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?
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!
Deer in the Head-lite
A perfect introduction to the craft brew scene, this ale is light, crisp and refreshing!
4.5%
Whitewater Wheat
Pourover Pilsner
Light, crisp, easy drinking, and refreshing. Our house pilsner is brewed with 100% local malt from Blue Ox Malthouse, and is our only lager on tap.
5.2%
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%
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%
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%
Class V Stout
A dark ale with a full, rich, and roasty flavor, with ample additions of oats for a smooth body. A roasted coffee start followed by a light chocolate and vanilla finish. Served on Nitro instead of CO2 for a smoother feel.
5.3%
Seasonal Brew
Endless Summer, a New England style IPA, is the current talk of the town. Brewed with Magnum, Amarillo, and Citra hops, then dry hopped with Bru-1 and Idaho 7, each keg has a different burst of fruity flavor. Which one will you get?!
6.4%
Brewers Choice
What ever Kevin feels like brewing! Past options have included Octoberfest, 2046 Trail Ale, and Honey Badger Rye…ask your server for details.
Brew Pub Events & Specials
Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
History of Kennebec River Brewery
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!
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.
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.
