This is Firkin Amazing

More casks in NYC, a beer guide to Portland, Maine, and brewery deck pic

Hey, remember back in the early days of the pandemic, when I started this newsletter and spent a fair amount of time ranting about the way the city and state were enforcing unreasonable Covid-19 protocols for bars and restaurants that more or less made them unable to operate in a sensible manner, shutting bars down as they struggled to stay afloat? Well, here’s a fun (if you can call it that) follow-up: at least a dozen members of the city’s Department of Finance’s Sheriff’s Office have been suspended for allegedly pilfering alcohol that was confiscated from bars and clubs that were raided due to violations of the state’s Covid-19 shutdown rules.

There’s nothing better than a good ol’ fashioned investigation to show that law enforcement was reaping benefits off the raids of places that were shut down for the egregious violation of not serving enough of a certain type of food with their beer. Color me shocked.

Anyway, let’s try not to get angry this week. This is just a beer newsletter, after all. I’m serving you some news you can use this week! Hope you enjoy.

New ways to get your cask fix without a trip across the pond

Wild East’s new hand pump (Courtesy Wild East Brewing on Instagram)

If you’re looking to drink cask ales without a flight to London, there’s good news for you in New York City. First up, a brewery that’s already made a name for itself with English-style beers is finally serving them the traditional way. Wild East Brewing in Brooklyn now has a cask engine installed at their bar. It’s got a nice story behind it, too — it came from Seneca Lake Brewing in the Finger Lakes, probably the state’s most cask-centric brewery. But before that, it poured beer at a now-closed pub called The Thurlow Arms in West Sussex in England where Seneca Lake owner Bradley Gillett worked until he was 18. It’s made a long journey and will start pouring real ale at Wild East this week, making it one of just a small handful of breweries and bars with cask engines in the five boroughs.

Meanwhile, if you’re in the mood for more than one cask beer, Fifth Hammer Brewing in Long Island City is the place to be this Friday afternoon as they kick off Cask-a-Lot, a celebration of local cask ales. Enjoy beers on cask from Singlecut, Interboro, Greenpoint, Strong Rope, Gun Hill, Wild East, Transmitter, and the host brewery. It’s a pay-as-you-go event with no admission. The fun starts at 3pm Friday at Fifth Hammer’s taproom and runs all night. The leftover casks will be on at noon on Saturday, if you’re not a fan of Friday nights.

A Brief Portland, Maine Brewery Guide

Now that the summer travel season is just around the corner, I’m going to include more city brewery guides in this newsletter over the coming weeks. For a taste of what these are, you can see a couple of my past guides I’ve done for London and Denver. This time, let’s stick a little bit closer to home with a popular road trip destination from New York and a city whose beer scene has become nearly as noteworthy as its sister city by the same name on the West Coast (which, by the way, was named after the one in Maine). So let’s head up the coast to the Pine Tree State and run down my favorite breweries in Portland…

The Gold Standard: Allagash Brewing Company

I doubt I even have to explain why you should visit Allagash. They’re one of the top breweries in the country, and undoubtedly the kings and queens of Belgian-style beer in the U.S. Their tasting room is a lovely place to hang out, with a wide selection of brewery-only releases, a food truck, and beer to-go like their House Beer, a longtime favorite among locals that’s available in cases exclusively at the brewery. Allagash recently launched a ticketed curated experience in their barrel-aging space where beer fanatics can truly nerd out.

The Farmhouse Specialist: Oxbow Blending & Bottling

While their original location is about an hour east of Portland in Newcastle, this blending facility is where some of the real magic happens for Oxbow. Beautiful blended sours, lovely clean lagers from their spot out east, and great food, too. One of my favorite places to drink in Portland.

The Pils Pioneer: Bunker Brewing Co.

I’ve been a huge fan of Bunker’s Machine Czech Pils for a long time — mainly because not many other craft breweries were making a Czech Pils at the time they opened back in 2012. A decade and a couple collabs with NYC’s Interboro later, they’re still going strong with a much larger space with a nice patio for summer hangs, cornhole, food trucks, and beer-sipping.

The Hazy Specialist: Bissell Brothers Brewing

I’m not sure I have to say much about Bissell Brothers, to be honest. IPA lovers already known their sought-after hazies are some of the most popular in New England. But let’s put it this way: when I first visited back in 2014, they were so popular that on an unseasonably warm February day, beer drinkers were willing to stand in three feet of snow on their patio just to drink their beers. Don’t shy away from the other stuff on the menu — they’re no one-trick pony.

The New Hotness: Belleflower Brewing Co.

When your founders have Trillium and Lone Pine on their resumes, you expect great things. So when I visited Belleflower for the first time in 2021, my expectations were high — and they were still exceeded. You’re not going to go wrong with their IPAs, which dominate their tap list, but do not sleep on their lagers. There’s always a couple on, and I fell for them when I visited for their Oktoberfest celebration.

The One Worth the Trip: Mast Landing Brewing

About a 20-minute drive from Portland is a brewery that New York beer drinkers are likely familiar with. Mast Landing’s beers have been in the city for a couple years now, but that doesn’t mean they’re some big outfit. Their Westbook taproom is polished, but not massive, and you can be assured a pour of some Gunner’s Daughter, their popular milk stout, and a host of other delicious stouts. This August, they host their second annual Wavy Days, an invitational beer fest hosting breweries from across the country.

The Two-For-One Deal: Austin Street Brewery and Rising Tide Brewing Company

If you’re feeling particularly lazy, Portland has more than its fair share of breweries that share a building. Austin Street and Rising Tide are just a few garage bays apart on Fox Street, a short walk from downtown Portland. Between them, there’s two decades of brewing experience, as they were both early entrants in the new wave of craft breweries that opened in Maine in the early 2010s.

Honorable Mentions: If you’re trying to get a feel for the origins of Maine’s craft beer culture, Geary, New England’s oldest craft brewery (established 1983), and Shipyard, a 1990s-era outfit with English roots, are a trip through time. Lone Pine just opened a seasonal beer garden in Old Orchard Beach in addition to locations in Portland and Gorham. Foulmouthed in South Portland is as noteworthy for its food as its beer. Go up to Freeport for Maine Beer Company, as if I had to tell you. And if you want a day trip or a stopover en-route, head south to Biddeford for Banded Brewing Co., Blaze Brewing, and the months-old Sacred Profane Tankpub, where you should absolutely spend time drinking their fresh, straightforward lagers.

Brewery Tracker

Total brewery count: 3,091
Total breweries visited in 2023: 196
Total breweries visited in Tasmania: 10

Brewery Visit of the Week

Brewery #3,054, Spotty Dog Brewers, Derwent Park, Tasmania, Australia (Visited 16-Apr-2023)

I’m pressed for space in this week’s newsletter, so I’ll make this quick and simple: I always love a visit to a brand-new brewery, and Spotty Dog was just weeks old when I checked them out last month. The staff couldn’t be kinder (they showed me around and poured some new brews off the tanks for me to try), the beer showed a ton of promise, and the space was absolutely stunning, inside and out. So, take a moment, and enjoy the view from the deck of Spotty Dog on a beautiful Sunday afternoon:

Long Read of the Week

Not to beat a dead horse, but two pieces from two of my favorite beer writers about the Bud Light saga offer a better perspective than I could ever offer. Kate Bernot offers perspective on how the LGBTQ+ community got left out in the cold by ABI at Good Beer Hunting, and Dave Infante detailed the cowardly actions of Anheuser-Busch in the face of bigotry and hatred at Vinepair.

One More Thing

Because of my trip to New Zealand and Australia — and because of last weekend’s miserable washout — I haven’t been able to do a roundup of ballpark beers in New York yet. So it’s off to Citi Field on Saturday — follow along on Instagram for a rundown of their beer inventory this season.

Cheers,
Chris