Kennebec River Brewery

Craft Beer in The Forks, ME

Founded at Northern Outdoors in 1996, Kennebec River Brewery is home to great beer in the middle of the woods. With a prime location inside an adventure resort, you can enjoy a day in the outdoors and cap it off with craft beers in the lodge, on the deck, or in cans to go!

What’s in Our Maine Beer?

We work hard to craft the tastiest ales and lagers in the Maine woods using two-row malted barleys, the majority of which are from local farms in Aroostook County and malted at Blue Ox Malt House in Lisbon Falls, Maine. The brewery sources premium imported and domestic hops, superior yeasts, and combines them with pure Kennebec Valley water to create flavorful, hand crafted brews. Kennebec River brews are only available at the source in The Forks, Maine. Taste the beers here, take brews home in growlers.

On Tap at Kennebec River Brewery

Our draught beers are “keg-conditioned”, meaning they are allowed to condition and carbonate naturally in kegs, and are never filtered or pasteurized. See how we do it at our microbrewery operations at the Adventure Resort: brewery tour video. Or just come on in– we’d love to show you around the brewery!

Whitewater Wheat
A light-bodied, well-carbonated white ale brewed with Curacao bitter orange peel and coriander spice. Crafted in the style of the classic Belgian witbiers. A great summer thirst quencher! 5.5%
Northbound Pale Ale
A slightly hopped up American style pale ale, with a sublime malt balance. Thirst-quenching with a hoppy snap, this brew is crisp and refreshing all year round. 5.4%
Class V Stout
A dark and roasty Irish style stout with cold brewed hazelnut coffee from Carrabassett Coffee Company, located in kingfield, ME. Made with a combination of Blue Ox Malt and other specialty malts. 5.4%
Magic Hole IPA

Our flagship brew and first pour when the brewery opened in 1996. Our IPA is crafted with an abundant measure of North American malted barley, a generous infusion of magnum hops with late additions of Columbus and Summit adding abundant hop flavor and aroma. Dry hopping with Summit towards the end of the brewing process gives this ale a big, unique flavor and aroma.
6%

Big Mama Blueberry Ale

A blonde ale named after the biggest wave on the Kennebec River. Natural blueberry flavor is added at kegging for a great fruity aroma! This is a well-carbonated summer favorite with light malt flavor and a nice crisp finish.
4.8%

Let ‘er Drift Summer Ale (Summer Only)

Blonde ale brewed with 100% Blue Ox Malt, located in Lisbon falls, ME and lightly hopped with Hallertau Blanc, a German variety of hop that provides a mild citrus flavor. Light, crisp, refreshing ale.
4.5%

Sledhead Red

An incredibly smooth red ale with moderate bitterness up front, which gives way to a delightful malty finish. Brewed using five European malts and three varieties of domestic Northwest hops.
5.2%

Brewers Choice

What ever Matt feels like brewing! Past options have included Octoberfest, Breakin’ Trail Strong Ale, Black Bear Lager, and Honey Badger Rye…ask your server for details.

Brew Pub Events & Specials

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

Brewery history
History of Kennebec River Brewery
Kennebec River Brewery 500 barrel capacity system was established in the bottom floor of Northern Outdoors in 1996 by home-brewing river guide Jim Yearwood. Beginning with our flagship Magic Hole IPA, Kennebec River Brewery now has eight beers on tap, served to guests and locals alike in the Kennebec River Pub & Brewery. In its early years, before the rise of craft breweries in Maine and canned beers, Kennebec River Brewery sold bottled beer throughout New England. Although we no longer distribute our beer (it’s tough keeping up with the jones’ when you live in the Maine woods!), we happily fill up growlers and howlers to go!
Hit the Road: Conquer the Maine Beer Trail!

The Kennebec River Brewery was rated one of America’s Coolest Breweries by Travel + Leisure. We’re also on the frontier of the explosive craft brewery scene in Maine, tapping kegs ten years before the Maine Beer Trail even existed. Now there are over 100 Maine breweries on the beer trail, from tasting rooms in Portland and Bangor, to destination brewpubs in the woods like us. If you’re into beercations you could spend weeks touring breweries, tasting flights and relaxing with pints all around Maine. It’s not called Beercationland for nothing. Cheers, beer fans!

Maine Beer Trail

Sustainable Brewing

We incorporate sustainable business practices into our brewing process because we love the outdoors. Reducing consumption and reusing and/or recycling raw materials are core components of our operations. Here are a few of the things we do:

Reduce: We do not use electrically run chillers and compressors to keep our beers cool while fermenting. Chilling is done geothermally, by circulating the cool waters from our 300′ deep well.

Reuse: Hot water produced during the process of cooling down the wort during the transfer to fermenters is saved and reused for future brewing cooling processes as well as for cleaning.

Recycle: Office paper, cardboard, plastic wrap, glass and pallets are just some of the many components recycled at the brewery. All are diverted from the landfill.

Repurpose: All our spent grains are delivered to a local deer farm for feed. Spent vegetable oil used in fry-olaters at the Kennebec River Brewery is donated to one of our long-time river guides Peter Brown. Peter converts the spent oil into fuel on his homemade biodiesel plant in his garage in Portland.

Cabins and Camping walking distance to the Pub & Brewery

Read our Reviews

“Northern Outdoors is the best place to go for rafting adventures. The rafting is amazing!! The accommodations are clean and well kept and the beds are comfy and clean. The lodge is awesome. They have an on site brewery bar and restaurant that are all awesome and delicious. They have a great deck with a pool and a hot tub. The staff is always very helpful and friendly. We’ve been here about five times and it keeps getting better and better!”

Cathy A.
Deer Park, NY

Take a look inside the Kennebec River Brewery and learn how we make our handcrafted ales and lagers from our Master Brewer at Northern Outdoors.