Your Controversy of the Day
Submitted for your discussion: Maine, not Oregon or California or Colorado, is brewing the country's best beer. That's the thesis of my latest post at All About Beer, and I'm only being very slightly hyperbolic.
Maine obviously can’t compete on numbers. TheGo read the whole thing.population is the lowest of anyleast-densely populated state east of the Mississippi,andmost of the towns are crowded down in the south and along the coast. It’s only got 47 breweries. People acknowledge that it has good beer, but it’s never placed among the most glamorous and it won just a single GABF medal this year. Nevertheless, in the ways that matter, Maine is at the beery vanguard. Good beer has saturated the culture and pubs—as Bray’s demonstrates—regularly have interesting, unexpected beer. None of this was unfamiliar to me—it’s been this way for years. What was striking was the degree to which breweries are now pushing the envelope on innovation and quality. As an Oregonian, I’m used to measuring cities by the number of years their beers trail ours. Maine’s scene isn’t trailing anyone, though, and their Portland may now be the equal of Oregon’s Portland. Seriously.