New Hampshire-based Modestman Brewing has opened a taproom in the former Fore River Brewing location in South Portland. Photos by Ben Lisle

Modestman Brewing has opened its new tasting room in South Portland. It’s something I’ve been looking forward to for months, curious not only about the beers, but also how a brewery from New Hampshire, whose bailiwick is the New England IPA, would work in that location – the former home of Fore River Brewing Co., on the edge of a neighborhood of split-levels, ranches and Cape Cods near Cash Corner. East Bayside, this is not.

My curiosity was amplified as I approached the bar, overhearing a young bearded man, bedecked in tattoos, chatting up Ash Sheehan, Modestman’s owner. The visitor clearly knew a good deal about the Maine beer scene (and was eager to indicate that to Sheehan), dropping the names of some of the area’s fashionable beer celebrities.

A few minutes later, an older couple – probably in their 60s – rolled their bikes into the parking lot. After securing their rides and helmets to a fence outside, they too approached the bar – the woman with a cribbage board under her arm. The man asks about the beer, and Sheehan walks them through the draft lineup – 16 in all, including seven NEIPAs. “Are those like throwback IPAs?” the man asked. (They are not.) The couple ordered a pils and a kölsch, retreated to a table by the window, and the card game commenced.

It is emblematic of Modestman’s first week here, Sheehan said. His visitors have been a blend of certified beer dorks alert to the next new thing, industry folk showing their support, and Fore River veterans from the neighborhood.

“There’s a die-hard local vibe going on here … people trying to find a place to hang out, like a friend’s backyard,” Sheehan observed. “So not so craft beer-focused, but more of a neighborhood place to hang out with friends.”

It’s easy to see why some Fore River regulars have been returning. It was always a great setting for beers and conversation. It remains so, though in different terms. Sheehan has replaced the woody clubhouse vibe of the Fore River taproom with a design leaning toward urban-industrial minimalist. It feels much more spacious now, with high ceilings, an elegant midnight blue and cream color scheme, concrete floors and wood high-top tables. The menu is handwritten on two large mirrors backing the bar, injecting a bit of antique, home-spun comfort. The windows release plenty of natural light into the room and reveal the large yard outside, home to numerous picnic and beer-garden tables. A large food truck runs along one flank, suggesting future plans for food. Spacious and airy inside, green and pleasant outside, it fuses together the sensibilities of the urban, suburban and rural all at once.

Sheehan had been looking for a spot around Portland for about a year, without much luck. He scoured East Bayside, to no avail. He nearly closed on a spot in the Old Port in February, but that fell through. Eager to open this summer, he finally secured the old salt shed on Huntress Avenue in early April, edging out some other breweries looking to add another tasting room to their lineup.

Sheehan is no stranger to Portland. He has lived on Peaks Island since 2018 and is originally from Wells. He worked in various farm-to-table restaurants in the Portland area in the early 2000s, before moving to Charleston, South Carolina, in 2005. He was a restaurant manager in that renowned food scene, but felt like he wasn’t really creating anything. He then moved back to New England, to work at a farm camp for kids in New Hampshire, where he was constantly working with his hands, including homebrewing and making wood-fired pizzas. From there, he opened a taqueria in Keene – and that experience pointed him toward opening a brewery.

“It was a classic entrepreneur story,” he said. “I had a taco joint with craft beer. But I couldn’t get any of the beer I wanted.”

The beer he really wanted came from places like Vermont, Massachusetts and Maine – beers that weren’t distributed in New Hampshire. And so, he decided to start making the beer he wanted, hatching a plan for a brewery in 2016, when he began developing recipes with Modestman’s original brewer.

“The greatest thing happening in craft beer was consumption was growing every year,” he recalled, “but what I saw was sugar as a gateway drug to craft beer. Sweet IPAs, fruited sours and pastry stouts.”

And so he and his brewer looked to ride the popularity of NEIPAs and fruited sours, but coax drinkers toward drier versions of those styles – an appeal to “more refined palates.”

“I’m from a culinary background, and I was trying to find balance in the recipe,” Sheehan said.

After reckoning with some bureaucratic impediments, Modestman finally opened in Keene, New Hampshire at the end of 2019. After years of trying to get the brewery off the ground, a global pandemic arrived just a few months later. “All I know is the chaos,” Sheehan said. But the pandemic challenges also translated to opportunity for the new brewery.

“It was a weird time, but also a great time,” he recalled. “In this weird little economy, our taproom was slammed. People had free money and nothing to do but drink beer.” And because he wasn’t reliant on big distribution and keg accounts, he could just sell cans out the door – many of them to visitors from Maine and Vermont, where COVID restrictions were more robust.

Modestman’s It’s a Beautiful Thing, a Citra IPA (7% ABV).

Mainers no longer need to cross the border to get Modestman beer (though the beer does, as it is brewed, kegged and canned in New Hampshire). When I visited the South Portland taproom, the draft offerings advertised the brewery’s stylistic foci, with seven NEIPAs and five sours on tap, joined by a kölsch-style ale, a Czech-style pale lager, a stout and a brown ale. Also available were Oyster River Dry Cider and Zweigelt Rosé.

When I asked what he’d recommend, Sheehan pointed me to It’s a Beautiful Thing, a Citra IPA (7% ABV). The citrusy bouquet is strong (and lovely). Its creamy cloudiness approaches Orange Julius territory. Its body is soft, and the bitterness leads one to a dry finish for the style.

This combination of expressive aromatics and a dry finish marks all the Modestman beers I have tried – and not just the IPAs. Gravitas, a pale lager (5.5%), is fruity and floral, with a clean and spicy finish. Soulfood, a 6.4% stout is a self-possessed beer, doing all the stout things without ornamentation. I leave with cans (from the well-stocked fridge) of Strictly Business and Mystic Warrior, both NEIPAs notable for their dry restraint.

Soulfood, a 6.4% stout from Modestman Brewing.

Sheehan is excited about setting up shop in Portland and “being a small fish in a big market.” People drink a lot of NEIPA here, he notes, and he thinks Modestman’s interpretations of the style are distinctive enough that it can fit right in.

But it will also be interesting to see what becomes of the South Portland tasting room – a location that is barely a five-minute drive from East Bayside, but imaginatively seems more distant. Will it draw Portlanders and beer tourists across Fore River? And will the local crowd, more accustomed to red ales and John Henry milk stout, take to the brewery’s hazy- and sour-leaning lineup?

Sheehan laughed, recalling a conversation with a colleague from Vacationland Distributors. “How the hell is Modestman going to pull off its brand in that space?” he exclaimed, when Sheehan told him where they were setting up.

For now, Sheehan plans to thread this needle, creating a space that is inviting and comfortable for people wanting a hangout, but also a beer destination that will draw people from further afield.

“I know a great way to fail in business is to be all over the place,” Sheehan said. So he hopes to “stay on brand, but make everybody who came here comfortable.” Thus far, that has meant “selling a lot of kölsch and pilsner, which I’m happy to do,” he noted, considering his opening week. “We like our IPAs, but when I opened a brewery I wanted to focus on the taproom and recipes for the taproom.” For South Portland, that includes integrating food and music to create a place for locals and visitors alike. He also has plans to hire a local brewer to develop some small-batch beers for draft in the taproom, using a three-and-a-half barrel system he bought for the space.

Modestman has at least a couple things that auger success: good beer and a good place to drink it. Will it work? “We’ll find out,” Sheehan said.

Ben Lisle is an assistant professor of American Studies at Colby College. He lives among the breweries in Portland’s East Bayside, where he writes about cultural history, urban geography, and craft beer culture. Reach him on Twitter at @bdlisle.