Ryan F.
Yelp
Had some beers at Austin Street Brewery on Friday night. While I value quality in my beer, that doesn't mean I don't want a nice selection as well. Too much about this brewery felt like style of substance, which may be why my group ended up with more clothing than beers by the time we left.
Quality: They only had four of their beers on draft, Patina, Rally, Bombtrack, and Anodyne, three of which were IPAs. I like IPAs and the half pours I ordered of the four beers were perfectly fine, as were the few sips I had of their bottled wild ale Senescent, but frankly I expected more. In a city packed with breweries, throwing out a few average to good IPAs just seemed wrong. As important as quality is, and I felt like Bombtrack DIPA especially was a high quality beer, I didn't feel I was offered anything I couldn't get elsewhere. And worse, for those in our group who weren't crazy about IPAs, not a lot of other good options existed.
Quantity: They offer the beers on draft in 8oz, 12oz, or 16oz pours. No Flights, but enough flexibility in size to still try a few.
Value: $4-$8 for Draft Pours.
Ambiance: We visited the Austin Street Brewery location in the East Bayside section of Portland, Maine. It is a very stylish space, but not the most practical. It is built into what looks like an old car dealership lot, so the taproom has huge windows and a massive ceiling. Inside they had their small bar area as well as merchandise set up, but no seating. On this rainy day, the seating was only under the overhang awning. They had two fire-pits, with chairs around them, which was very nice, then a bunch of tables and chairs that had slowly been moved around throughout the day. In the background classic R&B hits played, but it was not a long playlist and before we knew it songs were repeating.
Crowd: They did not have any tables inside, and with the rain, people were huddled under the smaller outdoor patio covered by the awning. It was never too packed, but some extended seating, either inside or under a tent would have been helpful.
Service: They needed someone circling the outdoor area every once in a while to swoop up glasses left behind. There were a lot of empty tables just stacked with glasses, and I saw at least one just arriving group have to take a bunch inside to use the table.
Parking: No issues finding a street spot directly across the street.