Yankee Brew News Archive

Apres-Hike at the Sugarloaf Brewing Company

Originally Published: 01/96

By: Donna Campion

I recently took my daughter and son-in-law (Linda and Bob Monroe) up to the Sugarloaf Brewing Company for a nice cool beer after hiking with their two kids for a few hours.

Since Bob is a homebrewer, he asked to talk with one of the brewers on the premises to learn how they do things at this microbrewery, and I tagged along to listen and look.

Brewer

Robin Bishop was born in Uganda in East Africa and has a strong British accent. He's been in Maine for six years and has worked at the brewery since April. Bishop said the brewery's grains, which include the standard barley malts as well as torrified wheat, are imported from England. After a tour of the brewhouse it was evident that Bishop brings some British tradition to the process.

One particularly British practice was "rousing" the yeast. "We rouse it until our arms fall off," said Bishop, and of course my question was, "How do you rouse it?"

They use big paddles to stir and splash the wort so that the yeast can start the fermentation. The beer is left to ferment for two days and then it's filtered. The whole brewing process at Sugarloaf takes about seven days from start to finish. .

We sampled Smilin' Smitty's Irish Red Ale, which is a very pretty beer that is fairly mild-flavored; Black and Tan, an interesting combination of contrasts both in appearance and in taste because they carefully layer a stout on top of the India Pale Ale, and my favorite, the Carrabassett Pale Ale, an amber ale with a smooth flavor.

All of these beers are served cool but not icy-cold.

Their kolsch ale sounds good to me because it's a very light German-style ale, but the day we went they were out of it. I guess that means I'll have to go up again!

Another beer available this past summer was their honey brown ale made with New England clover honey.

With seven fresh-brewed ales to choose from, this brewery is sure to please most beer lovers. You can buy five-liter mini-kegs to bring home to your cellar too.

It's worth the trip to Sugarloaf this winter to ski along the miles of trails and then enjoy a delicious pint.

Donna Campion lives in Wilton, Maine, and swears Carrabassett Pale Ale is the best pint she's had this side of England.