How Portland's beer scene is actually laid out
Portland, Maine breweries are not spread evenly across the city. They sit in four tight clusters, and knowing which cluster you are in matters more than knowing which brewery is objectively best, because within a cluster you walk, and between clusters you drive. Plan by district and the day works. Plan by a list of favorites scattered across the peninsula and you will spend it in a car.
Industrial Way
An unglamorous business park off Riverside Street, three miles from the Old Port, and the single densest concentration of good beer in New England. Allagash anchors it at 50 Industrial Way, 4.8 from 1,567 reviews, the highest-rated brewery in the city at anything like that review volume. It is the Belgian-inspired brewery that put Maine on the national map, and the only one here running proper brewery tours, which you should reserve on their site before you drive out. Within a few hundred yards sit Foundation Brewing (4.7 from 390), Definitive Brewing (4.7 from 323) and Battery Steele Brewing (4.6 from 143). You can visit four taprooms in an afternoon without moving your car. There is no restaurant out here and very little else, so eat first or rely on whichever food truck is parked up.
East Bayside
The old industrial blocks between Washington Avenue and Anderson Street, close enough to the peninsula to walk from downtown and locally nicknamed Yeast Bayside for good reason. It is the deepest cluster in the city and the only one you can do properly on foot: Rising Tide at 103 Fox St (4.6 from 656), Austin Street Brewery a block along at 115 Fox St (4.7 from 285), Lone Pine and Goodfire sharing 219 Anderson St (4.7 from 454 and 4.7 from 221), Oxbow's blending and bottling house at 49 Washington Ave (4.7 from 540), Newscapes further up at 163 Washington Ave (4.9 from 204), and Belleflower around the corner at 66 Cove St (4.8 from 344). Urban Farm Fermentory covers cider and kombucha for anyone not drinking beer. This is also the cluster that pairs best with dinner afterward. Washington Avenue has become one of the strongest eating streets in the city.
Thompson's Point
Bissell Brothers (4.6 from 1,262 reviews) occupies the redeveloped rail yard on the Fore River, which gives it the best taproom setting in Portland: a big room, an outdoor lawn, and a concert venue next door. It is a one-stop cluster rather than a crawl, but it is the one to pick if you have people in the group who care more about sitting outside than about hop varieties.
The Old Port and the waterfront
Downtown is thinner on production breweries and better for beer bars. Novare Res Bier Cafe, tucked in a courtyard off Exchange Street at 188 Middle St, is not a brewery at all but has the deepest draft and bottle list in the city, and at 4.7 from 1,818 reviews it is the most-reviewed beer venue in Portland by a clear margin. Shipyard is over on the East End at 27 Hancock St (4.4 from 691). Brickyard Hollow sits right on the working waterfront at 9 Commercial St (4.4 from 564), doing pizza alongside the beer. Batson River at 82 Hanover St (4.4 from 534) is brewery, distillery and full restaurant in one room, and Argenta Brewing (4.9 from 103) operates out of a suite in the same building, which makes it the easiest two-for-one in the city. Liquid Riot brews and distills on Commercial Street with the harbor out the window, and Gritty McDuff's on Fore Street was one of the first brewpubs in the state.
Everywhere else
Three worth knowing that belong to no cluster. Orange Bike Brewing at 31 Diamond St rates 4.9 from 232 reviews: the highest-rated brewery in Portland with a meaningful sample behind it. Bunker Brewing at 17 Westfield St (4.6 from 233) sits out in Libbytown, well off any walking route. And The Send Brewing Co. (4.6 from 126) is across the bridge at 15 Ocean St in South Portland, close enough to fold into a Portland day if you are driving anyway.
Portland's breweries, ranked
Every place in the table below is scored on rating multiplied by review count from its Google listing: a measure that rewards venues people both like and actually use, and one you can check. All twenty are in the brewery category for Portland in our places dataset.
| # | Place | Town | Rating | Reviews | Score |
|---|
| 1 | Novare Res Bier Cafe | Portland | 4.7 | 1,818 | 8,545 |
| 2 | Allagash Brewing Company | Portland | 4.8 | 1,567 | 7,522 |
| 3 | Bissell Brothers | Portland | 4.6 | 1,262 | 5,805 |
| 4 | Shipyard Brewing Company | Portland | 4.4 | 691 | 3,040 |
| 5 | Rising Tide Brewing Company | Portland | 4.6 | 656 | 3,018 |
| 6 | Oxbow Brewing Company (Blending & Bottling) | Portland | 4.7 | 540 | 2,538 |
| 7 | Brickyard Hollow Brewing Company | Portland | 4.4 | 564 | 2,482 |
| 8 | Batson River Brewing & Distilling | Portland | 4.4 | 534 | 2,350 |
| 9 | Lone Pine Brewing Company | Portland | 4.7 | 454 | 2,134 |
| 10 | Foundation Brewing Company | Portland | 4.7 | 390 | 1,833 |
| 11 | Belleflower Brewing Company | Portland | 4.8 | 344 | 1,651 |
| 12 | Definitive Brewing Company | Portland | 4.7 | 323 | 1,518 |
| 13 | Austin Street Brewery | Portland | 4.7 | 285 | 1,340 |
| 14 | Orange Bike Brewing Company | Portland | 4.9 | 232 | 1,137 |
| 15 | Bunker Brewing Co | Portland | 4.6 | 233 | 1,072 |
| 16 | Goodfire Brewing Company | Portland | 4.7 | 221 | 1,039 |
| 17 | Newscapes Brewing | Portland | 4.9 | 204 | 1,000 |
| 18 | Battery Steele Brewing | Portland | 4.6 | 143 | 658 |
| 19 | The Send Brewing Co. | South Portland | 4.6 | 126 | 580 |
| 20 | Argenta Brewing Company | Portland | 4.9 | 103 | 505 |
- 1. Novare Res Bier Cafe: 4.7 from 1,818 reviews, 188 Middle St Suite G-01, novareresbiercafe.com. Not a brewery: a courtyard beer bar with the deepest draft and bottle list in Maine. It tops this list because it is open late, central, and the one beer destination in Portland that everyone passes through. If you want to taste six local breweries without driving between four of them, this is the shortcut.
- 2. Allagash Brewing Company: 4.8 from 1,567 reviews, 50 Industrial Wy, allagash.com/visit. The most nationally significant brewery in Maine, and the only one on this list running full scheduled tours. Reserve before you drive out. The best rating-and-volume combination in the city, and not by accident.
- 3. Bissell Brothers: 4.6 from 1,262 reviews, 38 Resurgam Pl, bissellbrothers.com. The Thompson's Point taproom: big room, big lawn, a concert venue next door. The setting does as much work as the beer, which is itself very good.
- 4. Shipyard Brewing Company: 4.4 from 691 reviews, 27 Hancock St, shipyard.com. The old guard, on the East End. The lowest-rated of the well-known names here, and the one whose reputation rests most on distribution rather than on the room.
- 5. Rising Tide Brewing Company: 4.6 from 656 reviews, 103 Fox St, risingtidebrewing.com. The East Bayside anchor, with a yard and a food truck most days. The obvious first or last stop on a Fox Street crawl.
- 6. Oxbow Blending & Bottling: 4.7 from 540 reviews, 49 Washington Ave, oxbowbeer.com. Oxbow's city outpost for farmhouse ales, in a narrow room on Washington Avenue with the eating street outside.
- 7. Brickyard Hollow: 4.4 from 564 reviews, 9 Commercial St, brickyardhollow.com. Pizza and beer on the working waterfront. Family-workable and central, which is most of the appeal.
- 8. Batson River Brewing & Distilling: 4.4 from 534 reviews, 82 Hanover St, batsonriver.com. Brewery, distillery and full restaurant in one lodge-style room. More of a night out than a taproom stop.
- 9. Lone Pine Brewing Company: 4.7 from 454 reviews, 219 Anderson St, lonepinebrewery.com. Big, bright taproom in East Bayside, sharing an address with Goodfire: two taprooms, one door.
- 10. Foundation Brewing Company: 4.7 from 390 reviews, 1 Industrial Wy #7, foundationbrew.com. The Industrial Way stop most worth pairing with Allagash, and a short walk from it.
- 11. Belleflower Brewing Company: 4.8 from 344 reviews, 66 Cove St, belleflowerbeer.com. Hop-forward and very well regarded, the best rating in East Bayside and the pick of that cluster on the numbers.
- 12. Definitive Brewing Company: 4.7 from 323 reviews, 35 Industrial Wy, definitivebrewing.com. Large, modern taproom, the roomiest on Industrial Way.
- 13. Austin Street Brewery: 4.7 from 285 reviews, 115 Fox St, austinstreetbrewery.com. A block from Rising Tide, which makes the pair the tightest two-stop walk in the city.
- 14. Orange Bike Brewing Company: 4.9 from 232 reviews, 31 Diamond St, orangebikebrewing.com. The highest-rated brewery in Portland with a real sample behind it. Small, off the tourist route, and the strongest argument on this page for ignoring the top of the table.
- 15. Bunker Brewing Co: 4.6 from 233 reviews, 17 Westfield St D, bunkerbrewingco.com. Out in Libbytown, off every walking route, which is why the numbers stay modest.
- 16. Goodfire Brewing Company: 4.7 from 221 reviews, 219 Anderson St Ste 6, goodfirebrewing.com. Shares a building with Lone Pine. Hazy IPAs, and a taproom that fills fast on a Saturday.
- 17. Newscapes Brewing: 4.9 from 204 reviews, 163 Washington Ave, newscapesbrewing.com. One of three breweries in the city holding a 4.9, and the easiest of them to reach on foot from downtown.
- 18. Battery Steele Brewing: 4.6 from 143 reviews, 1 Industrial Wy Units 12 & 14, batterysteele.com. In the same building as Foundation. Well known for hazy IPAs well beyond its review count.
- 19. The Send Brewing Co.: 4.6 from 126 reviews, 15 Ocean St, South Portland, thesendbrewing.com. Across the bridge rather than in Portland proper, and worth the five minutes if you are already driving.
- 20. Argenta Brewing Company: 4.9 from 103 reviews, 82 Hanover St Ste 6, argentabrewingcompany.com. A hundred reviews is a thin sample, so treat the 4.9 as provisional, but it shares a building with Batson River, so the cost of finding out is a flight of stairs.
Where this ranking is unfair
Rating times review volume rewards whatever is central, open late, and easy to walk into. It does so here in an obvious way: the venue at the top of the list, Novare Res, does not brew anything. It is a bar with a courtyard off Exchange Street, and it out-scores Allagash because ten thousand visitors a year walk past its door and almost nobody walks past a business park on Riverside Street.
The same distortion runs down the whole table. Orange Bike, Newscapes and Argenta all hold a 4.9 (higher than anything in the top ten) and all three sit in the bottom half because they are small, newer, and off the tourist route. Shipyard, at 4.4, ranks fourth on the strength of a review count built over thirty years of being the brewery visitors had heard of before they arrived.
So here is the same set sorted the other way. Highest rated first, review counts shown so you can judge how much weight to give them:
- Orange Bike Brewing: 4.9 from 232 reviews.
- Newscapes Brewing: 4.9 from 204 reviews.
- Argenta Brewing: 4.9 from 103 reviews.
- Allagash Brewing: 4.8 from 1,567 reviews. The only brewery in Portland holding a 4.8 or better on more than a thousand reviews, which makes it the least arguable recommendation on this page.
- Belleflower Brewing: 4.8 from 344 reviews.
Beer beyond the city limits
A few places within about an hour of Portland are worth the drive, and two of them out-review anything inside the city. The Great Lost Bear at 540 Forest Ave is technically in Portland but belongs in this category, 4.5 from 3,325 reviews, a sprawling wood-panelled beer hall with dozens of Maine taps and the longest institutional memory in the state's beer scene. Sea Dog Brewing in Topsham (4.3 from 2,534) is a converted mill on the Androscoggin with a deck over the falls; the beer is unadventurous and the setting is excellent. Flight Deck Brewing in Brunswick (4.7 from 530) sits on a former naval air station with hangar-scale space and an enormous lawn, and it is the highest-rated brewery in the Portland radius. Oxbow's Beer Garden in Oxford (4.7 from 477) does farmhouse ales in a field, seasonally. Further out, Orono Brewing's tasting room rates 4.8 from 217 and Fogtown Brewing in Ellsworth 4.7 from 323, both well above anything carrying brewpub-scale review counts.
The honest drawback
Portland is a genuinely great beer city with a genuinely bad logistics problem. The best-known cluster, Industrial Way, is a suburban business park you cannot reasonably walk to from downtown, has no restaurants, and is a bad idea to drive between if you are drinking, which means a taxi, a rideshare, or a designated driver, and that changes the economics of the day. Most Portland taprooms also do not serve food beyond whatever truck is outside, and several keep short, seasonal hours that shift without much notice. Check each brewery's site the morning you go rather than assuming.
The other honest note: the peninsula clusters and the Industrial Way cluster are effectively two different days out. Trying to do both means a lot of driving and not much drinking. Pick one, walk it properly, and eat somewhere good afterward. On the numbers, East Bayside is the better first choice: seven taprooms inside a few blocks, four of them rated 4.7 or higher, and dinner on Washington Avenue at the end of it.
More on the drinking and eating around it in our guides to Maine restaurants for craft beer, Maine pubs and gastropubs and the best restaurants in Portland, plus the Portland town page and things to do in Portland.
FAQ
How many breweries are there in Portland, Maine?
Our places dataset records twenty beer venues in Portland's brewery category. Eighteen of those are working breweries inside the city limits. The other two are Novare Res Bier Cafe, which is a beer bar rather than a brewery, and The Send, which is across the bridge in South Portland. That is a remarkable density for a city this size, and the practical number that matters is smaller still: four clusters, each with three to seven taprooms close enough together to walk between.
Which Portland brewery should you visit if you only have time for one?
Allagash on Industrial Way, at 4.8 from 1,567 reviews: the best combination of rating and review volume in the city, the most nationally significant brewery in Maine, and the one running full tours, which need reserving in advance. If you would rather sit somewhere good with a beer in your hand, Bissell Brothers at Thompson's Point (4.6 from 1,262) has the best taproom setting in Portland. If you want breadth rather than depth, Novare Res Bier Cafe off Exchange Street (4.7 from 1,818) pours dozens of breweries under one roof.
What is the highest-rated brewery in Portland, Maine?
Three share a 4.9: Orange Bike Brewing on Diamond Street (232 reviews), Newscapes Brewing on Washington Avenue (204) and Argenta Brewing on Hanover Street (103). All three are small and none has the sample size to settle the question. The highest rating on a large sample belongs to Allagash at 4.8 from 1,567 reviews, which is the more meaningful figure of the two.
Can you walk between breweries in Portland?
Within a cluster, yes. East Bayside is walkable from downtown and puts Rising Tide, Austin Street, Lone Pine, Goodfire, Oxbow, Belleflower and Newscapes within a few blocks of each other. The best walking cluster in the city by some distance. Industrial Way is also walkable once you are there, with four taprooms in one business park, but it sits about three miles from the Old Port and is not a walk from downtown. Between clusters you need a car, a rideshare or a bike.
Do Portland breweries serve food?
Most do not, or only in the form of a rotating food truck outside. If you want a full meal with your beer, the brewpubs are the better bet: Brickyard Hollow at 9 Commercial St rates 4.4 from 564 reviews and does pizza, and Batson River at 82 Hanover St rates 4.4 from 534 with a full restaurant menu. Otherwise, drink in East Bayside and eat on Washington Avenue afterward.
