Hopping fun on tap at Vermont breweries
If there's one thing Bostonians know and love, it's craft brew. And there are many kindred spirits in Vermont, where folks have been brewing and sharing for decades, with beer festivals celebrating the 25-year mark. And with a thriving industry, the brewers of Vermont will celebrate with a very special brew fest.
Slated for the base of Killington Mountain on March 24, 2018, the Vermont Brewers Festival will bring together about 30 state brewers for a nonprofit day of collaboration by brewers and special one-of-a-kind tastings for guests.
The Vermont Brewers Association has long held a summer festival along the shore of Lake Champlain, where it has sometimes had to brave weather as true New Englanders do. For next year, it decided to host the festival when the peaks are still white and breathtaking, and a few layers keep a guest comfortable and happy.
The event is unique in this era of brew festivals, as it is nonprofit. All proceeds go to brewers to fund education, help build businesses and more. That benefits consumers with savvy, vibrant brewers.
The event will be scaled down a bit, offering a bigger chance for innovation and exciting tastes. Thirty breweries will offer up their goods in two three-hour sessions that day, meaning more creativity and collaboration.
Smaller breweries are sometimes cut from big events because they can wipe out their inventories. Not so at the Vermont Brewers Festival. And because this is by and about the brewers, rather than a competition, there will be collaboration, where teams will create special brews.
There will be fire pits for s'mores (and to cozy up with a beer), food trucks and more. Pour sizes will vary, too — up to 12 ounces — allowing for a more “social” scene. Taste something you love? Grab a full pour and a seat by the fire and chat up some new friends.
While the event is in March, tickets are on sale now (www.vermont brewers.com, click on Events) and the theme, “Beer Worth Finding,” embraces the present as well. A great way to celebrate fall foliage in Vermont is via brewery visits.
Thanks to the Vermont Brewers Passport program, this is simple for visitors to do. Simply get a passport and visit some of the many breweries that make Vermont brewing great.
Whetstone Station Restaurant and Brewery, celebrating it's fifth anniversary this year, is on the Connecticut River in downtown Brattleboro. The newly renovated location features picturesque indoor and outdoor seating, a full restaurant serving “inspired pub fare,” as well as two full bars and an open-air, rooftop bier garten. All of this is in a beautiful, waterfront location that is spectacular during foliage season.
The craft brewery at Whetstone Station produces small batches of unique beers. Its awardwinning flagship Whetstoner Session IPA is available year-round, while every other Whetstone craft beer is produced only once. Recipes are shared
on the brewery's website. Its beers are showcased alongside a large and constantly rotating guest craft beer list, including many hard-to-find favorites.
The restaurant, bier garten and bar are open daily year-round, from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. The brewery hosts tours and tastings at noon on the first Sunday of each month.
It has two flagship beers, Whetstoner Session IPA and now Big 'Stoner (a Vermont-style double IPA), as well as four rotating taps of one-off creations. If the leaves are not enough excitement for you, check out its live trivia on Tuesday nights and live music on Thursday nights yearround. Learn more at www. whetstonestation.com.
In the Northeast Kingdom, Brian and Jenn Cook created Kingdom Brewing with the intent to brew authentic craft beers using a sustainable brewing system fueled by a variety of local ingredients. Starting with locally sourced hops and grains, they combine farm chemistry and heirloom recipes with ingredients from their farm and greenhouse, such as maple sap, spruce tips and berries, to create an assortment of light to robust seasonal beers.
High atop Coburn Hill overlooking Quebec, Kingdom Brewing is either the first or last stop on your Vermont Beercation. As the northernmost brewery in the state, and less than two miles from the Canadian border, Newport-based Kingdom Brewing takes its name and inspiration from a Northeast Kingdom heritage. Open every Thursday through Saturday with 12 taps of old favorites and experimental creations, it is family- and pet-friendly, and if you're lucky, it'll also put you to work serving beer to its prized herd of Angus cattle.
In a hand-built expanded tasting room and brewery, you will find growler fills, special events and colorful conversation with locals, who are legendary for both their Yankee ingenuity and colorful storytelling.
Learn more at kingdom brewingvt.com.
In Burlington, Switchback is a well known and popular name. Switchback Brewing Co. was founded in 2002 with the vision to concentrate limited resources into making beers that achieve the highest quality possible. To maximize complexity and flavor, the beer is left unfiltered and carbonated during fermentation by the yeast itself, creating a 100 percent naturally conditioned beer. The result is a beer that defies easy description, because it is brewed to a flavor idea and not based on any existing style guidelines. Switchback's flagship beer, Switchback Ale, is the No. 1 selling draft beer in Vermont.
In May, Switchback Ale became readily available in Boston and Cape Cod, on draft as well as in unique 12-ounce stubby bottles in package stores. Also this year, Switchback became the first 100 percent employee-owned brewery in New England via an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. The move keeps the brewery locally owned and operated, still at its original home in the South End of Burlington. Do ask for a personal introduction to Dyson, its resident border collie. Learn more at www. switchbackvt.com.
In between are more brewery options that one can almost count — but try. Get your passport (which, thanks to a federal grant, will be available as an app by year's end), visit as many breweries as you can this fall and then see them at the Vermont Brewers Festival at Killington on March 24. Consider your fall trip homework. You'll be ready to savor it come winter.