VT Unveiled

"Trade value"

 

just for curiosity sake, what's better in Vt other than what he picked up?

 

There are a variety of bed and breakfasts and chain hotels to fancy spas. Food options run the gamut from good casual food to white napkin service, and you can do tons of free things, hikes, water holes, good pedestrian downtowns, and even smaller ski mountains. Or you can play golf, ski at the large resorts.

Don't get me wrong, you can certainly spend $, but at the same time, there are some good spots that won't cost a ton of money.

 

classic BA. guy writes up a nice review of a wonderful experience he had in VT, and half the replies shit on him for it. bravo!

 

So true. WTF is wrong with people. This is a great writeup, where the OP took the time to help others. 99% of the shitters wouldnt say a damned thing in person - internet heros.

I agree with the OP entirely and thank him for the friendly writeup. Especially the part about Windekind Farms, as I have to check that out for next time!

 

Perhaps not better, but certainly mentionable:
Backacre Sour
Lost Nation Growler fills
Fiddlehead (Hodad in Cans is pretty great)
Otter Creek (Brewmasters Series)
Rock Arts (barrel aged offerings)
Zero Gravity Conehead

My apologizes to those I forgot.

 

Backacre sour is simply amazing.

 

I'm with you. It is not necessarily so easy to translate a map into reality. Especially for Vermont in mud season.

It was a lovely story, BTW.

 

Please stop spreading this myth...while maybe "fairly readily available" for those that live in the north-central corridor Chittenden, Washington & Lamoille counties, the other 11 counties in the state, they're pretty hard to come by. Can't tell you how many requests (some basically straight up demands) from friends & families I've had for HT and when I tell them it's at least a 4 hour drive to pick up, they don't quite understand thanks to rumors like this.

Awesome write up otherwise

 

Very glad to read your story on your saga of finding and procuring Vermont's finest brews. My favorite is still Lawson's Double Sunshine. But I kind of get the same thrill you got here in Vermont when I visit Chicago to see my two sons living there. I search and find beers there that I can not get in northern New England. I'll be in Chicago in early June and I hope to bring a suit case full of beers home to share with my fellow BA buddies.

 

My son lives across the street from Revolution Brewery on North Milwaukee. Are you anywhere near there? I could maybe bring out some Heady and Double Sunshine to trade for Goose Proprietor's. I'll do some checking as to what you might have out there that I would like. Tend to want DIPA or Stouts. Let me know if you looking for anything from this area. Rick

 

Fun thread, looks like the OP hooked up a connection to the source as well. I was trying to imagine the killer party one could throw with 16 bottles of Double Sunshine and 48 cans of Heady, or have they all been consumed already? Slightly off topic- Revolution really hit a home run with their Straight Jacket Barleywine. Must be nice to live across from the brewery.

 

Revolution was little known when I first started going there. They make great beers and serve great food.
It is word of mouth that allows brewers like them to survive and grow their reputation. Hill Farmstead is a perfect example of how important word of mouth is. If you were an alien spacecraft and didn't want to be seen landing your UFO; Hill Farmstead property would be the perfect place to land unseen; it's that remote. Try to find Sean Lawson's brewery; you'd have better luck finding BIGFOOT! Very proud of Vermont's success in the micro-brew field, but there are a ton great beers out there where you guys who read this hang, waiting for me to find and try.

 

Sorry, not hip enough to know what "BM" is (guessing Beer Message) Let me know what the top of the line beers one would hope to score from the Midwest might be. Love 3 Floyd's, only had one Pipeworks (Glaucus) like Hoppin' Frog and Goose.

 

I definitely appreciate this thread and the OP's intent. I'm only in Stowe for a couple days so this will help me make the most of my time. My wife doesn't share my enthusiasm for stellar brews

 

Great story to read and thanks so much to a fellow Duncan for writing and posting it!

It still amazes me every time I hear about someone driving (?) hours and hours to get to north central Vermont mainly to buy beer. A 2000 mile round trip for beer on a "short" vacation. O M G. I live 3 hours away and have only been up there once, although going again this weekend.

When I went the first time last August I had no idea how hard it would be to find any of the Big Three's anything on a weekend. I suppose it would be like me driving (the 900 miles over two days, each way) to Chicago and expecting to haul away cases of Zombie Dust, GIBC Proprietor's Reserve and BCBCS from any store I came to. At least the OP did some research ahead of time and did not go home from the Great Northeast Kingdom empty handed like I did in August.

Alchemist brewery was still open to the public then. I showed up at 6 PM on a Saturday and was told they had already been sold out of HT for two days. Had stopped at Warren Store two hours earlier, and all I could buy was a bomber of Grassroots Arctic Saison. And I don't like Saisons. Well I did buy some Sculpin and Pannepot too, just to salve my disappointment that Double Sunshine was not sitting there by the case. Having done a little bit of advance research myself on where Heady Topper was sold outside the brewery, I had also aready stopped at Mehuron Market's liquor store in Waitsfield and Village Market in Waterbury, all to no avail. Later, on the way home, Hunger Mountain Co-op was also out of everything I was looking for, although they did have an impressive stack of cases of Grassroots Arctic Saison.

Fortunately my advance research had included noting the desirability of patronizing the Prohibition Pig pub in Waterbury. Dinner was accompanied by a draft selection including Heady Topper and Double Sunshine as well as Lawson's Fayston Maple, all of which I ingested with enthusiasm and gratitude.

The Big Three's websites are a must visit for anyone planning a trip to there from anywhere. We're at the point in the Craft Beer Revolution where if you aren't at the right place at the right time, or unless you manage to trade for it or know someone at a store who will set it aside for you, anything in the BA list of top twenty five or thirty brews other than Founders Breakfast Stout or Trappist Rochefort 10 will not be available for your purchase and consumption.

 

I was also thinking about bringing some New Glarus or Toppling Goliath bombers to the fine establishments mentioned above. Are most places cool with that?