Grateful for Grateful

Grateful Grain Brewing, in Monmouth, is producing a variety of superb beers

It’s really, really hard to believe that it’s been five years.

Grateful Grain Brewing Co, located right in the beating heart of Monmouth, Maine, quickly went from being that new place that I had to check out to a staple of my refrigerator. That’s because they, very quietly but also incredibly consistently, produce some of the very best beers - and especially IPAs - in a state that’s become a beer haven. They’re not heard to reach, either: They’re just a few minutes off of I-95, easy enough to stop and grab a case if you’re headed up to camp or meandering your way north from Portland. It’s not a trek to some remote backwater, nor - astonishingly to me after more than five years - are there ever people lined up outside the place, like there used to be outside Portland breweries back in the day.

You can just wander in, try something and grab a four-pack (or a case) and head off to wherever you’re going. Like the newly-launched Sidereal Brewing in Vassalboro, they offer a friendly environment, great atmosphere, and fantastic beer. Now, Grateful Grain immediately waltzed straight into my heart not only because they were the first true craft brewery local to me, but because of the name: the owners are Grateful Dead fans, and I’m a Phish fan, so there’s a certain simpatico there.

One of their flagship beers, The Experience (IPA, 6.0%) is worth the trip alone - indeed, you may find yourself liking it even if you’re not typically an IPA fan. It’s truly one of the best IPAs in all of Maine and New England, comparing favorably with any of the more well-known IPAs produced by some of the larger, infamous breweries that dot the region’s landscape. It’s still astonishing to me that The Experience alone hasn’t put Grateful Grain on the map, despite its location in the rural town of Monmouth. While Monmouth is about an hour or so north of Portland, it’s not far from I-95, making it an easy stop if you’re heading almost anywhere but the coast.

They don’t just produce IPAs, either. This particular weekend the draft line-up also consists of a sour, Marshmellow Fluffy Clouds (6%), two other IPAs besides The Experience, a red ale, a pale ale and a stout - quite a nice variety. Five of those were available to-go in cans, which is fairly typical for Grateful Grain. All are well worth trying: Even though they produce an excellent IPA, that’s not the only thing they’re good at. Every beer they produce is good. Moreover, they can regularly enough that what you bring home is fresh, and there’s not the gigantic drop-off in quality between the draft and canned version that there is at some places.

They don’t serve food full-time (apart from snacks), but in the warmer months they regularly have food trucks, and have an excellent outdoor seating area. They manage to get a good variety of food trucks there - as mentioned earlier, it’s an easy trip from Portland and there’s plenty of parking.

Grateful Grain is constantly innovating, too: they’re not content to rest on their laurels. They’ve produced a number of different versions of The Experience, for instance, including a session IPA one, a double IPA, a triple IPA version, and one made primarily with Galaxy hops. Unlike some breweries that engage in this practice, though, they wisely have not let variations on their flagship dominate their lineup. They’re also all different enough to be worthy of brewing on their own, rather than simply trading on the name or base recipe: each are excellent entries.

They continually produce new IPAs as well as other beer varieties, too. This year, for instance, they released a new IPA dubbed Not-So-Dry January (7%), a bright, tropical beer that will hopefully become a new annual tradition that helps brighten the depths of winter in Vacationland.

Grateful Grain is regularly innovating, and it’s a cozy, hospitable brewery that is easy to access. It’s one of the best, and yet curiously underrated breweries, in all of Maine - certainly well worth the hike up (or down) I-95. Regardless of what great breweries you may have in your neck of the woods, it’s well worth the visit. This small, friendly, unassuming brewery is quietly producing some of the very best beers anywhere. They consistently manage to strike exactly the right balance with everything they do - not just the beers themselves, which are always delightful, but the variety of styles and regularity of new releases.

You should not only stop by Grateful Grain to check it out, you ought to make it a regular stop whenever you happen to be in the area. It’s rare to find a friendly neighborhood brewery that makes some truly top-notch beer, and I’ve been extremely lucky to have them in the neighborhood for the past five years. So, when you get a chance, swing on up to Monmouth any time of year and give them a visit.

Trust me, they’re worth it.

You may follow Jim on Twitter or Facebook. He is also a weekly political columnist for the Portland Press Herald, Maine’s largest daily newspaper.