The day had finally arrived. It was our fifth and final day of enjoying Maine. We woke up early in the morning to clear out the Airbnb and make sure all of our belongings were accounted for. Our gracious host, Dan, agreed to let us keep our luggage at the Airbnb until the early afternoon, so we didn’t have to worry about carrying it around Portland.
We decided on a very well known bakery in the area for breakfast, Standard Baking Co. Since Maine is well known for blueberries, I had to get the blueberry muffin, and Yelena had the chocolate croissant. It was a beautiful morning, so we took our food loot to the pier area and ate by the water. After devouring our amazing breakfast, we strolled around the area and hit a bunch of the local shops.
At this point, our Apple watches told us we had already hit 10,000 steps for the day, so we used that as justification for walking to Porthole for lunch on the water. As a side note, Gordon Ramsey had just recommended Porthole a few weeks prior to our arrival. Per usual, we both ordered a lobster roll and clam chowder - they did not disappoint. There were lobster boats coming in constantly as we ate on the deck overlooking the water, which was very cool to see. We were happy, full, and full of energy, so we made our way to the East end in an attempt to hit every brewery in the area.
We started at Maine Meadworks, where Yelena had the dry mead - she is usually not a big mead fan, but she said this was the best tasting one she’s ever had. We sat outside in the large tented area in front of the meadery and took in the nice weather. We then decided to wander around the area and came across a pop-up location of The Maine Jewish Museum. The art was a celebration of Maine’s diverse Jewish community and had some of the most unique pieces of art I’ve seen in years. After getting our art fix for the day, we kept walking north until we made it to Maine Craft Distilling.
Maine Craft Distilling is a very cool distillery that has lots of space outdoors to enjoy a drink while soaking in warm weather. It even has a treehouse (on the ground) nestled by the tree line where you can sit back, relax, and enjoy a local brew while shielded from the sun. Yelena had some of the locally-made Cranberry Island Cocktail, which she said was delicious. We kicked back in the treehouse area for another hour before we decided to move on to the next stop.
Root Wild was very neat - it’s both a brewery and a fermentory, and they do both things well. I am not a big kombucha drinker, but I can confidently say that the kombucha at Root Wild is among the best I’ve had. Yelena decided to be much healthier than I and ordered a sour beer. We quickly finished both of our beverages and ramped up for our next stop on the Maine Brewery Tour of 2020.
Urban Farm Fermentory is similar to Root Wild in that they both ferment kombucha, but Urban Farm also makes its own cider, which it refers to as CIDAH. Yelena, our cider expert, had to order one and see for herself. She told me in no uncertain terms that she could have three more ciders from Urban Farm. I went with another kombucha because I am the paragon of health and wellness. Urban Farm has a very cool vibe - the building is painted bright green and there is plenty of space for relaxing outside.
After Urban Farm, we decided to squeeze in one more brewery and we landed on Lone Pine Brewery. Lone Pine is a very cool brewery that utilizes interesting and novel flavors in its beers. Yelena, who had transformed into a beer sommelier during this tour, ordered the Tessellation, which is a blueberry accented IPA. She’d recommend it to anyone, even if you aren’t a big fan of IPAs or beers in general. The outdoor patio area where we enjoyed our drinks was very comfortable, which was the perfect way to end our wonderful trip to Maine.
We highly recommend visiting Maine and we cannot wait to go back.
Most importantly, don’t forget to see the world, and eat the food.