Who knew there were so many blueberry flavored beverages! James Beane, beverage manager at Ron’s Market in Farmington points to one of the craft beers that can be found there Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 2. Ron’s Market also carries blueberry flavored wines, meads, lemonade and soda. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser
REGION — With the Wilton Blueberry Festival underway for another year, The Franklin Journal spent the last week investigating blueberry-flavored beverages.
It turns out there are a lot of them! There are blueberry flavored craft beers, meads, wines, energy drinks, sodas, lemonades and juices. Many are produced in Maine, with others processed nationally or internationally.
Two blueberry flavored energy drinks are seen in a cooler at Steve’s Family Market in Dryen Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 2. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser
Visits to Ron’s Market in Farmington, Steve’s Family Market in Dryden, and Riverside Kwik Stop in Jay sourced close to three dozen different offerings available locally. Ron’s Market had the biggest selection to choose from.
“We sell a lot of blueberry beer,” James Beane, Ron’s beverage manager said Tuesday, Aug. 2. “We’ve got it all here.”
In Wilton, Ambition Brewing owner Jeff Chaissson said he began making Stop Hammock Time Blueberry Cream Ale to coincide with the 2019 Wilton Blueberry Festival after opening earlier that year. “Since then we have brewed it by popular demand in February as a halfway to blueberry festival celebration,” he noted. “Last year we started canning the blueberry cream ale for the 2021 festival which was a big hit as well…So once again this year it will be on tap as well as in cans. We source our blueberries from the Wilton Blueberry Farm, for this and other beers in our lineup including our Beets Being Sour series and a Blueberry Saison that has yet to be released.”
Other blueberry flavored craft beers and blueberry soda are available when Ambition Brewing is open.
Alex Maffucci, owner of Atlantic Brewing Co. in Portland said he has been producing their popular Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale for 29 years. How it came to be is a bit of a story, he noted.
Maffucci said he had a restaurant then and a farmer with an excess blueberry crop tried to sell them to him. After a couple of days Maffucci agreed to the purchase. Baking pies, muffins, and cakes did not make a dent in them so the brewer suggested using them there, he noted. Cuisinarts were used to create the ale which then-Gov. Angus King wrote a letter about, he added.
“It took off,” Maffucci said. “We had to figure out how to not use Cuisinarts. Concentrates and juice are now used, blueberries are a big draw here. We kept making it, have seen a humongous growth. It is now our No. 1 seller.”
Atlantic Brewing Co. also makes Bar Harbor Old Soaker Blueberry Soda. It is made with the juice of wild blueberries.
Blueberry Bliss is a table wine produced by Dragonfly Farm and Winery in Stetson. Doug Pitts said the family run business began in 2004 and produces most of its wines from fruits.
“Blueberry Bliss was the first wine we started making here, was the start of Dragonfly,” he noted. “Now we are producing 32 varieties. Nothing pairs better with Maine than blueberries.”
Portland’s Maine Craft Distilling was established in 2012 with Blueshine Blueberry Liquor one of its first products. Master distiller Bryan Hamner said it was served in the bar originally and was such a hot commodity, contract canning was started. The company now cans it themselves in large quantities, he noted. Blueshine Lemonade has also been around for a long time but Hamner wasn’t sure when canning of the lemonade started.
Honeymaker Blueberry Mead is produced by Maine Mead Works in Portland using wild Maine blueberries and wildflower honey. It is distributed throughout the state, is found at most Shaws and Hannafords. General manager Aaron Connolly said it is one of their most popular meads and not just with tourists. It has been produced for over 10 years and no out of state berries are used, he noted.
“About 300 pounds of berries are used for each 300 gallons of mead produced,” he stated. “It is the closest thing to a red grape wine we do – it is slightly less sweet, the blueberries cut the sweetness in the honey.”
Mark Carrie and his wife own Ægir’s Den Meadery in Palermo. They offer several fruit meads including two blueberry meads – one with ginger. They have been making them since their opening three years ago. “Wild blueberries are common in Maine,” he said. “A lot of people like blueberries, we decided it would be one of our varieties. Our blueberry ginger is definitely one of the more popular.”
Messages to several other Maine companies were not returned.
Now comes the hard part – choosing which product to sample first!
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