Beercation 2011

Sometimes you go on vacations to visit national monuments, relax on a beach, or hike a great trail.  Sometimes you rent an RV with great friends, go to breweries and cheese tastings over 3 states.

This trip was a few months in the making.  Christie and I were up in Boston visiting our friends the Anderson's (Laura and Chris) a few months back, and we were chatting over a Allagash white, when we said, "Why don't we go try an Allagash white at the Allagash brewery?"  And Beercation was born.

A few months passed before we settled on a weekend to do this trek, and then a few more months passed without hearing more details about it.  Little did we know that Chris was hard at work putting together the trip of a lifetime.

We checked in a week before the trip to see if we needed to formalize plans (Yes, Christie and I are planners, shouldn't be a surprise).  It was driving us nuts not to know what we were doing, when, and where.  But we left it to the Andersons.  So we went on our first trip without any knowledge whatsoever, just that Chris and laura were going to pick us up in Portland Maine in the afternoon.

Christie and I flew from NYC to Portland, Maine and got in at around noon.  We quickly found the first lobster shack and both grabbed Lobster Rolls.  I had a little bit of work to do, so I went to a Starbucks while Christie wandered around the historic and "cute" downtown.  A few hours later we get a call from Laura saying they are a few minutes away.  And next thing you know, the RV comes rolling down the street.

They picked us up and we headed straight to our campsite.

This was also where Chris showed us the plan for the weekend.  Wow!  There were binders, folders, maps, schedules, and beer tasting books!

1st Brewery:  Allagash - Arguably one of my favorites, and one of the reasons why we went on this trek to begin with.  

One of the things we learned on this trip was that states have weird laws regarding tastings and tours.  In Main you couldn't have a tasting without a tour, and they would only allow a small pour.  They also didn't have brew pubs connected to their breweries.  So much different then what I have been used to and harder to really try many of their beers.  But we did learn that they have some sour beers coming very soon!

Main Beer Co:

Next up was Main Beer Co Brewery!  A very small almost garage like space.  Only 3 employees and we were greeted and toured by the owner.  This is where I started to think that having a brewery is possible.  Did you hear that Zach and Spence?  Got to try one of their beers they had on tap (which was just out of a small homemade kegerator) and heard their story about how they got started and where they want to go.

Rising Tide Brewery:

We tried going next door to rising tide brewery, but they were closed.  They told Chris they were going to be bottling and come by, but apparently there were a change of plans.

Geary Brewing Co:  

Same thing happened at Geary Brewing Co.  

Shipyard Brewing Company:

Shipyard had a huge brewery and gift shop (much bigger than expected).  I don't think I have had much Shipyard beer over the year, but apparently its got quite a following on the east coast.  They are especially known for their pumpkin ale that comes out during the fall.  I am usually not a pumpkin possible, but their pumpkin ale was amazing.

After a long day of brewery tours, we finally did some eating.  Got some truffle fries at Duckfat then got some fresh seafood from J's Oyster Bar.

Gritty McDuff's:

Grittys was just a small local brewery that had a great brewpub in town.  They even had a great feature which they had personal mugs for all of their best patrons.

Sebago Brewing Company:

Our final stop of the day (Yes all of the above was in 1 day).  It was much more like a restaurant than a brewery, but we were able to get a tasting of all of their beers!  So one of the places we almost skipped, ended up being one of our favorites when combined with the great service.

Next stop Vermont!

We left our campsite early and headed to Vermont through New Hampshire.

First stop Harpoon Brewery:

Great tour, and it's hard to say that after experiencing 5 in 24 hours.  But they were great with explaining, walking us through their brewery, and a great tasting room, that we were able to try anything we wanted in 10 minutes.

The weather wasn't great.  Actually it rained almost all the time.  Thus I don't have as many outdoor shot as I wished.  But below is what the roads looked going from one place to the next.  Chris was a trooper and drove the entire time.  So not only did her plan the trip but drove us all around the entire time as well.

Vermont was a lot like I imagined.  Except we missed the the leaves changing.  Originally we thought we would be hitting New England right at the time the leaves were turning orange, but because of the wet August, it still looked green.

Did you know Vermont was the covered bridge capital of the US?  I still don't know why there's a need for covered bridges, but there were a lot of them.

However some of them didn't make it through Hurricane Irene.

Long Trail Brewery:

A great brewery that had a very lively brewpub, that seemed like the entire town was at.  

Jasper was too young to join us tasting, but he did get to have a great time hanging out in the RV and the camp sites!

We stopped over at the Quechee George which had some trees that were starting to turn their colors.

The Alchemist Cannery:

The Alchemist got hit hard by the hurricane, and their main and original brewery got completely destroyed, they were "lucky" that they just built a secondary brewery to start their canning operation.

Magic Hat Brewery Company:

Our favorite tasting room.  Magic hat was a lot of fun, had a great gift shop, and let us try all the beers they had on tap.  They don't have just #9, but a wide range of beers and are really looking to expand.

Final Ranking of Breweries (not beers)

1.  Magic Hat

2. Harpoon Brewery

3. Long Trail Brewing Co

4. Maine Beer Co

5. Sebago Brewing Co

6. The Shipyard Brewery

7. Allagash Brewing Company

8. Gritty's

9. Alchemist Cannery

10. D L Geary Brewing Co

11. Rising Tide Brewing Co

Wang's Mandatory Blog Post

Today is October 17. I visited Raman and Christie almost 2 months ago. As I stepped into the threshold of their apartment, I was told that a mandatory blog post is required. During these last 2 months, both of them have been very persistent reminding me about the requirement that I needed to fulfill or they would charge me the average rack rate for the stay, roughly $250/night plus penalties incurred of leaving the television blasting while passed out drunk.

My apologies for the delay about my experiences of New York read through my words, but I think I just needed a little reminder that writing about your daily comings and goings puts life into perspective, something we sometimes tend forget with our hectic schedules (that and my work server is currently offline, so I thought I'd finally start and finish this in one sitting)

I originally had a draft written a few weeks back. I was going to go at it from a detailed event of what each day entailed in New York. However I thought that to be rather cumbersome and boring. The memories ascertained from August 25-29, 2011:



This is a 18.00 lobser roll from Luke's Lobster at the Financial District location. I just came back from Boston where I spent $22.00 and $15.00 respectively for lobster rolls, and both of them could not compare to Luke's. The roll just had the right amount mayo and butter on the roll without taking anything away from the lobster meat. Thank you Christie for picking this place for lunch. You know you're in New York's Financial District when a bottle of water costs $3.50.


To the right is a photo of me stockpiling water because Hurricane Irene was going to hit New York City that night. Christie, being the cautious one, thought that it would be a good idea to stock up on food and water and to fill the bathtub with water. Raman and I, on the other hand were ready to battle Hurricane Irene head on. We had no qualms about getting a car and driving up to the Jersey Shore, however it's only because of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie forbidding it that we didn't go. On a side note, if there is ever a trivia question about who was the first person that clogged up Raman and Christie's toilet and and flooded the tiles, please answer Wang Dizzle. That sexy man to your right with the infamous farmer's tan did that.






A few hours before Hurricane Irene is suppose to travel Manhattan. There was no hustle bustle that is the norm for such a crowded intersection. It was interesting to see New York in a different light, to be able to walk around when things are dead. Not many people can say that. As you can see from the photo of Raman, there is ample space to his left, his right, behind, and in front of him to take this photo without any issues of bumping into anyone else. As for the t-shirt, Raman had the brilliant idea to buy a "I LOVE NY" shirt and replace the heart symbol with a hurricane instead. We were selfless and decided to turn down the opportunity to mass produce these shirts and sell them at optimal intersections and venues with a 500% markup so that we can continue to work at our perspective jobs and have our life be fulfilling instead of retiring at the ripe age of 29. Also we didn't really fight the storm like Raman and I had originally planned...we ended up sleeping through everything and waking up at 11am. Hurricane survivors nonetheless.
The best bar in all of New York City....HIGHLAND PARK! (Tip: Don't go there during the night before a hurricane, for some reason they though it wasn't going to be busy so they had 1 cook, 1 waiter, and 1 hostess, and 2 bartenders for the whole place...but what they lack in very slow service they make up for in great people watching and music)



The morning of Hurricane Irene hits, and the three of us are figuring out what to eat. Our original choice was to eat at this one Dim Sum place that sits 200,000 people according to Christie, but we found out later that one was being used as an emergency evacuation center.

Actually the conversation for dim sum at the apartment went something like this:

Wang: I'm hungry
Raman or Christie: What do you guys want to eat
Wang: I don't know, how about dim sum?
Christie: Is Dim Sum even open? Almost every place is closed because of Hurricane Irene
Wang: Please! Chinese restaurants are always open, we even open on Christmas and Chinese New Years because we're greedy and want more money.

To summarize, that dim sum place was open, tasty, and packed, just not 200,000 people packed.

We did a lot of jumping photos, this is one of a few that turned out pretty well on my cellphone.



















Trying to find a pickup game at the famed "Cage", Irene-1 Wang -0




What was the biggest thing that I wanted to check out while in New York besides catching a Broadway show (Irene- 2, Wang-0)...it was to check out the famed facade of the Huxtable house from the Cosby show. Irene can't take this away from me.

Let me introduce you to New York's biggest sandwich. At first we though this would be a good idea to get and split between Raman and I. Live and learn right. Christie as usual, had the foresight to question what the hell we were thinking buying this, I cannot say I was drunk, so let's chalk this up to just pure stupidity and the curiousness of the words "New York's Biggest"

A view atop the Empire State Building on Monday morning, when everything was reopened after Hurricane Irene left. It might be said that the weekend I picked might not have been the best, that the things Christie and Raman wanted to show me, they couldn't due to unforeseen circumstances. The way I look at it, I got to witness New York in a rare form, the city that never sleeps, seemed almost dead and barren for 3 days. Just another reason to head back and witness the norm instead. Thanks again to Raman and Christie for everything.