Vermont

ercousin · Post by **ercousin** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 2:15 pm

Cass wrote:Hello from Vermont! Went back for another ski week so can report some updates...

Waterbury still has full-on Heady Topper mania, impossible to find at retail unless you get lucky with a delivery. Was even at a grocery store in Burlington (Healthy Living) which has a custom-printed sign that goes on the shelf notifying people of the delivery times.

Even though it's tough to find at retail, it's a lot easier to find at bars and restos. It's on tap in more places now (ProPig, Reservoir, Blackback, Hen) and in the can in many others. Alchemist even has another draught beer that was available - Ouroboros which was a strong IPA with orange peel.

In Waterbury the big 3 of ProPig, Blackback and Reservoir all still rule, with lots of different taps available. There's another place in town (Blue Stone) which has about 20 craft taps and pizza on the menu. Another good spot to hit if you're in the mood for 'za.

Went to Hen of the Wood for the first time and it was awesome. Highly recommended for a nice dinner. They also have Heady & HF on tap, and on a whim ordered a bottle of Backacre, which was amazing. They're a new brewery in southern VT that makes a gueuze style beer, evidently from wort purchased from other breweries. It was just delicious and was able to find it for sale at Hunger Mountain (1 bottle limit per person). I wouldn't be surprised if this was the next "hot" beer in Vermont.

Checked out the Warren Store which gets Lawson's every week, but supposedly sells out within an hour of getting it. But Double Sunshine was on tap at Blackback which was nice. Lawson's is still super high demand and nowhere to be found.

The Craft Beer Cellar in Waterbury is a nice spot, with a good selection of beer and taps for growler fills. Feels a bit empty in the space - could use a bit more "filling out". But another nice addition to the local scene.

Nothing much new in Burlington, but Farmhouse, American Flatbread, 3 Needs all still good. Ken's Pizza & Pub is a nice spot as they have lots of TVs and take sports requests (got them to put on the World Juniors) along with a bunch of craft taps.

Vermont is always a good destination, lots of great beer around. Big revelation this time around is Backacre. Will be back again for sure!

So I take it that retail store that was supposed to be open for the holidays isn't open yet?

Cass · Post by **Cass** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 2:19 pm

As far as I know, no. Didn't go to the brewery but didn't hear anyone talking about it. ProPig was still selling some of their merch so I suspect nothing's open yet.

Cass · Post by **Cass** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 3:05 pm

Probably also worth noting that ProPig is getting into the brewing game. They had two house beers on tap - their ProPig Pale Ale (made with Rock Art) and a Rye Saison made with Rock Art & Stillwater.

I don't think the brewing is done in-house yet - I read that they have a brewing system but I don't think it's operational just yet. So some more good things could come from ProPig in the future!

Oh, and this fall the Hen of the Wood opened up a second location, this one in Burlington. Didn't go but if the Waterbury one is any indication it will also be really great.

TheSevenDuffs · Post by **TheSevenDuffs** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 4:11 pm

Cass wrote:
Oh, and this fall the Hen of the Wood opened up a second location, this one in Burlington. Didn't go but if the Waterbury one is any indication it will also be really great.

I will be looking out for this when I visit this year. Burlington is in need of a few more beer spots. I am surprised by how few beer bars there are in Burlington. If not for The Farmhouse, Burlington would barely be worth visiting (for beer) IMO. Waterbury, on the other hand has such great beer bar options and so few room & board options.

MatttthewGeorge · Post by **MatttthewGeorge** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 8:59 pm

Cass wrote:... and on a whim ordered a bottle of Backacre, which was amazing. They're a new brewery in southern VT that makes a gueuze style beer, evidently from wort purchased from other breweries. It was just delicious and was able to find it for sale at Hunger Mountain (1 bottle limit per person). I wouldn't be surprised if this was the next "hot" beer in Vermont...Big revelation this time around is Backacre.

Good to hear, as I picked up at bottle in November, just haven't had it yet.

Cass · Post by **Cass** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 9:22 am

TheSevenDuffs wrote:
Cass wrote:
Oh, and this fall the Hen of the Wood opened up a second location, this one in Burlington. Didn't go but if the Waterbury one is any indication it will also be really great.
I will be looking out for this when I visit this year. Burlington is in need of a few more beer spots. I am surprised by how few beer bars there are in Burlington. If not for The Farmhouse, Burlington would barely be worth visiting (for beer) IMO. Waterbury, on the other hand has such great beer bar options and so few room & board options.

I don't know, with the Old Stagecoach Inn and a Best Western (along with tons of local B&Bs), Waterbury seems to have a decent amount of options for accommodation.

I do agree that is is fairly easy to "do" Burlington in one night, but it's still pretty awesome for such a small town. Their population is only around 40k, and the university has 10k students!

cratez · Post by **cratez** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 10:22 am

Cass wrote: I do agree that it is fairly easy to "do" Burlington in one night, but it's still pretty awesome for such a small town. Their population is only around 40k...

Agreed. Farmhouse, American Flatbread, and Vermont Pub & Brewery make Burlington a worthy beer destination in my books, and Magic Hat, Bierhaus, and Manhattan Pizza are fun to visit if you have the time. That's to say nothing of Bluebird, Switchback, Three Needs, and the various others spots that I wasn't able to hit. For a town of 40,000, they have a pretty impressive beer scene.

ritzkiss · Post by **ritzkiss** » Sat Apr 19, 2014 3:16 pm

Stayed at the Stagecoach in Waterbury, great experience there and wicked close to the main spots. Not much else to add there that hasn't been said.

Also recommend hitting Wolavers/Otter Creek in Middlebury if you get the chance (happened to be going through), nice little tap room, super cheap beer, good beer, friendly people. $11 for growler fills (including glass), $8.50 for six packs. Pretty much a win in my books.

Hit Madison's in the south corner of the state, nothing overly special going on here but if you're in the area some of their seasonals are alright. Had a citra IPA, their spring IPA and their old ale.

sprague11 · Post by **sprague11** » Mon Apr 21, 2014 10:53 am

If you have a kuerig, the train station in waterbury usually gives out free k cups to take home.

Otter Creek has some great seasonals. Theyve really stepped up over the last year or so.

Kekumba · Post by **Kekumba** » Thu May 22, 2014 7:16 pm

Just got back from a new nights in Waterbury.

Stagecoach was great. Room 6, lots of space, right next to the bathroom and little to no noise at all beyond what's going on outside. Huevos Rancheros for breakfast, very good.

The 3 bars were what you'd expect, though Blackback was a bit of a let down this time. Totally empty both nights we stopped in, tap list wasn't all that impressive either...okay, it was impressive, but the other two were quite a bit more impressive. Tough to see all the HF Anniversary kegs in the fridge. I suppose we were a bit disappointed at last call being 11:30 at Reservoir, but that was nothing a few HF growlers couldn't fix.

Blue Stone has great pizza and a decent tap list. Definitely worth a stop even if you're just grabbing slices to go. We also stopped in at Arvad's beside Reservoir just because why not. $5 Heady pours, but they also had Focal Banger on tap which was a nice surprise. Tap list is quite poor otherwise.

HF is always fun. 90 minutes from the time we got there to the time we left, maybe 35-40 people in front of us. Filled 6 growlers and got 12 bottles of Arthur between the two of us. The new order system on the iPad's is pretty great. Also the all indoor line and tasting system was done very well.

I bought most everything from Craft Beer Cellar in Waterbury. Great selection as far as I could tell, heavy on NE US breweries. Heady was 1 4pk per person. I didn't bother seek it out otherwise, besides Winooski Beverage where one of the employees totally lied to us about them having it. The Facebook page said they'd have it at 5:30, he questioned us about where we from and then said there would be nothing. I mean, we could have just stayed and waited for it, but I couldn't be bothered to hang around another 45 minutes after being flat out lied to.

Great time!

Cass · Post by **Cass** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 1:30 pm

For the Vermont beer hunters...

http://www.lawsonsfinest.com/our-beer/w ... shine-ipa/

Kel Varnsen · Post by **Kel Varnsen** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 9:22 am

Went to Vermont this past weekend. Hit most of the usual places, but found one place not mentioned.

We went to Middlebury to check out the Woodchuck Cidery. We were looking for somewhere to go for dinner with the kids and we came across the Fire and Ice restaurant. I will just say the place was awesome:

http://www.fireandicerestaurant.com/

The food was really good, probably one of the best burgers I have had in a long time. Plus they had like 14 draft taps many local or good beers from other states. It was friday night and their beer special was 4.50 for a 22 ounce mug of any beer, so I had a local Belgian Pale ale for under $5.

Also checked out the Fiddlehead brewery in Burlington. They are making some really good stuff and doing crazy business. They had three beers on tap, but nothing in cans, since I didn't want to bring home a growler. Although if I had known I could have brought an empty grolwler or half size (like the ones Beyond the Pale uses) and they would have filled one of those.

Also the number of brewers in Burlington has taken off like crazy since I was there 3 years ago. If you were to do the brewers passport thing, you could easily get 10 brewery stamps just in Burlington and Middlebury.

http://www.vermontbrewers.com/wp-conten ... g-2014.jpg

Cass · Post by **Cass** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 11:34 am

Thanks for the update. Considering doing the winter ski trip to Vermont again this year

sprague11 · Post by **sprague11** » Fri Nov 07, 2014 12:08 pm

If you haven't already, sign up for www.localvoretoday.com - Basically the Vermont version of groupon - I've gotten food vouchers for Three Penny Taproom and Resevoir through this site before.

Also, If you get a chance, Fiddlehead's Mastermind IIPA is excellent

northyorksammy · Post by **northyorksammy** » Fri Nov 07, 2014 2:29 pm

Craft Beer Cellars is a new chain of stores, owned by 2 beer geek ladies. The store in Waterbury is clean, organized. Beer manager is a fellow geek. Great prices on 12 percent (Stillwater, Evil Twin). They even had good stock on Heady Topper last week.