There aren't a lot of breweries in western Maine. According to Dane, who was doing the pouring on Tumbledown, the next closest brewery is Waterville, 25 miles away. Quite a contrast from places like Portland, where at times, it seems like you'd be hard-pressed not to be able to throw a rock and hit a brewery (if you're the type given to throwing stones).
I've wanted to stop here for awhile, since I was doing some nonprofit consulting in the area back in 2015 and would pass by the brewery every other week. Of course, I wasn't able to work beer into my tasks back then.
I decided a drive north on Route 27 (after finding a 4-pack of Boothbay Brewery's Route 27 Lager last week at a local beer store) might be warranted. In fact, doing a two-fer from Boothbay to Farmington Falls is a great suggestion for anyone wanting to do some ambitious road-tripping when the weather warms. There is some amazing scenery between these two breweries, as well as dining options that are a bit off the beaten path.
What I liked about Tumbledown is that they have a nice variety of beers, and their flight of four 4 ounce pours is a bargain, at $5. Hard to beat, really.
Since I've been enjoying stouts and porters this winter, I was pleased to find that Tumbledown had two stouts on their chalkboard and a porter, too.
Fat Man's Misery is a chocolate cherry milk stout. With and ABV of 4.5 percent, it was a lighter-than-usual stout. Named after a hiking trail at nearby Tumbledown Mountain, this was a smooth stout, with a sweet finish.
The Dawn Patrol Porter, whichh sports a dose of locally-roasted coffee (Carrabassett Valley Coffee?) is another coffee porter that I've grown fond of over the winter. I could taste hints of chocolate and roasted malts, and the smooth, not overly-hopped finish was to my liking.
Their signature beer (at least during the winter months) is the Tumbledown Red. I love reds, and this one was stellar. The British hops gave it nice balance with the malt.
I also went with the Dog Star Stout, which is a smoked stout. Could taste hints of chocolate. Compared to the Fat Man's Misery, this would be my second choice.
Tumbledown was doing a brisk business with growler refills while I was there. I was really pleased that they have four-packs of their signature red in cans, as well as their Longfellow Hefeweizen, which is what I left with to take home.
A nice treat for me was that they had the YumBus food truck out in the parking lot. I was really pleased that they had a vegan taco option. After the beer, this gave me the fortification I needed to make my way up the mountain, to my destination where I was heading, in Kingfield. read more