How does one stay in business when they are only open on average 4 hours every day? Simple. What they do, they do well. That is Boothbay Craft Brewery and Watershed Tavern in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.
Aah, Boothbay Harbor, Maine…a quintessential Maine coastal town with quaint shops, delectable seafood restaurants overlooking the bay, and just enough of a tourists to locals ratio to make you feel right at home. (Click here for more Stout Life Approved places in Maine.)
While there are many towns like this along Maine’s rocky coastline, there are none with a brewery like Boothbay Craft Brewery. Not wanting to exclude anyone, Boothbay also includes handcrafted food at Watershed Tavern, an RV park, a Harvest Host, cottages, and a farm.
As you walk into the Tavern which includes the tap room, you are greeted with thick, cozy booths, chairs that make you feel like royalty and a staff that make you feel like family. We took a seat at the bar in awe of this beautiful structure made from locally sourced products and promptly began to drool over their offerings of a variety of beers, all extremely well made, but the two listed below were our favorites.
Stout Life Approved – Boothbay Craft Brewery
- Thirsty Botanist (New England Style IPA) 7% Ken is the fan of IPA’s, and me, not so much. However, with its great flavors of pineapple, mango, peach, and a hint of pine, I couldn’t help but like it, too. This beer had a perfect balance of hoppiness to sweetness making it smooth and easy to drink.
Loves Cove (Imperial Stout) 11% This small batch stout was huge on flavor and intensity. My taste buds detected hints of cherry in this smooth, dark, cozy beer. With its powerful punch of 11%, it’s hard to drink more than one, but oh we did. It was too good not to.
Harvest Hosts
One of the best things about Boothbay is that they are also a Harvest Host, a membership based site where you get to stay at breweries and vineyards, and farms, etc, for free. So, because RAIF was parked just outside the door on a lovely grassy, level spot with a beautiful view of the cottages and farm, we closed the place down that first night (they closed at 4:00 that night) and strolled home where we had a cozy dinner enjoying the crisp, quiet Maine evening. Dinner? Seafood, of course. Stuffed clam shells bought at the local supermarket for only $5.00.
Boothbay Harbor, Maine
After stopping in again at the brewery the next day for an early afternoon drink, we toured the town (just a short bike ride down the road), enjoying some homemade ice cream, Maine’s famous whoopee pies (big soft cookies stuffed with gooey, yumminess), and then topped it all off with a drink on a rooftop patio overlooking the bay.
Life is better with friends, right? While the beer was excellent, the town quite cute, what connected it all together making Boothbay Craft Brewery Stout Life Approved was meeting Tracie and Doug from Hills Deployed, two fellow FT Rv’ers and Harvest Host members.
After a lovely evening of drinks and conversation, it was time to head off to bed.
We live in an RV to travel, and the next day we were headed towards Portland, towards more great craft beer, more new friends, and more great adventures.
Until next week…Cheers, Salud, Afya!
To check out previous Stout Life Approved stories, click here.
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