MAINE BREWS CRUISE TEAM
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Zach Poole is a co-owner of Maine Brews Cruise and also of the national brand Brews Cruise, Inc. Along with his wife, he is the founder of The Maine Brew Bus in 2012. Zach grew up in Shoreham on Long Island in New York State and attended college in Massachusetts at UMass Amherst and Bridgewater State, from which he earned his degree in Physical Education.
After relocating to Maine, Zach began teaching in the Dayton School Department and also was an original team member at The Run of the Mill Public House and Brewery in Saco which opened in July of 2008.
While at the Run of the Mill, he was able to see firsthand that guests didn’t know much about brewing and certainly didn’t know about where else to go to visit small breweries that were starting to open in Southern Maine. He also admitted that he didn’t know where to go or how to visit these breweries either.
After a particularly special and late night at Novare Res Bier Cafe, Zach thought it would be a good idea to buy a bus and bring people around on organized brewery tours in Portland.
Zach and his wife Allison established The Maine Brew Bus. LLC on February 28, 2012 and acquired a bus off of Craigslist. The former Kennebunk School Department bus (now bright green and named Lenny) made it’s debut at the first Labor Day Portland Brew Festival and the first public Maine Brew Bus tour was on September 8, 2012.
He left restaurant management behind in May of 2013 and made the decision to “retire with no benefits” from teaching in August of 2015. He is dedicated full-time to growing the Brews Cruise business and running after his young son, Archie.
Zach and his family live in Deering Center in Portland. He holds a Cicerone Certified Beer Server certification.
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Dave Phillips of Portland, Maine, is a co-owner of Maine Brews Cruise and also of the national brand Brews Cruise, Inc.Originally based in Sydney, Australia, Dave is a veteran of service in the Royal Australian Air Force and a former telecommunications industry planner.
His love for craft beer led him to start Dave’s Brewery Tours, This later grew into Dave’s Travel Group which became the largest provider of tours and events in all of the country.
Dave is also a founder of Aussie Ale Walks and the Institute of Beer and is a past owner of Sydney Beer Week.
He also serves an international development and consultation role with Shipyard Brewing, one of the Top 50 Breweries in the U.S.
Maine Brews Cruise was initially founded as The Maine Brew Bus in September 2012 by husband-and-wife Zach and Allison Poole.
Our all-inclusive tours and experiences provide guests a behind-the-scenes look at Maine’s craft breweries, distilleries, wineries, and more.
Tour guests enjoy having an expert guide, and often a dedicated driver, to lead them to both established and up-and-coming producers. This offers an opportunity to learn much more about the craft alcohol business than they could learn on their own.
Over 35,000 people have been connected to Maine’s craft alcohol producers since our tours began almost 10 years ago.
In early 2020, we announced that we had acquired a majority share of Brews Cruise, Inc., a company that licenses and supports craft beverage tour operators around the United States. In April 2021, the brand-new Maine Brews Cruise brand aligned our company with the national Brews Cruise presence.
Maine Brews Cruise offers regularly scheduled and private tours in Greater Portland and Southern Maine. Some of our tours are partnered with local minor-league baseball and hockey teams and include game tickets as part of the tour package.
We also offer frequent specialty and adventure tours, such as the popular Birds on Tap – Roadtrip! series, the Zymurgy Home Brew tour, History of Portland Beer tour, local Coffee and Tea tours, and other exciting offerings produced throughout the year.
In each year starting in 2014, The Maine Brew Bus has been presented the coveted Tripadvisor “Certificate of Excellence” for outstanding guest reviews. After five years in a row of that award, we were placed into the Tripadvisor Certificate of Excellence Hall of Fame in 2018.
Starting in 2020, TripAdvisor renamed the award the Travelers’ Choice award, and once again we were a recipient for our consistently outstanding customer reviews. Year after year, this award is received and exemplifies our dedication to creating unforgettable tours for our incredible guests.
OUR DRIVERS AND GUIDES
Past Team Members (Brew Bus Alumni)
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Victoria Fura joined the Brew Bus team in May 2019 so that she could have a bigger role in the craft beverage industry.
She has lived all over New England but spent most of her youth in Littleton, New Hampshire.
Victoria built her love of the outdoors in high school at The White Mountain School in Bethlehem, New Hampshire.
She later attended Marlboro College in Southern Vermont and worked on campus as an Admissions Assistant and Tour Guide.
In the summers of her college years, Victoria worked as a Trip Director and Rock Climbing Program Director at Kingsley Pines Summer Camp in Raymond Maine. It was at this time that she truly fell in love with Maine.
After graduation with a degree in Literature and Gender studies with a focus on War Literature, she moved to Portland and worked a number of jobs before joining Team Brew Bus.
She has found since she joined our team that she really enjoys the community, culture, and vast history in Maine’s craft alcohol industry.
As our Operations Coordinator, her past roles taught her how to plan an experience, not just a “tour” for a group. Maintaining a balance of precise logistical management and awareness of group dynamics is crucial for this role and often creates a set of challenges that she excels in.
Victoria truly enjoys creating an amazing customer experience to help share what Portland has to offer to guests who are visiting Maine. She also has the drive to constantly learn more about the craft alcohol industry to help create better tours for our guests.
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Greg Klein is the Group Sales Coordinator for The Maine Brew Bus. He receives all incoming tour requests from groups and companies and connects them to tour opportunities and experiences that exceed their expectations and consequently motivates them to return as guests on The Maine Brew Bus. Greg works hard to know what our guests are looking for, and creates an amazing and unforgettable experience for them.
Greg was born in the Bronx, New York and grew up in Manhattan as well as northern New Jersey before moving to Maine with his family in the early 90’s. He went to junior high and high school in Brunswick then on to the University of Maine to study theater.
Previous to joining the Brew Bus team, Greg worked professionally in the entertainment industry in Maine for over a decade doing production equipment rentals, sales, and support for local, national and international clients.
He started working for The Maine Brew Bus in May of 2017, first as a driver and later as a guide. Now he has stepped up to take an even larger role with our organization.
Currently, Greg is pursuing a degree in tourism and hospitality through the University of Southern Maine.
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Jack Van Paepeghem joined the Maine Brew Bus team in early 2016, and serves as the Curriculum Coordinator. In this role, Jack will help improve the level of beer education among our own team members, the hospitality industry, and the general public.
Jack brings together our internal training programs so that our guides are as knowledgeable as possible. He is available to conduct on-site workshops and formal beer training programs for restaurants, bars, and hotels in Southern Maine. In the future, he will lead a new Introduction to Beer class that will be open to the general public.
Originally from Sun Valley, Idaho, Jack graduated with a degree in sociocultural anthropology. He quickly ended up working in one of Washington D.C.’s most regarded craft beer bars where his pursuit of beer knowledge and service led to him becoming D.C’s youngest Certified Cicerone at the age of 23.
Looking to gain a more technical brewing background, he traveled to Chicago and Munich with The Siebel Institute and Doemens Academy, where he received his diploma in International Brewing Technology and got a first hand look at Europe’s various brewing traditions.
Jack is one of the few people in the world who have attained Advanced certification in the Cicerone program.