Coolest Brewery in Maine: This Local Favorite Tops the List

An award-winning Portland brewery just keeps adding more accolades to its resume.

The popular travel site Trips to Discover recently released a list of the coolest breweries in each state. Essentially, it's a list of the hippest joints that also have delicious beer—something Maine knows a lot about. The choice for the Pine Tree State is probably not a huge surprise, especially if you have visited this magical brewery. According to Trips to Discover, Maine's number one brewery is Allagash Brewing.

Located in Portland, aka Maine's craft beer capital, Allagash is a specialty brewery that has been perfecting Belgian-style beers since 1995. It was founded by Rob Todd, who wanted to focus on a style of beer that wasn't readily available or crafted in the United States.

Boy, did that turn out to be a good idea, because Allagash has become a national juggernaut in the Belgian-style and craft beer industry. According to Craft Brewing Business, Allagash was the 20th largest craft brewery by sales volume in 2020 and the largest in Maine.

There's good reason for this: the beer is delicious. You can find all sorts of innovative styles and flavors, including a billion different ales, stouts, saisons, barrel-aged brews, lagers, IPAs, and many Belgian styles that I can't pronounce. Even the pickiest beer fan will find something at Allagash and probably accept that it's one of the best things they ever drank.

But, as good as the beer is, Allagash is a lot more than just the suds. Here is a little of what Trips to Discover had to say about why Allagash is Maine's coolest brewery.

....what really makes this brewery such a national favorite is that it loves giving back to the community, donating 1% of its revenue, and becoming a Certified B Corp to support sustainability practices. You can feel good purchasing pints at this brewery, which has a spacious outdoor beer garden and a Bite Into Maine food truck serving decadent lobster rolls.

A small, independent business that gives back to the community while also practicing sustainability? This sounds like the model for how every small Maine business wants to run. Not only does Allagash make delicious beer, but it is also a shining example of how a business should operate.

Congrats to Allagash for more well-deserved national accolades. Here's to many more years of delicious libations from the brewmasters.