What a day, what a night.

Thank you, thank you all for such a smashing good success at the Fifteenth Annual Maine Brewers Festival !

Thanks to Maine’s best microbrewers, our 4,000+ patrons, our One Hundred Volunteers Extraordinaire, the lucky attendees at the fabulous First Annual Friday Night Brewers Dinner sponsors, suppliers, great bands, state and local agencies, hotels, and the Portland Expo staff!

We’ll have a recap up soon, including photos and information on a limited-time opportunity to buy 2009 Maine Brewers Festival tickets before Christmas! What a present!

We'll have transportation information using the great, new eco-rideshare program at Pickup Pal. Share rides, save money and gas, save the Earth, get out from behind the wheel, and be safe!

Make sure to pick up your Portland Phoenix later this week to check out what's being poured by your favorite Maine microbreweries. Several of the brewers are featuring something new, and you'll also have a chance to sample beers from smaller microbrewers such as the Sheepscot Valley Brewing Company, Belfast Bay Brewing, and the Kennebec River Brewery.

And remember, it's Halloween weekend, and while we encourage you to come in costume -- please -- no face paint as it interferes with proper carding and ID verification when the doors open.

And there's still time to upgrade your ticket to include the Friday Night Dinner with the Brewers at the Portland Clarion Hotel, with a wicked five-course dinner. The menu was created by the Clarion chef and the brewmasters at Gritty's, Atlantic Brewing, Shipyard, and Allagash, and it features a different beer selection with each of the five courses. We'll have that menu on the website later this week, and I promise you will want to be there for this first-ever event in Maine!

Learn your beer!
Drink responsibly, Designated Driver program is available.

You loyal Gritty McDuff's fans just wiped 'em clear out of tickets to the November 1st Maine Brewers Festival! The ticket frenzy is over at Gritty's, so order a pint of Halloween Ale and plot your new strategy:

Buy Saturday tickets at MaineBrew.com that are packaged with the Friday night Brewers Dinner! You still have a choice of Saturday Happy Hour or Saturday Evening Session, but get to that Maine Brewers Festival website NOW.

The Friday night dinner will be a special chance to Learn Your Beer with expert brewers from four of Maine's best microbrewers -- Atlantic Brewing from Bar Harbor, Shipyard Brewing, Allagash and their excellent Belgian-style beers, and Gritty's. Then enjoy a dinner menu specially created to pair with the evening's beer selections, collect your Maine Brewers Festival schwag, and head out to your Halloween adventures!

Saturday-only tickets still available at RSVP, Forest Ave in Portland!

You can still buy tickets to either Saturday session at Gritty's and RSVP.

** NEW! ** Our website still has tickets to the Friday Night Dinner With the Brewers event, either with or without a Saturday session. This is new… if you want to go to the Friday Night Dinner, you do not have to buy the $110 ticket that includes the Saturday Festival ticket. You can now buy an $80 ticket that is just for the Friday Night Dinner With the Brewers, including the panel discussion and Q&A, live music, the full dinner, a first-ever full-sized, full-color Maine Brewers Festival glass mug.

So go to www.MaineBrew.com, or go to Gritty's or RSVP, but go fast to get your tickets to the Saturday, November 1, Maine Brewers Festival!

There are no tickets left on the website for the Saturday-only sessions, but you can still buy tickets to those sessions if you combine the Saturday ticket with the Friday Night Dinner With The Brewers Event… get on it now!

The dinner is conveniently located at the Clarion Hotel, and it’s a great way to kick off your Halloween night! You’ll hear a panel of four of Maine’s top microbrewers talk about the beers they brought that evening – how they brewed them and what makes their beer and brewery special – then a chance for some Q&A, and then you’ll have a great dinner and pick up some cool schwag on your way out… score a first-ever full-color, full-sized Maine Brewers Festival glass mug! Read the full details below.


And of course, you lucky Portland locals can still buy tickets to either Saturday session at Gritty's Portland Brewtique and at RSVP Discount Liquors in Portland!


Celebrate Halloween, Maine Brewer Style!!
Premium Dinner With the Brewers Package

We’re excited to bring you this very special evening as the Maine Brewers Festival celebrates its 15th anniversary. Come have some fun the night before the festival at the first annual Friday Night With the Brewers, on Halloween night… then go to your favorite Halloween parties after the Brewers Dinner!

6:00 PM, doors open, live background music, and hors d’oeuvres
6:25 – 7:15, Brewmaster’s Presentation, Discussion, and Q&A
7:15 – 8:00, Dinner with Brewers, one brewer at each table
8:00 – 9:00, Dinner Buffet and mingle time!

There’ll be no tricks but plenty of treats as the VIP Dinner Package includes a dinner menu tailored to complement the featured brews; live background music; and a limited edition, full-size Maine Brewers Festival beer mug.

Hosted by the Clarion Hotel, the dinner features a panel discussion and Q & A with some of Maine’s top micro-brewers. Moderated by Bill Metzer, co publisher of Yankee Brew News, the session has a wicked good lineup - Gritty’s, Allagash, Shipyard, and Atlantic Brewing from Bar Harbor. Dine with brewery employees at each table and learn how their special brewing techniques make your favorite beverages. Learn Your Beer, gain Beer Wisdom, score a cool mug, and enjoy perfect pairings of food and beer.

Reserve your VIP ticket today! This event is not to be missed and it’s a great way to expand your Maine Brewers Festival experience!

Wowza, scorching hot last week and summer thunder this week… just perfect for all of Maine’s great summer ales! Which is your favorite? I'm partial to cask-conditioned ales, so it was a summertime treat to have a fresh Gritty's Vacationland Ale from the cask at the bar in Portland last week. The Gritty's team is also hard at work to make this weekend’s Up North Music and Art Festival a raging success… beer, oysters, camping, music… book your ticket now!
Summertime is lobster time, so I've recently snagged a couple of Belfast Bay’s Lobster Ales. Imagine my surprise when I found Lobster Ale in Exeter, New Hampshire, on draft at the Tavern at River’s Edge! Pat Mullen and his team from Lincolnville are doing a great job of brewing and of marketing, as their distinctive lobster claw tap was looking right at home between the Newcastle and Bass taps. Pat reports fast sales for kegs of Lobster Ale in Maine and in more and more other states.

Beer geeks and fans of the Maine brewing industry should check out the updates on our website about the Friday Night Dinner With the Brewers event at Portland’s Clarion Hotel, featuring a great discussion between expert brewmasters from Allagash, Shipyard, Atlantic, and Gritty's. Live music, a dinner menu chosen by the brewers, a brewer at each table, a cool mug, and Beer Wisdom will all be yours if you Learn Your Beer at this great first-time ever event… buy your tickets now, or upgrade to include this event if you already bought the traditional Festival-only Saturday ticket!

Hot weather makes for hot ticket sales, and we’re off to a roaring start! We’re only selling tickets and tee shirts from this website right now, and we’ve already sold more than normal for midsummer. For the hundreds of you who already guaranteed your fun, we say “Thanks, and cheers!” If you or your friends have not ordered yet, buy your tickets now, or go to Gritty's or RSVP starting Friday, August 15th.

Our new website’s blog will keep you informed, educated, and entertained – all about your favorite Maine Brewers – as we move closer to the festival date of Saturday, November 1, 2008. Tickets and our beautiful new tee shirts will go on sale on Thursday, July 24, right here on this website, www.MaineBrew.com . (As always, you'll be able to buy tix at Gritty's and RSVP beginning in August… more on that next week!)

Learn Your Beer! Buy the premium VIP dinner package and you’ll spend the Friday eve before the Festival learning about beer directly from some of Maine’s top micro-brewers. These Master Brewers will present and describe their best products, and you'll have a chance to ask questions and learn more about how their brewing techniques make a special brew. Then you'll dine with the brewers, enjoy some good Beer Geek chatter, collect a full-color/full-sized Maine Brewers Festival mug and some other good schwag, all before Saturday’s Festival.

Right now there are lots of great brewers signed up – more than last year – including some of those hard-to-find Maine brewers whose brews you may not have tasted before!

C’mon back to www.MaineBrew.com on July 24th to buy your tickets and tees… remember the Festival sells out every year!