ottotheboar

I will look for a bacon porter at the next Cured Festival.
I have never seen much about breweries in Maine, MA has plenty with some good small scale malt producers.

Bob

There are lots of really pretty decent ones that are fairly sizeable, at least distributing in the New England area, but also a lot of smaller, local ones that don't distribute at all.

Seadogs
Sebago
Shipyard (They license a few brews out to Sam Adams so more noticable)
Gritty's
Atlantic Brewing
Allagash
Bar Harbor Brewing (does a nice lobster ale and porter)
Dirigo
Black Bear (nice little tap house in Orono)
Maine Beer Company (very hippyesk in Freeport)
Kennebeck River Brewery (Only know this due to in-laws, good though)
Oak Pond Brewery (OPB is getting bigger I think? Was a pretty decent 2 man operation till recently though)
Peak Brewery (really organic hippy stuff)
Penobscot Bay Brewery (more known for weird fruity wines than beers though)
Bigelow (nice tap room, near the in-laws)

Maine Brewers' Guild | a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and protecting the craft beer industry in Maine For a decent list, but the ones above are the ones I know or have tried.

Hiro11

Overpriced but very tasty. Allagash make some very nice brews as well. I haven't seen many of the others here in Chicago.

Bob

Definitely...I wouldn't buy it bottled, but in the local eateries out there, it's a lot more reasonable in price and well worth a punt.

I think most of these don't distribute much beyond the neighbouring states. I know Shipyard have Sam Adams distribute some of their stuff as part of the license agreement they sorted with Sam Adams.

Gritty's, is spreading wings I think, well I've seen them a lot more available over the last year or so.

OPB is worth a punt if you see it. Some nice session ales.

Atlantic Brewing and Seadogs also seem to be growing a bit in volume and I rather like the AB porter they do and Seadogs usually have some lovely summer brews, especially the wheats.

Hiro11

Thanks for the tips! For Chicago region, I'd recommend:
Two Brothers
Half Acre
Solemn Oath
Off Color
Capital (Wisconsin)
Revolution
Metropolitan
Penrose
Une Annee
Three Floyds (of course, Indiana)

themadpooper

Not a fan of Two Brothers. Bought a box of seasonal stuff at Costco last summer and still have half of them in the fridge. Half Acre Daisy Cutter is a nice pale ale, always recommend that to people. Goose 312 wheat ale is also good

Hiro11

I agree that some of their seasonals aren't great (night cat and northwind never impressed me). Their year round stuff is really good, though. Ebel's Weiss is excellent, as is Domaine DuPage. For seasonals, Atom Smasher and Dog Days are both great lagers. Also, Prairie Path is just about the best gluten free beer you can get, if that's your thing. They're my local brewer, that might have something to do with it. No doubt it's good but a bit unremarkable to me. There are lots of good pale ales. It's a solid but calling it a "wheat ale" is very generous. It tastes like a standard lager to me. If I'm going with something wheat, I'll take most anything from Wiehenstephaner. Those beers are proper wheat beers. Still, 312 is good at a party.

Beaverstate

Just had to show this from San Francisco, a little hard to swallow as an IPA fan.

Study says those who enjoy bitter tastes (like IPAs) more likely to be antisocial, sadistic - SFGate

Pulaski

Bölloçks! You can go shove a broom handle up your ärše!

Beaverstate

Sounds as if you could use a Bud Light.

Pulaski

What's that got to do with beer?

ottotheboar

Masochistic would be a more appropriate term for the swill a micro near us sometimes churns out.

They have changed ownership and recipes a few times and still have to achieve a reliable supply of drinkable beer.