2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Gritty McDuffs Brewing Company, Portland, ME (July 3rd, Brewery Stop #23)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Gritty McDuffs, Portland, ME (July 3rd, Brewery Stop #23) (recovered post) The 23rd brewery visited during our cross-country beer discovery tour (click to read about the whole trip) was Gritty McDuffs in Portland Maine. This is one of three locations for this restaurant/brewpub located in Maine. This particiular one is located in the heart of historic downtown Portland, not far from the waterfront. Parking was available a block or so away in a public garage, on-street parking is a challenge in this part of downtown. As you can see, it’s a bit rustic and has a local vibe to the establishment. We were there shortly after the lunch rush, so we didn’t have a wait to get a table. The back of the restaurant area looks out over the waterfront, so check out that part when looking for a table. We ordered a sampler of their beers (as shown below), with eight beers (two on cask) and once guest cider. While we had higher expectations of the beer, being that there is a lot of competition in this area, we were not really blown away with what was served. When we asked the server who brought …

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2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR, Portland OR to Portland ME and back… 24 June-9 July, 2015

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR, Portland OR to Portland ME and back…7800 miles later… From late June to early July 2015 I was lucky enough to go on a cross country road trip with Gary and our nephew Devin. We drove my car from Portland Oregon to Portland Maine in just about three weeks. We took a ‘central US’ path East and came back taking a more northern passage. Regarding where we went each day, we made it to about 40 breweries and a handful of tap-houses, bars, and brewpubs to find local beers and food along the way. While the long distance driving was challenging some days (10+ hrs at a time), we really enjoyed the trip with it’s the ever-changing scenery and wonderful cities, towns, and people we met. Before leaving on the trip, we gathered and then took a couple of cases of local specialty beers for our friend Rusty in Pittsburgh. The sucky part was that while we wanted the beers to not get ruined by the heat, we ended up unloading and reloading it a LOT as we stopped each night. This is a valuable learning experience, to stick to mailing stuff like beer and wine, …

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