Hen of the Wood is best dinner I had on my trips to Vermont. Best pub/brewery food I’ve had most anywhere is at Lost Nation in Morrisonville.
I dont think you’re a stranger to those parts, but I was really happy with my experience staying in Stowe recently. Having stayed in Stowe and made an excursion to Waterbury, I’m not sure I’d do it the opposite way. Probably couldn’t go wrong either way though. Having the alchemist 8 minutes away is sweet. I guess Waterbury does have the trifecta of hen, blackback , and freak folk. 2 of which I’ve never been. Alchemist and hill farmstead were really the center of my trip. Can’t really match the brewery direct. One take-away from my experience is that while having really awesome hill farmstead options in draft around that area it really doesn’t match the on-site experience at hill. Glassware, keg storage/freshness, and draft line cleanliness are sometimes a concern at outside venues. If I had to rank how to drink hill farmstead it would be 1. At the brewery, 2. Cans from the brewery, 3. At an outside venue. Yes for me cans from the brewery have been better than draft at various places. To me that makes perfect sense though from a quality control standpoint. Cheers!
Blackback Pub in Waterbury pretty great. Thx for the rec BA forum! Hill Farmstead - Of First & Last Things Then the meatloaf sandy. Big thumbs up. Heady Topper for the win.
Well, I'm less than a week out from making the trip. Have the leaves started to change at all yet? Any new beer releases worth looking to find (draft or bottle/cans)? Thanks again for everyone's help. It's gonna be a great trip.
The leaves are quite advanced, bit still some green. All the rain today should help make everything pop a bit more since the last 2 weeks have been dry and the initial color started to fade. I think it'll look pretty awesome next week.
Just skimmed this thread, and catching up on some recommendations to try to prioritize my time on a super-short daytrip from Boston this Thursday (10/3), likely straight to HF and back. Pretty crazy journey, but worth it to go to Mecca. I did a longer adventure from Boston to Vermont back in April 2019, and hit all of the best spots (HF, Alchemist, Lawson's, FOAM, etc.), but one of my biggest surprises and favorite places was River Roost in White River Junction, which I am surprised to see basically no mention of here.... I remember them being a tiny little warehouse brewery with like 4-5 beers on tap a teensy-weensy little "tasting bar" at the front of their little warehouse, but they were like right off the freeway on the way up from MA to VT (we went out to Tree House in Charlton first from Boston, then up north to VT on 91, so I know this was not the most direct route to HF, but still...). And the beers at River Roost were very flavorful and distinctive, firmly in the "overripe melon" vein of the Hazy IPA spectrum, and arguably the best I can think of in that realm. Do others disagree? Have they changed? Any thoughts from a recent check-in would be greatly appreciated, as I haven't had a DROP from them in over 5 years. And I'll probably make the quick stop regardless, because it's so close and I'm already doing a 3-hour+ trek each way. But I'd still like to know a little story to what the locals think of them.
I still like River Roost a lot. Their beers don’t wow me like they used to but I always make a point to stop in on the way home from skiing. They’ve also expanded recently to have full on taproom but I haven’t been able to check that out yet.
Planning my own fall trip up there and checking in on this thread... echoing what others have mentioned about Blackback, and personally I really like staying in Waterbury on trips to the area as opposed to Stowe. When I was there in the spring, my wife and I were sat at Blackback's bar next to new chef / co-owner Cory, and -even though we didn't want to bother him as it seemed like he was winding down a shift- he very generously took us through his menu and made some fantastic recommendations Took Blackback from a "yeah I'll try and stop by" to a "must hit every time I'm around Waterbury" destination. Very much looking forward to another Hill trip, soon. Fingers crossed for some fun releases in late October.
I’ll be in the area October 13-19th. How bad am I going to miss the foliage in the white mountains, Stowe, etc?
Colors will probably be a bit past-peak, especially the further north you go (it's at peak right now here in the NEK), but it'll still look good.
Thanks again to everyone in this thread for the great information and recommendations. We got home Sunday and had an incredible 5 days in Vermont. I'll give a quick run down, which will still be way too long, for those that may be planning a trip of their own down the road. My wife was with me and so I had to make sure I planned a few other stops and experiences besides just beer, but overall we still hit just about everything on my list. Wednesday: We got off to a slow start due to our flight from Tulsa and Chicago being a little delayed, but we landed in Manchester right around 1:00. We stopped for lunch and then drove towards Woodstock. The first stop was the Whistle Pig Tasting Room. I was able to get a quick flight and then head into town. I had a few other things scheduled for this day (River Roost) but just ran out of time. We stayed at the Woodstock Inn which is beautiful and had a great dinner there (with HF Edward on tap). Thursday: This was the biggest day as we had a slot of stops planned. We got on the road from Woodstock and randomly stopped at Abracadabra Coffee to grab coffee and something for breakfast. We ended up stumbling into one of the best donuts Ive ever had (cider donut with cinnamon and sugar). My wife had the pumpkin donut with maple frosting and it was just as good even though I'm not a huge pumpkin fan. Next we hit the Ben and Jerry's tour which was a great time. the sample was Dirt Cake which we both enjoyed. From there we went to Blackback and had a great lunch. I went ahead and got a Mas Verde to drink since I missed it the day before and my wife got a HF Of First and Last Things. After that we made the drive South to Lawson's for some Double Sunshine, Lil Sip, Triple Play and some cans to go. After that we went back north to Vermont Artisan Coffee and then Cold Hollow Cider for a coffee and donut and to check-in to the Lodge at Spruce Peak. Cold Hollow was a mess, but the other stops were pretty easy so we then took the Gondola ride to the top of Mt Mansfield for some unbelievable views. We finished off Thursday with some hand pulled Headies, a Luscious and then dinner and a Bohemian Pilsner at Vonn Trapp. The day was awesome and my four paragraphs don't do it justice. I grabbed plenty of cans to go as well. I'll list Friday and Saturday on a separate post.
Friday: We had breakfast at the Butler's Pantry, which was incredible as well. We sat outside and just enjoyed the food and surroundings. We then jumped into the car and made the trek to Hill Farmstead stopping at the yellow barn/Cabot creamery and Willey's General Store along the way. We got to HF about 15 minutes early but got started with Edward and Harlan. Took some amazing pictures and just sat back in the chairs and enjoyed the view and colors. The Mexican food truck carried on the theme of great food, but the pour of Damon Finca Buena Vista was the best thing (besides the HP Heady) I had all week. My wife then got the Works of Love - Omnipollo which was just ok. We finished with Autumna and a pour of Samuel. I could have stayed there all day, but we had to get back to the lodge for the spa appointment I promised my wife. Grabbed our to-go cans, went and got a maple creamee from Tootsies (recommended in this thread) and drove back. Dinner was inside the lodge at Alpine Hall, but we had a couple drinks at the Whistle Pig Pavillion located inside the lodge first. Dinner was also really good, but I was ready for a non-ipa beer so I had the Fiddlehead White Ale. Not my favorite style, but figured it would be the only Fiddlehead beer I would have on the trip. Saturday: We did a quick hike around the lodge and was able to get some really cool pics and views. Next, we made the drive over to Burlington for the "World's Largest File Cabinet" and Burlington Beer Co. I got "it's complicated being a wizard" and my wife got "creatures of magic." It was pretty slow since they had just opened and so they gave us a few samples (Dream Eater and Pumpkin Spice Mocaccino - which my wife bought some cans of). We really enjoyed our time there, but had other stops to make. Lunch was at Four Corners of the Earth. Its certainly an interesting place, but the sandwiches ended up being really good. It was about a 45 minute wait so we put in our order and walked over to the farmers market to pick up a few things (syrup, etc.). After lunch we walked around near Lake Champlain and over to Church Street. Dinner that night was at Hen of the Wood, but we stopped at Foam first. I enjoyed the stop, but the majority of this paragraph will be about dinner. I had high expectations based on the recommendations and reviews, but it still exceeded those expectations. Literally everything we had from appetizers, to the drinks, to the small plates and the large plates were all incredible. That being said, the Jasper Hills Harbison Cheese stood out the most. I love me some cheese, but holy $h!t that stuff was good. Sadly, that was basically the end as we had to get up at 3:15 for a 6:00 flight that ended up getting canceled, forcing me to rent a car to then drive to Boston to catch a flight back to Oklahoma. Yeah, the traveling sucked, but it was a minor inconvenience for the incredible 5 days of beer, food, views and experiences. I have no idea when my wife will let me plan the next beer trip, but it'll be starting in Maine and heading south to Boston. I'll bug you all again with another thread for recommendations at that time, but for now I just wanted to thank you all again. Give me a shout when you decide to make the trip to God's Country (Oklahoma).
Thanks for the detailed review -- just a minor question, but the one thing I was wondering about wasn't mentioned... how was Hen of the Wood? Just booked a reservation there for my wife's birthday and very much looking forward to it.
We went there on Saturday (Burlington location). I mentioned a little in the second post, but it was incredible. You guys will certainly enjoy it. I highly recommend the Harbison Cheese (small plate) if available.
Glad you had a great Vermont trip and sounds like you really got to capture most of the best on your 5 days. Being a Marylander, I’ve been up on 3 different occasions and love it every time. I have a friend (from Maryland) who just started traveling for business to OK, and has high praise for that state. I’ve been on a tour of Texas and also Colorado, but never been to OK yet. I’ll have to get out there sometime.
Thank you. The trip was even better than expected. Oklahoma certainly has some things to improve on as a state, but its been a great place to live for my family.
