The front of the building looked as if it were a car garage and if it hadn’t been for the sign, I would’ve walked right past. Inside there was a bar that only served samples of their creative meads by a fellow that resembled Jared from the Subway commercials. The interior had the appearance straightaway of a sewing supply store: the walls were white, the counter was white, and there was no clutter, plus, its only customers on that day were five mid-40s women that wore what appeared to be wool sweaters. The guy who served the meads was nice enough, and had told us the same story he told Phaleslu about his grandmother’s sweet tea being used in a mead.

Maine Mead Works just moved to a snazzy new location on Washington Ave, just north of Eastern Cemetery on Congress. The tasting room greets you as you walk in the nice, large, clean building. The meadery itself is in the rooms to the back and side and tours are available. We went through the entire slate of available meads. One of the mead makers came in to talk to us for a while and offered us some of a mead they’re just about to release for Novare Res, a really unique mead based on his grandmother’s sweet tea recipe. The meads here are not thick and syrupy like the Polish meads, but thinner and more subtle in order to showcase some of the other ingredients, whether blueberries, hops, strawberries, or whatever other variety. The bottles go for $14-$20 or so, based on which style you want. They ship to a handful of states, with more on the way. The operation seems to be rapidly growing and by the end of the year will have increased output by almost four times compared to last year. Very, very nice place overall and absolutely worth a stop if you’re in Portland for a while.