Shipyard Brewery Tour, Portland, Maine

On Wednesday 4 October, the last free Shipyard brewery tour of the day at 3pm included some cruise ship passengers but having booked in advance, there was a place for me in the group with a maximum size of 16.

A lifelike chalk drawing of brewery vessels adorns the wall of the tasting room, next to the internal entrance door to the brewery itself. After we had donned safety glasses, Trade Brewer, Bruce Elam led us through the door at the start of the tour.
Bruce explained how Fred Forsley started Federal Jack's brewpub in Kennebunk harbour in 1992. Export was the original style of beer aimed at visitors, many coming from Canada. Demand outstripped capacity and in 1994, Shipyard was established at this former anchor chain foundry near Portland harbour.

Shipyard has since grown to become the 28th largest craft brewer out of 5.400 in the USA. Bruce explained that the Brewers Association criteria for being designated a craft brewer in the USA are: a) small size - producing less than 6 million barrels annually; b) independent - at least 75% craft brewer ownership c) traditional - output derived from traditional ingredients. Bruce also mentioned the new independent craft brewer seal of an upturned bottle that will appear on all Shipyard labels once existing inventory has been used.

Bruce explained that standard Maine water is good quality but some minerals are added prior to brewing. As well as malted barley - rye, oats and wheat are used in brewing some Shipyard beers. Hops are used in both leaf and pellet forms. Grains are added to the Mash Tun after being ground by the blue grist mill. A trough is used to allow the wort to clear before transferring wort to the kettle which is fired by propane gas. Hops are added as a first addition, a second addition and finally a late addition for aroma during the 60 minute boil.

The brewhouse is on the top floor with fermenting vessels on the floor below. Bruce mentioned that the ale yeast needs to be looked after by using it within the correct temperature range. 'We feed it, clothe it and shelter it.' As open top fermenting vessels are used the yeast can be scooped out and reused in most cases. However, for extra hoppy or strong beers the yeast is killed off afterwards.

Any flavourings for beers are added as extracts. Brewers take physical samples of beer from the fermenting vessels every 2 or 3 hours around the clock and once the required OG strength is reached the beer can be chilled down and transferred to closed conditioning tanks. Before transferring to the final bright beer tank the beer may pass through a cylinder filter. Alternatively a centrifuge may be used for IPAs before packaging.

Downstairs, Bruce showed us the packaging area where the beer is kegged or bottled and boxed. The Zajac bottling line can process 190 bottles per minute. Now at the end of the tour, Bruce joked 'There is no test'!

We returned to the taproom where tasting flights or individual glasses of beer or soda could be purchased. A flight of 4 x 4oz glasses cost $6.

I chalked the numbers of the beers from the blackboard behind the bar that I wanted to taste on the beer flight and passed it across the bar to be served.

Beers from other breweries were available but I limited my fourt choices to Shipyard beers: 8- Island Time session IPA, 7- Finder NE IPA, 4-Monkey Fist IPA (named after a knot) and 9- Old Thumper English ESB. My favourite was the Finder New England IPA.
My seat on the long table in the taproom was between two couples who had also just been on the tour.
They joked that perhaps the tour had been on a serious note because Bruce had spotted the CAMRA logo on my navy Ascot beer festival staff polo shirt.

One couple was on the cruise from Florida while Joe and Kristen were from Minneapolis. Later they posed for a photo with Ullage, the West Berkshire CAMRA magazine.

Postscript - the UK connection - I was aware in advance that Shipyard Brewing Company had a connection with Englishman Alan Pugsley, who moved to North America from Hampshire's Ringwood Brewery where Old Thumper was the flagship beer.
A 2014 piece about by Tom Acitelli in All About Beer magazine about the early days of Shipyard Brewing Co explains that Fred Forsley hired Alan Pugsley as a consultant on the equipment and the beers.when opening the Kennebunkport Brewing Co. and Federal Jack’s brewpub in Kennebunk in 1992.
This explains how Old Thumper also became a Shipyard beer brand.
More recently, Shipyard have established a connection with Marston's in the UK and some Shipyard beers are brewed at Marston's Park Brewery in Wolverhampton.
Shipyard American Pale Ale is available on draught at Wetherspoon pubs in the UK.

Shipyard Brewing Co website: shipyard.com 
Address: 86 Newbury Street, Portland, Maine
Tasting Room Hours (October 2017):
9:00 am to 6:00 pm (Mon-Wed, Last Call 5pm)
9:00 am to 7:00 pm (Thu-Sat, Last Call 6pm)
11:00 am to 5:00 pm (Sun, Last Call 4:30pm)