Does yeast make a difference – new Maine Beer Company thinks so

November 10, 8:39 AMBeer ExaminerCharlie Papazian

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David (l) and Dan (r) Kleban founded the Maine Beer Company in Portland, Maine earlier
this year.  Photo by Charlie Papazian

Portland is a beer city.  If you’re a beer enthusiast you’ve heard plenty about the joys of Portland, their beers and breweries.  That’s in Oregon.  There’s another up and coming Portland in a state of increasing ecstasy called Maine.  Portland, Maine that is.  The best place to try a wide variety of Maine’s beer culture is at Novare Res Bier Café  

Photo below right: Beer meets mead at Portland, Maine's Novare Res Bier Cafe.  Kevin Watson (left), brewer at Allagash Brewing Company toasts Ben Alexander (right), Maine Mead Works co-founder. Photo by Charlie Papazian

They may be relatively small in size, but the beers coming out of Portland, Maine are heavy weight in reputation.  Brewing companies Allagash, Shipyard, D.L. Geary, Gritty McDuffs and Casco Bay have all had a standing beer and brewing presence in this city of about 63,000 people.  This year there is a new brewery on the block.  As a matter of fact it’s on the same block and nearly across the street from the fabled Allagash Brewing Co.

Tucked away in a tiny warehouse space, the Maine Beer Company is off to a start that may help blaze a new direction for beer character brewed in New England.  Their pale-type ales mirror some of the hop and yeast themes more commonly brewed west of the Mississippi River.

Many ale producing breweries in the New England area brew their quality beers with a strain of yeast commonly called the “Ringwood” strain.  It’s a yeast that was traditionally used at the fabled Ringwood Brewery founded in 1978 by pioneering UK brewer Peter Austin  . 

Photo left: Spring Peeper photo courtesy of Maine Beer Company.

Ringwood yeast strain produces ales with distinctive yeasty and fruity characters.  They are present to some degree in most beers brewed with this yeast.  Hopping rates are relatively lower than western American pale ales, which results in an elevated emphasis on yeast character.  The beers made with this yeast have developed a strong following in the New England area.

Brothers David and Dan Kleban have chosen a path few New England brewers have embarked upon.  Absent of Ringwood yeast fruitiness, their beers are essays on hop and malt emphasis.  In California, Oregon, Washington or Colorado this direction would hardly be noted as a niche, but in New England it is.  The quality is excellent. For the hop enthusiast hop characters in their one and only brand Spring Peeper Ale is emotionally satisfying.  And for the time being the journey is worth following as the Kleban brothers tinker with their artful additions of hops from one batch to another.

The brews are fired up on three separate one barrel kettles.  They triple batch on Saturday and triple batch on Sunday to fill the their one 7-barrel fermenter.  It is one of the nations smallest of small breweries.  Mirroring the legacy of many of today’s great craft brewers.

You don’t have to wait until spring time to enjoy a bottle-conditioned 5.5% Spring Peeper Ale. If you’re in the Portland, Maine area you’ll enjoy this.