Strange brews, games, provide break from beer at Swine & Stein

GARDINER — It’s not all about the beer, even at Swine & Stein, an Oktoberfest-style annual event that does, yes, feature a couple dozen craft brewers, most of them serving up various kinds of beer.

But this year a walk through the festivities in downtown Gardiner showed an increasing number of alternative brews offered by Maine craft brewers, including mead, kombucha, and a variety of ciders and wines.

“People are starting to rediscover it,” Mark Mancini, an owner of Aegir’s Den Meadery of Palermo, said of mead, which is made from honey and is the world’s oldest known alcoholic beverage.

Mancini said Aegir’s Den — named for the Norse lord of the ocean, Aegir, whom Mancini said was known for throwing big feasts for the gods under the ocean where the horns of mead never ran dry — tries to support Maine farmers, featuring their products at its meadery and using honey from eight different Maine beekeepers as the main ingredient of its mead.

A steady stream of drinkers stopped by Mancini’s booth on Water Street, sampling mead there as well as at the neighboring booth of Run Amok Meadery of West Gardiner.

Rick Stuart of Winslow was among them, enjoying a cider-based mead from Aegir’s samples, though he said in general he prefers beer.

“I haven’t had mead that much, but this one, with cider, I thought was very good,” Stuart said.

It was the third year at Swine & Stein for Stuart and his companion, Mary Jordan. Stuart said he enjoys the event and, when they sample a brew they like, they very well may seek out that brewery later.

“The thing I like (about Swine & Stein), compared to others, which have Anheuser Busch products, this is all local breweries, under-the-radar ones,” Jordan said.