Other states and even regions of states have their own thread, so I thought I’d try for Vermont. I envision this as a place where we can share recent releases, brewery openings and closures. I’m not sure how many active beer advocate members there are from Vermont. we’ll see how this works.
My wife and I were recently looking for a place to go Saturday afternoon and she looked up Good Water in Williston and found it had closed. Simple Roots in Burlington also recently closed. Hired Hand brewery in Vergennes closed not too long ago. Does anyone else have ant updates?
There continue to be new breweries popping up. I’ve seen a lot of new beers from Mount Holly at Beverage Warehouse. They may be mostly similar - hazy IPAs, but not bad.
Antone been to soulmate in Morrisville? They have been trying hard with lots of beers, but I’m worried about them surviving.
Went to Shelburne vineyards with the wife and the first wine I had was horrible, but I was lucky they had one beer from across the street… I was happy
Have enjoyed all of the Mount Holly offerings we've had at the Stratton Beer Fest each of the last two years. Seems to be an undiscovered gem since they don't distribute outside of VT.
Looks like Upper Pass is taking over the Simple Roots location in Burlington. Started the year with a quick ski vacation and stay in Waterbury. Blackback is as amazing as ever, I still enjoy The Rez and Freakfolk is a great addition to the town.
Mt Holly sees distro in Massachusetts, at least. Contract brewed at Von Trapp, I think, which is interesting - I'm consistently impressed with MH's hop game so it's impressive to see that performance on VonTrapp's presumably lager-focused system.
Agreed on both counts. Blackback is the best beer bar in Vermont and Freak folk has really high quality beers.
Both locations are less than ideal. South Royalton is kind of obscure and the place Simple Roots is, in Burlingtońs new north end, was kind of in the back of a strip mall.
I wrote in some other thread about an upcoming trip to Stowe, but it might be shifting slightly to Burlington. What's the vibe up there these days? Probably more along the lines of places to grab great beer with great food in Burlington. Trying to lobby hard for a day trip to Alchemist (I really want the hand pulled Heady), but focus is beer/food/vibes (no kids) in Burlington.
They actually seem to brew a few places. I have some "Mike's Magic Mixture" from them in the fridge brewed at Zero Gravity. I'd swear I had something from them in the past that didn't imply contract brewing based on the labeling. The Mike's Magic Mixture is delicious, by the way.
interesting! I'm at a point in my beer drinking career where as long as the beer is consistently good, any sorta brewing arrangement is cool by me. While we're (mostly) praising Mt. Holly, I was even impressed by their lager - something a lot of IPA-centric breweries don't nail.
I think there is a secret competition between contract brewers in Vermont. Zero Gravity took over the old Magic Hat facility so they have lots of capacity. Trapp evidently has extra capacity.
Anyone been to Bent Hill Brewing in Braintree VT. The location is almost as obscure and remote as HF. I think their beer is pretty good. Here’s tonight’s IPA.
