No sane Maine person should start an automobile trip without a Maine Atlas and DeLormes Gazetteer aboard. I keep mine in the back seat in a plastic cover with a national atlas and several canoe guides. Now I have a new addition to my driver’s survival kit.

“What’s Brewing in New England,” by Kate Cone (Down East Books), is a keeper. Cone has done the dirty work for the rest of us, exploring brew pubs and micro breweries across New England. She has collected a few recipes and made recommendations for the best deals in the house.

Kate Cone is my new best friend.

Everyone knows the high church of brew pubs, Gritty McDuff’s on Fore Street in Portland, the Shipyard Brewery and the Sea Dog breweries and pubs in Camden and Bangor.

But who knows about the Narrow Gauge Brew Pub and coffee house on Pleasant Street in Farmington? I drive through Farmington on the way to Sugarloaf a dozen times a year, and I never heard of the place. On my next trip I will taste the Clearwater Cream Ale and maybe the Boxcar Brown, brewed by Karl Wegler. I ski so badly that drinking beer has little or no effect on my slope performance.

Did you know that the Oak Pond Brewing Company in Skowhegan won a few awards at the 1996 Maine Brewer’s festival? Pat Lawton’s brewers make Northern Light Pale Ale and Nut Brown Ale.

A brewery in Whitefield? I thought Whitefield was famous solely for being the bedroom community for Alna. But Cone tells us it is the home of the Sheepscot Valley Brewing Company on Townhouse Road. Brewer Steve Gorrill has been in business since 1995 and his Mad Goose Belgian Ale, White Rabbit Belgian White and Highland Scottish Ale are big hits in Three Dollar Dewey’s or the Great Lost Bear in Portland.

Let’s say you are driving through Naples on the way to the Four Seasons Campground. You get that certain hunger that can only be solved by a good meal and a solid pint. There is no 800 number I can think of to guide you. While you are driving, search around in the back seat for “What’s Brewing.” Don’t stop. Any fool can pull over and find something. If you are a Mainer, you keep driving, fishing around between the hats, gloves, canoe paddles, personal flotation devices and discarded newspapers for the book.

Then when you find it, still driving, look down quickly for ideas from Cone. There it is. Bray’s Brewpub and eatery, right there on Route 302. Mike and Michelle (cute) Windsor Bray went to college in Maine then moved to the Northwest, where they fell in love with microbrews. But they couldn’t forget Maine. They came back, found a 150-year-old Victorian house in Naples, bought it and only then (August 1995) found out that the town was founded by the Brays and the Windsors.

If you can stand the Twilight Zone background, the Brays will serve you Brandy Pond Ale, Old Church Pale Ale and Mount Pleasant Porter along with root beer for the kids, if they still go anywhere with you. The pub serves a little more than steam dogs and burgers with fries. Chef John Dugan serves lobster stew with scallion and brandy, Maine crab cakes with smoked tomato coulis, a sausage platter with bratwurst and whiskey-fennel-sausage steamed in beer.

Cone includes a recipe for steamed mussels in Bray’s Ale and baby back ribs in Bray’s Ale barbecue sauce. (I’m folding over this page).

I’m not spending enough time in Bar Harbor. I usually make a perfunctory visit each year when the Winnebagos leave. I knew about the drive up Cadillac Mountain. I never knew the area boasted:

Jack Russell’s Brew Pub and Beer Garden on Eden Street with outdoor croquet and eight sample beers.

Maine Coast Brewing Company and the Tap Room on Cottage Street where Tom St. Germaine has avoided real work by brewing Bar Harbor Gold, Great head Pale Ale, Redneck Ale, Eden Porter, and Sweet Water Stout.

Atlantic Brewing Company and Lompoc Cafe with a menu including Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale, Ginger Wheat Ale, Coal Porter (Cute) Lompoc’s Pale Ale, and Bar Harbor Real Ale backed up by a Mediterranean cuisine and seafood for those who must eat.

Bar Harbor Brewing Company where Todd and Suzi Foster won the Maine Brewer’s Festival award for their Cadillac Mountain Stout.

Two guys I want to visit are Neil Bryant, a chemical engineer who opened the Berwick Brewing Company making Berwick Brown Ale, Berwick Stout and Berwick Maple Porter (not too original, Neil), and Jim Yearwood, who is brewing beer in The Forks, of all places. Yearwood and Northern Outdoors will take you (name your pain) rafting, rock climbing, hunting or snowmobiling, 400 at a time. When you are done, (not while rock climbing, please) Yearwood will offer you a taste of his Penobscot Porter, Magic Ale IPA, and Northern Lights. They say that if you drink enough Northern Lights, you can see them, even at noon … in the summer.

That doesn’t even start to count the other breweries and brew pubs across New England, for those can’t-avoid trips to the relatives. When the visit gets to be too much, tell your sister-in-law you have to go to the store, start the car, fish around for the “What’s Brewing” (don’t pull over) and set out for paradise.

Remember these words to live by. There is no such thing as a poor vacation, lousy pizza or undrinkable beer. Ask Kate Cone. And remember this. Don’t spill beer on the book. You are going to need it.

Who’s our designated driver?