Best family friendly brewery stops in Maine
The northeast is lucky to be graced with so many delicious and interesting breweries. Every state has its notable craft brews these days, and Maine is no exception. Anytime we travel to Maine, we are sure to stop at a few breweries to pick up beer to enjoy at home since many of these places have limited distribution and you have to get them locally.
Most importantly, when we have the kids with us, it’s important not to just have the tag along for a “beer run” but to be able to bring them to places that are kid friendly, serve food, and that we can treat as a snack or lunch stop as a part of our day. Luckily more and more places fit the bill for this and are extremely kid friendly.
Maine Beer Company
We love the Maine Beer Company for so many reasons. First, their beer is top notch. Whenever it is on a local menu, I’m sure to order it because it’s always sure to hit the spot.
Second, they are committed to ethical business practices. They donate 1% of their annual gross sales to environmental nonprofit organizations, are focused on minimizing their carbon footprint, and have some great employee benefits. It feels good to be purchasing from a company that is so intentional about how these things fit into their business model and are committed enough to them to tout them proudly. For the most up to date information on this, visit their “Do What’s Right” page on their website.
One nice thing about Maine Beer Company is that they take reservations via Resy for their tasting room. It’s not necessary, but sometimes having that extra peace of mind is extremely helpful when you have kids in tow — knowing that your plans can proceed as expected without delay. When we were there, they had just opened for the day so it was still pretty empty with plenty of seating available.
We didn’t dine in on our visit there because we had already made lunch plans, but I was really impressed with the selection on the menu and the pizza smelled amazing. They also serve a bunch of other crowd-pleasing hits like salad, cheese sticks, charcuterie, and the traditional beer hall pretzel.
In addition to the options for dining and tasting in, there is a to-go store for bringing bottles home. We picked up the classic Lunch and Dinner varieties as well as Peeper, Woods and Waters, and Wolfe’s Neck.
Bissell Brothers
This equally delicious brewery has two locations: Portland and Three Rivers. We have only visited the Portland location, but are excited to one day soon check out Three Rivers because at this location you can bring your dog as long as they are leashed and well-behaved. We love to bring our dog along as often as we can on family outings, but she didn’t tag along on this trip.
The Portland location is easy to get to and a bit away from the hustle and bustle of downtown which is nice. We went on a Saturday and could tell that it was going to get packed quickly, even though we got there before they really started serving food. We were happy to start with beers but with kids of course it’s a bit tricky to keep group morale up without food. We let the kids play on their tablets for a few minutes as we sipped our drinks.
It’s important to note if you like to sample or share flights when you visit breweries, that Bissell Brothers doesn’t do flights. According to their website, they “encourage that each beer be enjoyed individually”. Instead they offer pour sizes depending on the style beer that you order (12oz, 16oz, and/or 20oz), or 6 oz half-pours of all of their beers if you are looking for more of a sampling experience.
While we sipped our first glass, we perused the menu which had quite the variety! There are small plates, wings, tacos, burgers, and a dedicated kids menu which is always a plus since we have one that will eat anything and one that has very basic, bare bones tastes.
We had the chimichanga and the Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich. The kids had chicken tenders and a quesadilla. Everything was delicious, way above average for a brewery. It’s clear that here they take their food seriously instead of just making it an afterthought.
Before we left, we were sure to grab some beer to go. I was a little disappointed by the limited selection of to-go beers. None of the ones that I had sampled happened to be available that day, but this appears to be pretty dependent on the day, time, and other factors. Regardless of what you are able to get, the beer here is stellar, so you won’t go home disappointed.
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