Nothing special but still one of my favorites

Very hot at 13, but juicy.

This is just the worst thread to follow when you've given up beer for lent.

Worth the hype... so much depth and so many levels...

Spiritual and physical health. Wanna ensure I have control of my passions as well as drop a few pounds. It's all for good reasons.

But every now and again I like to ***** and moan about my first-world problems, even when they're self-inflicted.

zephyrtexan said:

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This is just the worst thread to follow when you've given up beer for lent.

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same boat but all alcohol. 42 days left.

Coming back from an extended weekend trip to Portland, Maine. Had a great time. In the past I've posted in here about how Asheville, NC is an excellent east coast beer destination. I'll say now if you have the means and time to get as far as Portland, definitely plan a trip here too. There are similar vibes between the two places, but one can't really replace the other. Portland has its own cool vibe, it being a New England town. Was able to get some amazing seafood and head out to beachside parks and walk around in the cold March weather some. Fortunately it was very sunny 2 of the 3 days.

Now for the beer itself. Real quality breweries around here. The tour at Allagash was so so as far as tours go, but the beer was great and the atmosphere cool. Reminded me of Russian River in a way, with both clean and mixed fermentation beers and their vibe. Found out that 80% (!) of what they brew is their White beer, which is crazy. Here's a flight I got from there, including some of their Belgian styled sours:



No less than 100 yard from their brewery and taproom was a small row of a few smaller production breweries. We went to one called Austin Street Brewery, which had some of my favorite beer from the trip. Had a schwartzbier, and found the best DIPA I've ever had, even accounting for recency bias:





The next day, there was a random place called Urban Farm Fermentory that did cider, gruit, mead, and kombucha if you're into any of that. Fun to change it up there and try, of all things, a seaweed cider that had a gose-like salt and brine flavor to it. I didn't originally want to go there but they had some live music that some of the group wanted to see. They also had a neat taproom setup. Fun spot.

After that, I wanted to move on and go to Bissell Brothers or Oxbow, but there was a place called Lone Pine about 50 yards from UFF. Hadn't heard of it before but decided to check it out. Very glad we did, they made some killer IPAs and I had one of my favorite beers of the trip there, a Chaga stout (some mushroom from Maine used in it, gave it a great feel and depth of flavor).



Today we made it to Oxbow to hang out a bit before a late lunch and getting to the airport. Similar to Allagash, they specialize in Belgian styled beers. Really excellent saisons and sours. Got a few bottles to bring home from there, on top of a 4-pack from Lone Pine and bomber from Austin Street.



Overall, my favorite brewery of the trip was Lone Pine, when you combine the atmosphere and beer. And don't even get started on the food. This town is a great food destination. We ate very well and I was able to drink from some of the local breweries that we didn't visit when out for meals. Found Maine Beer Company offerings at a couple places. Okay, I think that's enough of a rant.

Tasty...

Friend grabbed me the triple and the BA Suburban Ninja yesterday.

Well, it's official. My wife and I are chasing a dream and moving 2000 miles away to Oregon at the end of May 2019. We will be located in the Rogue Valley/Medord. which is far Southern Oregon, nearly to the California border. Tons of hiking, mountain biking, skiing, fishing, hunting, etc opportunities that we are excited to get the opportunity to get to do.

Can't wait to explore the beer/wine in the area, and make weekend trips to Bend (3 hours away) Eugene (2.5 hours away), Napa valley (5 hours), the coast (1.5 hours), Crater Lake (1 hour). The Rogue Valley is apparently an up and coming wine AVA, as well. The beer scene isn't quite as developed as Portland/Bend, but it's Oregon, so it's better than 99% of places. Lots of great small breweries in the area.

Anyways, if anyone is looking to travel that way while I'm there, or interested in trading some beer back and forth... let me know!