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Score a Tour and a Game with our Sports Tours

Taking a Maine Brew Bus tour before attending a local minor league sports game is a winning combination.

Beginning last winter, we began a partnership with the Portland Pirates AHL hockey team by offering a special 3-stop tour before select Friday night home games.

We called it the Pours and Pirates tour and we picked up our guests late afternoon at the arena and brought them back 30 minutes before the puck dropped for the game that night.

With the hockey game ticket included, the guests had nothing to worry about except have a great time.

Don't worry, we didn't let Salty Pete actually drive the tour.

Don’t worry, we didn’t let Salty Pete actually drive the tour.

The tour and ticket combination was priced very affordably (actually it’s our best value), and local hockey fans who were already planning to attend a hockey game during the season were now excited to also combine a Maine Brew Bus tour as part of their night out in Portland.

We designed this tour offering with just that group in mind, local residents who had heard about our tours but had never been on the bus.

Most of the tours sold out, and drew a large number of people from all over Maine and New Hampshire to hop on the bus and then go to the Pirates hockey game. Sometimes travelers from other parts of the country were happy to join our tour with the extra bonus of also attending a fun minor-league hockey game.

We even had members of the local band Ghost of Paul Revere on board just before they began a U.S. tour!

Members of the band Ghost of Paul Revere enjoy samples with the rest of the group on a Pours and Pirates tour.

Members of the band Ghost of Paul Revere enjoy samples with the rest of the group on a Pours and Pirates tour.

With the success of our first Pours and Pirates tour series, we reached out to partner with the Portland Sea Dogs minor league baseball team during the 2015 season. Calling the new tour Sips and Sea Dogs, we used a similar three stop format and then brought our group to a great baseball game experience.  As summer progressed, the later game start times meant we could bring the tour group to different stops in the Industrial Way area of Portland.

Of course, this spring and summer tour series was another big hit. Many dates were sold out well in advance, and often our tour guests were selected for on field promotions as well.

<These Sips and Sea Dogs tour guests were able to participate in the lobster toss on the field between innings of a Portland Sea Dogs game last season.

These Sips and Sea Dogs tour guests were able to participate in the lobster toss on the field between innings of a Portland Sea Dogs game last season.

Our Sports Tours have been so successful that we expanded to now feature Maine Brew Bus tours before every Friday night Portland Pirates and Portland Sea Dogs game.

Now you and your friends can join our tour and also get a great reserved seat for any Friday night hockey or baseball game until the fall!

Pretty good game seats for this recent Pours and Pirates crew.

Pretty good game seats for this recent Pours and Pirates crew.

Here is the remaining schedule for our Pours and Pirates tour series for this season:

Fri January 15 vs. Bridgeport Sound Tigers (NYI) 2 buses nearly Sold Out!
Fri January 22 vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (PIT) 5 Seats Remaining
Fri January 29 vs. St. John’s IceCaps (WIN) 9 Seats Remaining
Fri February 5 vs. Hartford Wolf Pack (NYR) 7 Seats Remaining
Fri February 26 vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (PIT) Tickets On Sale
Fri March 4 vs. Syracuse Crunch (TBL) Shawn Thornton Bobblehead giveaway
Fri March 11 vs. Toronto Marlies (TOR)
Fri March 25 vs. Springfield Falcons (AZC)
Fri April 1 vs. Providence Bruins (BOS)
Fri April 15 vs. Bridgeport Sound Tigers (NYI) Pirates Team Awards Night

Tickets and more information about these dates is available on our reservation site.

And believe it or not we have already set the schedule for our 2016 Sips and Sea Dogs tours, which will also run before each Friday night home game this baseball season. The entire slate of 11 tours between April and August is available to view and purchase on our reservation site.

And for more information on these of any of our tours, visit The Maine Brew Bus web site.

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Don Littlefield is the Assistant Principal of The Maine Brew Bus, but is far from the disciplinarian type you remember from high school. He enjoyed a Sebago Brewing Company Bonfire Rye or two while writing this post. Twitter: @BeerinMe