Power Around Casco Bay With Our New Brews Cruise Options

With the waters of Portland Harbor and Casco Bay all around you—and with the wind in your hair—you take a sip from another amazing Maine craft beer and drink in the amazing sights that are everywhere. We have three new options this summer for open-air activities on comfortable and safe powered boats. Check out our new Brews Cruise options!

Casco Bay is filled with amazing sights and sounds. Multiple islands, lighthouses, fort relics, and boats of all types are scattered around. Sea life is easy to find, maybe you can spot a harbor seal, a school of fish, a dolphin, or even a sturgeon jumping clear out of the sea. Look above for native and transient birds of different shapes, sizes, and colors that fill the sky. And even higher up, the dreamy cloud patterns and amazing sunsets are the frosting on the cake.

Visitors to Portland often seek ways to get out on the water and explore Greater Portland from a different perspective. Looking at the city from the ocean reminds you of the past as countless numbers of people have looked at Portland for the first time from a boat before making it their new home.

Passing by islands that are inhabited year-round – with populations that swell in the summer and fall – allow you to dream about a life set apart from the hustle and bustle of a city.

Looking at the vessels large and small is an adventure all it’s own. There are lobster boats, commercial fishing vessels, restored wooden schooners, sailboats, luxury yachts, ferry boats, and even large container ships and oil tankers that also ply these waters daily.

To provide our guests with even more options to get out and explore around Portland, we have partnered with two tour and charter companies who each make their living on the waters of Casco Bay.

Introducing our new Brews Cruise options: Harbor Brews Cruise conducted by Casco Bay Custom Charters, and the Lobster Brews Cruise and Sunset Brews Cruise activities that are run by Rocky Bottom Tours.

Check out the details on each of these options:

Harbor Brews Cruise

We have partnered with Casco Bay Custom Charters, to bring you our Harbor Brews Cruise beer and boat tours!

Once we are on board the historic Maine-built passenger cruiser MARIE L, guests will enjoy a leisurely spin around scenic Portland Harbor. The guide will talk about our busy seaport, the fishing and lobstering industries, the lighthouses and forts visible in the harbor, as well as how the residents of the islands live.

Over the course of the cruise, your beer guide from The Maine Brew Bus will talk about the featured breweries and beer that is served. They will also talk about the shipping trade that made the city drunk on rum, the pivotal role that Portland played in Prohibition and how we have grown to now have over 150 breweries scattered throughout the state. – Learn more about our Harbor Brews Cruise

Lobster Brews Cruise

This Lobster Brews Cruise will haul and set lobster traps alongside beautiful landmarks and sea life. This fun and interactive environment offers an experience to feel like a Maine lobsterman and grasp the concept of the lobster fishery.

Based on Portland Pier on the working waterfront, Rocky Bottom Tours provides a very unique experience for guests with a live demonstration of the lobster industry on board an actual lobster boat. The fishing vessel Wild Duck is the perfect stable platform to enjoy this experience. It was built in 1998 and was used previously as a fully functioning 40-foot offshore lobster boat. This vessel is approved by the Coast Guard for commercial passenger use, and all permits and licenses are up to date.

Please feel free to buy and bring some local Maine beers to enjoy during the 90-minute tour if desired. – Learn more about our Lobster Brews Cruise

Sunset Brews Cruise

Here is another great offering from our friends at Rocky Bottom Tours…imagine yourself on a lobster boat in Casco Bay with a Maine craft beer in hand and watching a spectacular sunset over Portland’s skyline. That’s our Sunset Brews Cruise experience right there!

Enjoy this lobster boat cruise around the islands of Casco Bay while watching the sun set over the Portland skyline. You can buy and bring some local Maine beers to enjoy during the cruise if you like, and you even have the option to add a lobster roll from Luke’s Lobster!

Casco Bay has a multitude of sights to offer! The excursions are highly visual with sightseeing opportunities of lighthouses, islands and private beaches, sea creatures and sea life, commercial and recreational boats, the gorgeous rocky coastline, along with the unpredictable colors and patterns of a Maine sunset. – Learn more about our Sunset Brews Cruise

See the current Health and Safety policies for Maine Brew Bus tours here.

Don Littlefield is the General Manager of Brew Bus Tours. He enjoyed a lot of Sebago Lake water (to get ready to guide both a biking and a walking tour) while preparing this post. Twitter: @BeerinME