Found: New Bar and Beer

Mr. Chops and I met up with my cousin Sally and her husband Jan for a beer at a new Belgian- style beer bar in Portland ME called Novare Res. Our usual haunt in Portland is the Great Lost Bear, which, although it has an impressive beer line up (4o taps)- it has a very sports bar/ collegey feel to it. It's a dark, boisterous, chicken wing kind of place that sometimes plays excruciating butt-rock. So Novare Res was a nice change of pace. The bar is a basement level brick lined "cave" with what appeared to be three separate rooms. The main taproom has long common tables with benches, which seems like a fun idea. There was an outside area too, but sadly, they had not gotten any umbrellas for the tables yet, so me and my pigment-deprived skin had to stick with the inside seating. The menu was sparse, meat and cheese a la carte, an olive and bread plate, beef carpaccio, a salad, and a sandwich special. The food was delicious, and fresh with an emphasis on artisanal quality and local suppliers. The beer menu offered 25 beers on tap and an extensive selection of 200 + bottles. They also try to offer two cask selections (not available when we we there). The pick of the afternoon was the Leipzinger gose beer (on tap)that Neil and Jan ordered. It was spritzy, refreshingly acidic, but still very much like a weiss beer. It was so unusual and tasty I had to look into it further. Of course, it is imported by enterprising people at B. United. Here's what they have to say about it
"Leipziger Gose is a top-fermenting wheat beer {60% wheat, 40% barley malt} with coriander, salt, and lactic acid bacteria added in the boil. It is a 4.5% alc/vol eclectic beer whose name evokes a close relationship to the renowned Lambic/Geuze breweries in the Valley Senne nearby Brussels, Belgium."
Sounds good huh? Apparently this particular beer had been extinct since from the mid 1960's up until 2000 when it was mercifully ressurected by an enterprising German by the name of Schneider (no relation to the other brewing Schneiders).

Portland has always been a great place for good beer. The Portland area is also home to a number of popular breweries including Stone Coast (now owned by Shipyard), Shipyard, Allagash, Gritty's and the list goes on. Recently, Portland has added a few new bars dedicated solely to beer. Aside from Novare Res, we stopped at some another German-themed place which had opened just that weekend featuring quite a few taps which, I am embarrassed to say, I forget the name of. This may be a blessing in disguise because they were still working out the kinks in their routine so it would have been unfair to pass judgement yet. However, I am sure, even with the glitches, it will attract a loyal male clientele considering they dress their female waitresses in outfits that are an unfortunate cross between traditional Bavarian barmaid and cheap dime-store hooker. And no, I am not including a picture!