Maine Beer Week gets underway today with the aim of celebrating the Pine Tree State's growing craft beer industry. It's a new event, showcasing 27 Maine breweries, and is aimed in particular at pairing beers with foods. For example, if you're sipping a pint of Shipyard's Old Thumper, which is a rich a hoppy English-style ale, you could, says one connoisseur, complement it with some cuisine from across the pond.

"Goes great with rich stews, steak and kidney pie and so forth," says Shipyard Brewing Company Master Brewer Alan Pugsley.

Or if you're into some Smashed Blueberry ale, also from Shipyard, you might want something sweeter. "It's a 9 percent porter-style beer with a hint of blueberry, great with desserts like a chocolate dessert or ice cream and blueberry sauce," Pugsley says.

Pugsley, who was born and raised in England, is a biochemistry graduate and has always loved beer and pubs. He's been making beer now for 30 years and has helped create breweries all over the world--in places like China, Russia, Nigeria, and also around the U.S.

But he draws heavily on his native country when making beer. His beers are described as distinctive because they famously use Ringwood yeast--from the Ringwood brewery in Hampshire, England--which he describes as a classic English yeast that requires open fermentation.

"It's very vigorous, it ferments very fast, it's well-settling," Pugsley says. "It produces wonderful cask-conditioned beer, and has proven to be extremely versatile within what we do here at Shipyard and many others in the USA too with our systems.

Pugsley says the key to success in brewing is making a beer that is balanced. "Which means that you use the malt, and you use the hops and you use whatever flavorings you're using within a beer to create a drink that is drinkable," he says. "The bottom line is, if the first one tastes like the second one, then you've succeeded, but if the first one says 'I quite enjoyed that, but I think I'm going to switch,' you've just failed."

Tom Porter: "What's your favorite? Do you have a favorite?"

Alan Pugsley: "As I always say, my favorite beer is the beer that's in my hand at the time."

Tom Porter: "Well you haven't got one in your hand at the moment."
Alan Pugsley: "Well I guess I don't like beer!"

Shipyard Brewery, which is situated near the waterfront in Portland's fashionable Old Port district, is this year expected to ship out about 125,000 barrels of beer--a 25 percent-plus increase on last year's number. And this is on top of a 19 percent rise last year, a testament to the growing popularity of craft beers.

From one of Maine's oldest breweries now, to the state's newest, established just last month. About six miles from Shipyard's mammoth 125,000 square-foot facility lies Bull-Jagger brewing company, where the refrigeration unit hums to keep the fermentation tanks chilled. It occupies 1,500 square feet in an industrial estate on the western outskirts of Maine's biggest city.

Bull-Jagger, named after founders Tom Bull (left in photo at left) and Alan Jagger (right in photo at left)--the company's only two full-time employees--is the state's sole lager brewery. It produces eight a barrels a week--or 1,800 bottles if you prefer--of its flagship Portland lager. But what exactly is lager?

"It's derived from a German word, which means 'to store,'" Brewer Tom Bull explains. "So lagers, by their nature, have to take a nap, they have to go to sleep and mature, almost like wine. That happens in a cold, cellar, in a cold space."

The result, he says, is a colder, crisper, cleaner-tasting beer. Allan Jagger, who takes care of the business end of the operation, says part of the challenge of making and marketing lager is the length of time it takes to ferment the beer.
"Typically we let it sit for about six weeks, and when you compare that to making an ale, a good ale can sometimes be out the door in 12, 14 days."

Tom Porter: "Why did you decide to set up Maine's only dedicated lager brewery?"
Tom Bull: "We looked at the market, we saw what was being produced in Maine, and we found that there was a hole there for lagers. Also Alan and I prefer lagers, if you look at the largest breweries in the world what do they brew? Budweiser, Heineken, Amstel, Stella, they're all lagers."

And as for pairing Portland lager with various types of food - that's easy, they say.

Alan Jagger: "You hate to say 'everything,' but a good well-built lager does seem to pair well with most foods."

Tom Porter: "Because it's not too strong a taste, it won't overpower."

Alan Jagger: "It doesn't overpower--it's full-bodied."

In the spring, he says, they plan to bring out a Pilsner. "We're dabbling with the name 'Big Claw,' and that'll be more specifically designed to pair with seafood, but Portland lager is your all-purpose beer.

Maine Beer Week events are happening across the state, ending on November 17th. For more details visit mainebeerweek.com

Alan Pugsley photo courtesy of Shipyard Brewery.  Photo of Tom Bull and Alan Jagger by Tom Porter.