Upon entering Shipyard Brewery for a tour & tasting, you are directed to a “viewing room,” where there are benches set up in front of a large screen. Every hour, a short video plays, giving you a “tour” of the brewery. The video is quick, yet informative. After the video is over, you are asked to pull out your ID to head to the tasting room.

The tasting room has a long bar top, with two tap areas. The two tour givers pass out the first couple of beers, along with information on each one. After 2-3, you are on your own and can try whatever you would like. 🙂

Applehead: nice spices of apple pie. Inspired by the flavors and success of Pumpkinhead (their #1 seller)

Export: 1st brew by shipyard. Nice malty start. Finishes clean. Session beer

Old Thumper: ESB (Extra Special Bitter), created at Ringwood Brewery in England. Only beer not created by Shipyard.

Fuggles IPA: not a big fan of this one. Mild IPA. British style

Monkey Fist IPA: West Coast American Style. More typical IPA flavor

Smashed Pumpkin: Pumpkinhead on steroids! Delicious! Mark didn’t like as much as the original pumpkinhead, but I did

Smashed Blueberry: 1st taste- chocolate covered blueberries. Strong blueberry flavor. Mark liked a lot, I did not as much

Blue Fin Stout: classic Irish stout. Full bodied, yet smooth. Had an espresso taste. Not as strong of a flavor as I would have enjoyed

Casco Bay Rip Tide Red Ale: Butterscotch notes. Clean finish. I’m not usually a red ale person, but it was good!

In their video tour room, the walls are covered with awards, retired bottles, bottles of beers they brew for others, and the Shipyard family. Some that we saw in there were surprising, but made sense seeing that Shipyard has the biggest brewing capability in Maine!

Coming in May: Melonhead… Wonder how this one will be… They have used similar spices for Applehead and Pumpkinhead, but I don’t think that will work for Melon. Thoughts on what they might use or what it might taste like?