw barley creates a creamy mouthfeel that out strips Guinness anyday. It is like melted ice cream…ok…it reminds me of melted ice cream with a pin-fine nitro beige head above black malt roasty double devon. It is exceptional.

 

 

 

 

I also tried the Scotch Ale in the Freeport location and was similarly impressed. I sometime wonder about the style and whether you can put anything in it you want as long as it has less hops and a black malt roughness. This offering has an orangey hue as well as that flavour in the mouth – a nod to Scotch seville marmadade? The fruitiness is counteracted with the rough black malt, subdued green hop and a slight smokey feel. With an additional tangy edge, the overall effect is slightly Belgian and slightly Scots. Very nice and at 6.3% a wee methodical ale worth deconstructing over an afternoon’s sip.

So definitely worth the visit for the ales, Portland for the ales and the location. Gritty’s also bottles its own – or at least has it contract brewed somewhere – which you can pick up pretty much anywhere in southern Maine. I think I brought a quart of Black Fly home for further study. Below are some shots from the Freeport location which you can click on for a larger view.

Stouts: Fresh Draught Stout, Maine Coast Brewing, USA

This is a smooth cream stout that goes off in a direction that I just don’t quite get. A beige ring over really dark black ale. It has chocolate, licorice and roast barley notes but also a somewhat odd Mennonite apple butter thing in the middle. Not unpleasant but really big and malty like you might expect in an imperial stout but this brew has none of the whallop one of those packs. If it was called porter I would not be surprised either but it still wouldn’t be right. Am I a stylistic prude?

Neat to see these guys brew six different stouts…but none called Fresh Draught Stout. Maybe its the Black Irish Stout as one beer advocate notes that it has an “agreeably lithe fruitiness of a vaguely pruneish nature emerges mid palate and lends a blurred bitter cocoa dusted dark fruit contrast.” Wheee-yew! And I thought I was a ripe little adjective squeezer.

From Baaah Haaabaaah, State O’Maine. Something like $5.65 US a half gallon at RSVP Liquors in Portland Maine.

Death of a Camera

So my camera died sort of. It flashes “turn off and on again” over and over on the little screeen. Something wrong with the lens which I suspect is a little beach sand. If I can take it apart, do some highly technical blowing, flapping and flicking, I might get it to work. But I had a wedding to get to so I bought a Sony DSC-S40 to replace the Sony DSC-P32. Virtually the same camera that cost $250.00 Canadian in December 2003 cost $250.00 Canadian in April 2005 but it has a 3x Zeiss lens. Having taken over 4,000 shots with the first one and having not bought film and processing for a year and a half I figure it has paid for itself. But if I get it going again, it is definitely the beach camera.

Portland, Maine

One of my favoriter cities, I was quite pleased to find I could get to the Mall and back in a pinch without discovering new streets. I am pretty sure most of these photos are not of South Portland but Portland proper…except maybe that one of the ship going under the bridge.

The bowl is full of $3 Dewey’s smoked seafood chowder. The best.



Seven Hours

Who knew that the beaches of New England were 7 hours away from Lake Ontario? Who knew that once you have 512 MB on your camera you get 342 photos to look through when you get home? Who knew that I would have first-and-first-cousins-once-removed-in-law-to-my-second-cousin with whom I might go to see the Bruins play if the NHL ever gets going again? Who knew?

Paper City Brewing, Holyoke, MA, USA

We stop in Holyoke as our half way point between Maine and home. Last year at a gas station I saw in the beer fridge one of the Paper City Brewing Company‘s ales and I recalled I liked it. This year I headed into town and found a variety twelve pack for 13.50 USD.

As I have said before, these variety packs are the best way for a brewer to get a fan base as you get to know the product without a great outlay. I look for them when travelling and this is one of three I picked up duing my week in New England. One hint – if you are not sure of your stock, a brewer ought to go with a 4 variety selection. The brave go with two bottles of six types. Sometimes this can mean you show your weak hand, as with Cooperstown, but Paper City is one of the brave and rightly so. In fact, this brewery does more than a few things right and really deserves to be better known:

    • Cabot Street Wheat: [click right for detail] This brew pours whipped egg white head, golden colour with a real lean towards a yellow tinge. A hefe-weizen which is light, crisp and fresh. The homage to this south German beer, under its clean green grassy wheat, leans more to the banana side of the spectrum rather than the clove. The hops have a rough edge which balance off well. The yeast is traditional hefe-weizen, an unfiltered reminder being left in the bottle. This is a vastly superior product to the eastern Mass. version produced by Sam Adams.
    • Dorado Lager: Holyoke has a significant latin presence and having a cervesa on its repetiore means Paper City is paying attention. This lager is fruity in the peachy/orange range with a slight astringent adge which neatly cuts its biggish rich malty mouthfeel. It is a denial of the tedious thin sway of pilsner on the lager market and it is masterful in doing so.
    • Nut Brown Ale: This is a favorite style of mine and one not done well usually. Paper City almost pulls it off. I’d call their effort a good decent nut brown. It is definitely not a US brown as it leads with the malt and not the hops. The yeast, however, is a bit out of balance and does not support the nuttiness of the grain which should be a hallmark of this moreish style. I am guessing that was created to be served cold which would cause the yeastiness to recede but also cause the nuttiness to hide as well. There is chocolate and something of the chalky side I like in a nut brown but it is all a slight bit out of balance.
    • Riley’s Stout: The day and the day before I had this beer I also had Gritty’s Black Fly Stout. Standing up to that competition is a great claim to fame and Paper City has earned it. They are not exactly of the same sort, however, the offering from Gritty being a creamy stout from heavy reliance on rolled barley in the mash tun. Riley’s Stout would be rich rather than creamy with a good claim to the classic black malt burned toast theme. It is tempered, however, by chocolate malt and a well balanced use of the minty hop Northern Brewer to create a very nice medium bodied stout. The head pours rocky and tan, hanging on and on to the side of the glass. The yeast is clean and supportive and all in all I am reminded of a lighter version Samuel Smith’s Imperial Stout. Worthy.
    • Banchee Extra Pale Ale: this straw coloured ale has a white fine rocky head and smells like sweet orange blossom. The malt is fruity with green and slightly astringent hops over a light but grainy brew. Very nice.
    • Goats Peak Bock Spring Lager: I really like this lager…and that’s sure something I never thought I would ever write. It has a big malty profile – more like a marzen than a bock, its tight off-white foam head sits over the red hued drink the colour of deep amber maple syrup. It is sweetish with cherry in the fruity malt balanced with a light touch on the German hops. The yeast is a little spicy and earthy, slightly dairy sour but more subdued than most lagers falling on the wrong side of the line.

All in all I was very impressed with Paper City. Hopefuly with a few more years it will get to more glasses than just those in its current western Massachusetts market.