I was wandering around Portland New Year’s Eve day, donating platelets at the Red Cross, picking up DVDs and drinks for the weekend, and worrying about what I would write for today’s column.
The answer came when I discovered the Manly Men Beer Club, three types of ale that the labels say were brewed by Salisbury Cove Associates in Bar Harbor.
I purchased the Sea Smoke smoked barleywine ale and El Hefe wheat barley wine ale, also called Hefewine. I passed on the ginger Blackstrapped Molasses Ale, guessing that I wouldn’t like a beer with ginger, although I have nothing against molasses.
A quick Internet search showed they were brewed by Atlantic Brewing Co., so I called Doug Maffucci, founder and owner of the company.
“We have the whole project because the guys make our five or seven beers all the time,” he said, “and we want to do something a little fun and quirky in very small batches. We make about 300 cases of each per year, making quirky beers that are aged.”
When I talked to Maffucci Tuesday morning, he said he and his brewers — Jon Hill and James Taylor — were about to decide on a new beer for the Manly Men line. He wasn’t sure if the company would drop one of the current three or come out with four, but he said the new beer should be available in May.
Nancy and I tried the Hefewine first, and it had a caramel aroma with fairly limited hops. It was lightly carbonated, did not have a big head, and poured a cloudy reddish brown. It had a good combination of malt and wheat in the flavor, and not a lot of hops.
It had 9 percent alcohol, but tasted like it would be a bit lower than that, and had a good mouth feel. I liked it; Nancy, who is not a big fan of wheat beers, did not.
With the Sea Smoke, however, they hit home. I absolutely love Rauchbiers, which are German smoked beers. And this may have taken Rauchbiers to another level. It was slightly darker and cloudier than the Hefe, and again only lightly carbonated with little head. The taste of the smoked grain dominated the aroma and the flavor, but the smoke was balanced by the hops. I really did enjoy this beer a lot.
In southern Maine, the Atlantic Brewing beers you will most often find in supermarkets are Bar Harbor Real Ale and Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale.
Another excellent Atlantic beer, found at good bars and beer specialty stores, is Coal Porter, which is a very good porter. They also make a Mount Desert Ginger Beer, which Maffucci says is great with crab cakes, and Mount Desert Summer Ale. They are more commonly found near Bar Harbor.
Atlantic Brewing started 19 years ago as a brew pub at the Lompoc Cafe in downtown Bar Harbor, but after a few years bought a 10-acre farm about five miles outside of town and built the brewery, where an expansion is just getting started.
In 2009, Maffucci purchased Bar Harbor Brewing Co., which had been founded by Tod and Suzi Foster a year before Maffucci began operations. The Fosters had sold out a couple of years before that, and Maffucci learned the company was for sale again.
The Bar Harbor Brewing brands include Cadillac Mountain Stout, Thunder Hole Ale and another blueberry ale.
MEAN OLD TOM
My son-in-law and frequent co-taster Christian Ratliff sent me this tweet from Maine Beer Co.
“Brewing our stout Mean Old Tom 2011 today (Jan. 1). Should be about 14 barrels worth and that’s it for the year. Be ready in 4 weeks.”
David Kleban, company co-owner with his brother Daniel, told me in September that Mean Old Tom, named after their uncle with a huge beer-can collection, would be their first specialty beer after expanding from a one-barrel to a 15-barrel brewhouse.
Since the expansion, I have seen their Spring Peeper and Zoe more often. I am looking forward to Mean Old Tom.
And not just because I like the name.
Tom Atwell can be contacted at 791-6362 or at:
tatwell@pressherald.com
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