Featuring beers made with Maine-grown ingredients, Farm to Glass.

Original Maine Ale - Austin Street Brewery

Original Maine Ale is a collaboration between Austin Street Brewery and Original Maine— a company in Portland that advocates for and promotes the original Maine flag. Original Maine approached Austin street with the idea to make a brew for Maine’s Bicentennial on the 15th of March, 2020. Jake Austin, co-founder of Austin Street, notes, “We loved the idea and immediately knew we would use all Maine ingredients.” 

To source this beer with all-Maine ingredients, Austin Street worked with The Hop Yard in Gorham and Blue Ox Malthouse in Lisbon Falls. Their hops and grains provide the pale ale with flavors that are uniquely Maine grown. This brew has a light amber color and earthy, floral aroma. The initial taste hits you with lemon and citrus from The Hopyard’s Willamette and Cascade hops, followed by sweeter notes of caramel from Blue Ox Malthouse’s Pale and Caramel 40 malts. 

There are distinct differences between Maine-grown hops and those from the Pacific Northwest, Ryan Houghton, founder of The Hopyard, explains,

For the most part these differences are a great thing, as they allow brewers another way to impart new and unique flavors and aromas in their beer. Our Cascade is a little less bright citrus than out west, with a touch more on the lemon side, a touch more floral, but also with this bit of bubble gum pop to it.

Blue Ox supplied its Caramel 40 malt, making for a sweet, jammy flavor profile that complements the citrusy hops. Austin Street’s house yeast sets the stage for these Maine-grown ingredients; according to Austin, “[it's] a very clean strain allowing the hops and malt to really shine. David Brand, a maltster at Blue Ox, says, 

This beer was designed to feature and highlight the distinctiveness of both malts and hops from Maine. Austin Street chose a style of beer that creates an overall balanced experience of what Maine has to offer. This means we have sophisticated, knowledgeable, and creative brewers who know their Maine ingredients well enough to use them to create a distinctive, beautiful beer. That's a great feeling.

Perhaps the hyperlocal profile of Original Maine Ale suggests the future of brewing in Maine. Joel Alex, founder of Blue Ox, is committed to growing Maine’s grain economy and loves to supply brewers with Maine-grown malts: “As a small local business we like to support other small businesses. Add in the quality of the ingredients they are producing and it just becomes a no-brainer.” The Hopyard’s Houghton agrees, noting, “It’s great to see, and the original reason we ever started this really. We are certainly proud of our state, of our amazing breweries, and of course of our farm, so it’s a big win.