Hot Lunch #3 - 4.11.25
Sausage Saturday comin' in hot!!! Also in this edition: double growler drop, notes from Witt Swamp & beyond, Earth Day cleanup & more Super Happy Birthday news!
It’s been a pretty quiet week in Norway, but it’s just the calm before the storm of events we have lined up for the rest of the month! We’ve been busy getting ready for Sausage Saturday, as well as getting the place cleaned up and beers prepped for Super Happy Birthday week… Of course, that bumped your Hot Lunch for the week to Friday, but as they say, TGIF!!!
Sausage Saturday
How about these cute little spicy puppies? Maciek is bringing the heat with these spicy, cherry-smoked Italian meat tubes, destined to be seared and sliced up over tagliatelle with spicy Fra Diavolo tomato sauce. He also stuffed ten pounds of his famous Silesian cheese kielbasa with Monterey Jack & made some Biala kielbasa as well to go with roasted veggies & beer gravy. We almost always sell out of the cheese sausage, so don’t wait till Sunday if you want a chance to put this hot, salty, and juicy kielbasa in your face hole! We’ll do up a Sunday brunch with the leftovers if there are any, but no guarantees… Here’s the full Sausage Saturday menu:
Growler Drop
That’s right, we now have three growlers available to go: Street Weisse, Northern Red ale, and In The Moonlight! That means we have almost every single beer that’s on tap (and then some) filled in either cans or growlers. Next week, we’re filling Left Turn as well, so we’ll be completely stocked up on beer to go for birthday week. Just a reminder: we’re not doing growler deposits/returns anymore, but if you bring back your empties, we’ll keep washing, sanitizing, and refilling them!
Notes From Witt Swamp - And Beyond!
Another week, another run in the mud! I’m happy to report that MOST of the ice and snow are gone, but there are still spots that can be a liiiiittle slippery… We went without traction control anyway, and nobody took a digger; good times! I’m going to spare you the running commentary (pun intended) this week - just videos of us running around in the woods. Speaking of running around, last week I made it to The Send Brewing Co. in South Portland to meet up with the Hash House Harriers. Hashing is a sport that combines running with drinking beer, and as the Harriers put it themselves, they’re “a drinking team with a running problem.” I’m not a huge fan of running on asphalt, but that cold, crisp rice lager tasted so good in between laps! The food at The Send is also SO GOOD… If you’re in Knightville, check them out; the owner/head brewer worked at Maine Beer Company before buying Foulmouthed Brewing’s old location & brewhouse, and makes very clean Japanese-inspired beers and food. 10/10 would reccomend.
EARTH DAY CLEAN-UP
Maine River Guardians are back with their 2025 Earth Day Clean-up, & this year, we’ve co-ordinated with Alan Day Community Garden, Western Foothills Land Trust, CEBE, & Fare Share Co-op to make as big an impact as we can! We’ll be picking up trash in and around Norway from 9am-1:30pm, with the Norway Brewing crew concentrating on Pennesseewassee Stream, Bird Brook, & the surrounding marsh. If you’d like to join us, you can sign up here. Lunch will be provided for volunteers at the Alan Day garden, followed by a performance by James Rice & $5 pints at Norway Brewing from 2-4pm!
SUPER HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEEK
We might not be feeling it QUITE as much as this guy, we’re so excited for SUPER HAPPY BIRTHDAY #9!!! We’re putting a bunch of cake-adjacent ingredients into a special bourbon barrel-aged version of our yearly birthday stout and serving it up on draft and in a limited number of growlers next Friday starting at 3pm, as well as cans of Early Bloom, our farmhouse grisette aged in wine barrels. On top of that, it’s Comedy Nite, featuring Mark Turcotte, Sarah Poulin, Latasha Hughes, and Norway’s own Cole Leblond! Don’t sleep on this; Cole’s family already rushed the box office and this show is sure to sell out! You can find tickets here. Chef’s got a SUPER munchy menu put together, including a fried pickle sampler, fried chicken brunch wrap, & birthday cake sundae. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m getting hungry!
Beer list as of Friday 4.11.25 @ 3pm:
On Tap:
Left Turn pale ale - 5%
Lust For Gold IPA - 6.5%
In The Moonlight XPA - 5.3%
Northern Red ale - 6%
Bam Brown ale - 5.6%
Mr. Grumpypants oatmeal stout w/ coffee - 5.8%
Triple Stack farmhouse tripel w/ Maine maple syrup - 9.5%
Street Weisse berliner weisse w/ Maine-grown ginger & lemongrass - 5%
Holy Basil Weisse berliner weisse aged in gin barrels w/ holy basil - 5%
Pickle Weisse Maine-grown gose w/ cucumbers & dill - 4.7%
Can Pours:
Inglorious Bastard farmhouse pale ale - 6%
Munich Man Bun dry-hopped dark lager - 6%
Ecto Weisse berliner weisse w/ tangerine & lime - 6%
Top Work farmhouse ale w/ apple cider aged in oak barrels - 6.7%
Life’s A Peach farmhouse ale w/ peaches aged in sauvignon blanc barrels - 5.9%
Little Bear farmhouse ale w/ wild Maine blueberries aged in oak barrels - 7.5%
Naughty Zombie farmhouse ale w/ roasted pumpkin aged in bourbon barrels - 8%
Grumpalumpagus imperial oatmeal stout w/ coffee aged in bourbon barrels - 9.5%
Bourbon Triple Stack farmhouse tripel w/ Maine maple syrup aged in bourbon barrels - 10.5%
Cans To Go:
Lust For Gold - Bam’s Brown - Mr. Grumpypants - Inglorious Bastard - Munich Man Bun - Ecto Weisse - Triple Stack - Holy Basil Weisse - Top Work - Life’s A Peach - Little Bear - Naughty Zombie - Bourbon Triple Stack - Grumpalumpagus
Growlers To Go:
Northern Red, In The Moonlight, Street Weisse
Now Brewing:
Lust For Gold, Mr. Grumpypants, Early Bloom, Inglorious Bastard, Mother Bear, Ecto Weisse, Paloma Weisse
You can find our full drinks & food menu at our website, along with this week’s food specials.
About Norway Brewing Co.
Norway Brewing Company is a family-owned microbrewery & restaurant on Main Street in Norway, Maine, founded by the Melhus family in 2016. We have a family-friendly taproom open year-round, as well as a spacious beer garden during the warmer months. We brew our own beer and our food is hand-made and tailored to suit the season. Our goal has always been to use as many locally sourced ingredients as possible. Over the years we’ve worked with local millers, maltsters, farmers, butchers, fishmongers, & beverage producers to supply our taproom & brewery with Maine-made products & ingredients. Cheers to nine years of making food & beer in western Maine!
That’s all the Hot Lunch we got this week… If anybody asks, tell ‘em where to find us: right here at lunch time! As our head brewer Charlie always says, “Whoa man, have you ever looked at your hands? Like, really looked at them…”