A new friend, and beer!

My brother lives in Portland, ME, which is great, because that means that we can see each other often. We made plans to meet for a day in Portsmouth, NH, which is a central location for both of us. The added bonus is that John and I were able to meet his new girlfriend, whom he's been dating since December. The twist is that she grew up in Peterborough, which is a completely random happenstance.

Since Matt is a home-brewer, the first order of business was to meet at the Red Hook brewery, have some lunch and take the brewery tour. We had a nice lunch in the brewery bar/restaurant, of course, had a few beers, and proceeded to tour the facilities. Since it was a Saturday, the brewery wasn't in operation, but we gained some understanding regardless. And of course, the most important part of the tour, the tasting! We were able to taste all of the current beers, and as you can see from the pictures below, we become jollier and jollier as the day went along. We then headed into Portsmouth itself, which is a great little port city, and frequented another brewing establishment, The Portsmouth Brewery. We then headed to the Portsmouth Gaslight Company, for some dinner. Not much sightseeing, but for a cold winter day, what's better? Happy St. Patrick's Day!