Allagash Brewing Company — Portland, Maine’s Belgian Soul

Long before New England IPAs put Maine on the craft beer map, Allagash Brewing Company was already doing something remarkable in Portland: making Belgian-inspired ales with a commitment to quality and tradition that rivaled anything coming out of Europe. Three decades on, they remain the gold standard for American Belgian brewing — and one of the most important breweries the country has produced.

Rob Tod founded Allagash in 1995 with a single beer: Allagash White, a Belgian-style witbier brewed with wheat, coriander, and Curaçao orange peel. It is still, arguably, the best American witbier in existence. Crisp, hazy, lightly spiced, effortlessly refreshing — it’s the kind of beer that tastes like it’s been made for exactly this moment, regardless of when that moment is.

But Allagash’s legacy is far larger than White. Their Coolship program — spontaneous fermentation in an open vessel, following centuries-old Belgian lambic tradition — produces some of the rarest and most sought-after wild ales in America. Beers like Coolship Resurgam and Coolship Cerise are released once a year and sell out immediately. The brewery also produces an outstanding range of barrel-aged and mixed-fermentation ales through their Allagash Haunted House and specialty series programs.

The Portland brewery runs excellent tours and is deeply embedded in the Maine community. They’re also certified B-Corp and employee-owned — the values match the beer.

Allagash White changed American brewing. The coolship program proved Maine could produce world-class wild ale. Thirty years in, they’re still getting better.

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