The Maine Brew Bus Expands its Fleet

PORTLAND, METhe Maine Brew Bus, Maine’s original brewery tour company, recently added another bright green converted school bus to their fleet. Named “Mabel”, the 14 passenger bus has immediately joined the flagship bus “Lenny” on regularly scheduled tour routes.

The all-inclusive tours provide guests a behind-the-scenes look at Maine’s craft breweries, distilleries, wineries, and more in Greater Portland and Southern Maine. Each tour features plenty of samples, local guides, a safe designated driver, food or snacks, and trivia. The company also produces frequent specialty and adventure tours, and also features a different brewery each month in their Progressive Beer Dinner series.

In August, 2013 the company became the TripAdvisor #1 Activity in Portland. This was out of 46 different options as ranked by users of the popular online review site, and they have maintained that position ever since.

Due to increasing popularity of the existing tours, as well as to visit new breweries that have begun operation, they are announcing the following new tours:

The Suds and Spirits tour visits three spots in Portland that brew beer or distill spirits – and one that does both! Starting at New England Distilling late on a Saturday morning, the tour next visits the new Foundation Brewing, and finishes at In’Finiti Fermentation and Distillation for a special private tour of their brewhouse.

The revamped York County Bounty tour is now on Saturday afternoon and features pickups in either Portland or Saco. The first stop is the exciting new Banded Horn Brewing Co. in Biddeford. Also in Biddeford, Elements will provide space for a private tasting of the beers of Gneiss Brewing which recently opened in Limerick. Next the tour will climb the hill to visit Funky Bow Brewery and Beer Company, which after just over a year in operation is currently undergoing a major expansion in Lyman.

Their first ever Sunday tour, called the Northern Exposure tour, treks from Portland to the first brewery in Maine to can or keg all their beer: Baxter Brewing in Lewiston. For lunch, the tour heads to Brunswick and the new Ebenezer’s Brewpub which is producing a wide range of beer styles. To wrap up, a stop at Maine Beer Co. in Freeport will end on the tour on a high note.

In order to continue to provide a quality experience to the guests on The Maine Brew Bus, additional key staff have been added to the team.

Alex Stevens: A native of Bar Harbor, Maine, Alex moved to Portland in late 2013 after running the tasting room, retail shop, and conducting tours at Atlantic Brewing Company – one of Maine’s oldest breweries. He now serves as the Brand Ambassador for Atlantic in the Portland area. He discovered his love for craft beer at the age of 21, and is very excited to share his knowledge and passion with everyone aboard the Maine Brew Bus.

Dave Patterson: Dave moved to Maine from his native state of Vermont in 2005. Coming from a state with a strong craft beer scene, he set out to learn what the great State of Maine had to offer an enthusiastic beer lover. For the past year, Dave, a writer, teacher, and musician by trade, has been chronicling his beer escapades through his blog at http://davidrpatterson.me/. Dave also founded the Maine Madness Beer Tournament, a bracket-style beer competition that takes place in March.

Even more tours and services will be offered as The Maine Brew Bus rolls into the spring and summer seasons.

With great brewery tours and more, the Maine Brew Bus continues to Drive You to Drink Local.

For more information and to see a current schedule of tours and events, please visit www.themainebrewbus.com

About The Maine Brew Bus

The Maine Brew Bus was founded in September 2012 by Zach and Allison Poole, who saw a surprising hole in the infrastructure surrounding Maine’s wonderful local businesses. The company began by offering tours on Saturday afternoons to a handful of breweries in the Portland area.

Guests quickly saw that having a designated driver to guide them to both established and up-and-coming producers offered them an opportunity to learn much more about the craft alcohol business than they could learn on their own. Tours are now led by expert guides in addition to a knowledgeable driver to ensure the best possible experience for participating guests as well as for the businesses with which we partner.

The first summer proved that Maine’s original Brew Bus was a very popular tour with locals and visitors alike. Exciting tour routes were added on weekdays, and newly opened breweries embraced the idea of having “The Green Bus” stop by so that guests could taste and tour at their facilities. By the time the first anniversary of the company rolled around, nearly 1,500 guests had taken tours and The Maine Brew Bus had become the #1 activity in Portland as rated by TripAdvisor users. The fleet now includes two buses and additional staff.

The all-inclusive tours on bright green school buses provide a behind-the-scenes look at Maine’s craft breweries, distilleries, wineries, and more. They offer daily scheduled and private tours in Greater Portland and Southern Maine. They also offer frequent specialty and adventure tours, and feature a different brewery each month in their Progressive Beer Dinner series.

For more information and to see a current schedule of tours and events, please visit www.themainebrewbus.com