Divine Intervention

Ben Franklin is often misquoted as having said “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” I imagine he’s pretty pissed that he didn’t actually say it, because not only is it a great quote, it is also undeniably true. And if ever there was proof that God wanted us to drink beer, we found it in Bar Harbor.

We had no intention of stopping that day; figuring the chances of getting a parking spot in the middle of the city on a Saturday afternoon of a holiday weekend were pretty close to zero. We were just driving through to check out the town and were more than a little surprised to see an opening across the street. A deft u-turn captured the spot, and a few angry gestures from other motorists. Before we even stopped congratulating ourselves on our good fortune, we noticed the even more improbable location of our improbable parking space: directly in front of Bar Harbor Brewing. Surely divine intervention.

Bar Harbor Brewing was already on our to-do list, if for no other reason than to taste their award winning stout. While the stout lived up to its reputation, the rest of the line-up was pretty mediocre. None of it was bad, but none of it was really exceptional either. We also tasted some of Bar Harbor’s ‘malt wines,’ which are beers brewed with a higher alcohol content and sweetness. These reminded me of the Belgian style we so much enjoyed at Alagash. But the downside of Belgian experimentation is that you probably end up with a lot of stinkers and, unfortunately, these fit into that style as well.

Notwithstanding the clear hand of God, we had only a partially successful outing at Bar Harbor Brewing. But an average day tasting beer still beats a great day doing just about anything else. So we left happy, just like God intended.