Welcome to Maine Beer Tasting Rooms, your ultimate guide to the thriving craft beverage scene in the state of Maine. We’ve expanded our focus to include not only breweries, but also distilleries, wineries, and cideries. Whether you’re a beer lover, a wine connoisseur, a spirits enthusiast, or a cider aficionado, we’ve got you covered. Explore the diverse offerings of Maine’s craft beverage industry and discover unique flavors that can’t be found on store shelves. With an explosion in cideries and a growing interest in craft spirits, there’s never been a better time to embark on a tasting adventure. Use our navigation hints to help you navigate through the vast content on our website. Pick a type of tasting room and narrow it down by region or simply use the search feature to find exactly what you’re looking for. We value your feedback and suggestions, as we continue to improve your experience on our website. Cheers to Maine craft beverages!

Maine has a rich history of beer, with the state now having one of the highest number of breweries per capita in the country. In the colonial era, Americans didn’t drink much beer, outside of home-brewed “small beer” meant for immediate consumption. Both spirits (particularly rum) and hard cider were far more popular than beer for the first half of the nineteenth century. Beer consumption began rising around mid-century. After the Civil War, it jumped dramatically. But Maine’s early commercial brewers were working under peculiar conditions. In 1851, the state passed the “Maine Law” (or, “An Act for the Suppression of Drinking Houses and Tippling Shops”), which prohibited the “manufacture, sale, and possession of alcohol with the intent of sale.” Portland native Neal Dow was its champion, and he would be elected the city’s mayor in the wake of the law’s passage. It was the first such law in the nation, laying the groundwork for national prohibition in 1920 and earning Dow the nickname, the “Father of Prohibition.” The law would be repealed in 1856, replaced by another that allowed limited alcohol sales. Over the following decades, new prohibitionary laws were variously created, enforced, and weakened, until prohibition was written into the state constitution in 1885. Many Mainers defied these laws, some brewing openly and advertising in city directories. Often, they were brewing low-alcohol small beer (1%-3%). By the end of the nineteenth century, most Maine brewers had been chased out of the business. It would be nearly a century before smaller-scale brewing re-emerged in the state.