Visiting Vermont?

Shitting on Magic Hat = Great Article!

 

we decided to go to vermont on our road trip. of the 14 states we visited, vermont was easily the highlight.

as we waited for HFS to open, there's this house less than a mile away that sells fresh maple syrup by the gal. incredible stuff. brought it home to make awesome pancakes, and used a good portion in our homebrew!

 

I don't mean this as a thread derail but I have to ask - why the hate for Magic Hat on these forums?

I'm not trying to defend them are starting and argument, I genuinely want to know what you folks who live in the region have to say. I've never been to Vermont and the only of their brews I've had that makes it to where I live is #9. It wasn't great, but not bad either. Different. It was refreshing on a warm day and sometimes I'm in the mood for something unusual. Some of their others have really high reviews here on BA, like Howl and Heart of Darkness.

Based on reviews I'd like to try more of their stuff, but based on negative comments I see on the boards I might be a bit gunshy about trying more of their brews. So seriously, how did they get the reputation they have here?

 

Decent rundown of VT brewers. But...

...the Magic Hat hat dig wasn't necessary. Foreign-owned or Magic Hat is still creating needed jobs and taxes, and I would take Magic Hat's portfolio over the meager offerings of Trout River or Switchback. God-forbid a brewer is nationally successful.

[-opinion of someone born/raised in VT]

 

nice little article. Thanks for the post

 

I never really cared about Magic Hat one way or another but that ridiculous legal action against West Sixth because their " * " somehow could be confused with " # " or their " 6 " could be confused with " 9 "

 

It seemed when Magic Hat was first bought, they stopped making neat brewery-only beers and at the same time their commercial offerings were all missing something... while most having a similar taste characteristic to them. I've never hated a beer they made but I have been unimpressed before. Recently, however, I've been seeing more one-offs and the Singlechair tastes better.. not to mention Meat Whistle is great. I do appreciate their attempts at using not-so-familiar ingredients.

 

Yes it is...one can never go back to pouring corn syrup on their pancakes after the real stuff! But as for brewing I personally think simply fermenting those sugars away is huge waste of maple syrup. If you have brew with maple syrup use Grade B, it's cheaper will impart more of the trees' flavor to a beer. With a Grade A (lighter, sweeter, table quality) all you're really going to get from it in a beer is more alcohol.

 

I'll start this off by saying that my mothers family is from Middlebury Vermont, so I've been there more times that I can count.

Middlebury=beautiful city to goto and great shops downtown, along with Otter Creek brewing being there as well, they usually have all their brews at the tap house or specials, believe they maybe running out of the Double Dose IPA that they came with recently (wish I could have made it up)

As far as the magic hat hate goes, I used to really enjoy their number 9 and their spring seasonal but the last few years it's just been ugh not great, I quit buying it well before the West 6th vrs Magic Hat drama. But that was kinda the last straw, vowed just like I did with AB Inbev to never purchase their product. (doesn't mean I don't drink it but someone has to hand it to me. but I digress)

Vermont is pretty stellar, and this time of year beautiful but it maybe past peek for the leaves now, but you can see be a leaf peeper if you make it in time

 

Most people that actually read that entire exchange between West 6th and Magic Hat sided with Magic Hat. If you think it was all about a #6 vs #9, then you either haven't bothered to read the details or you are cherry-picking your data to fit your opinion. I won't say anything more on it, because the issue was already discussed to death here... http://beeradvocate.com/community/t...ica-magic-hat-suing-west-sixth-brewing.91066/
And here.... http://beeradvocate.com/community/t...o-as-lawsuit-with-magic-hat-is-settled.94840/

 

A. Because their beer sucks. This is true because they made the decision to focus on marketing instead of quality a few years ago (long before they were sold). They are basically a BMC type brewery masquerading as craft, but with less skill than the big generic brewers. Though if you have a lust for diacetyl, MH is the mother lode.

B. They still have a reputation because they made some great beers 10-15 years ago. That brewery no longer exists.

I've only lived in VT for 13 years (with no plans to live anywhere else) but that was more than enough to witness the sad decline of MH.

edit: Just googled "Magic Hat sucks" and got 1.7 million hits. 'Nuff said.

 

It's no different than the Rogue or Sam Adams haters. People who feel they are too cool for a nationally distributed brand and don't feel like they are in an exclusive club any longer since #9 has taken off across the country. Vermonters also have a very strong tradition of supporting local business, so there was/is probably a stronger local backlash to the change in ownership than you would find in other regions. Magic Hat is also one of several New England "Ringwood" breweries, which some people automatically write-off because of some ignorant idea that any beer brewed with Ringwood yeast becomes a diacetyl bomb (search the forums for "Ringwood" for more info). Then people see their eye-catching psychedelic marketing angle, which they've had from the very start and works well for them [god-forbid], and then claim they are a marketing company not a brewery.

Magic Hat isn't the best brewery on the block by any means, but they have their niche and the level of vitriol against them is silly. They make relatively inexpensive craft beer that generally appeals to the entry-level or occassional craft beer drinker, much like Sam Adams or Rogue. There's nothing wrong with that. Further, show me another brewery that creates a brand new beer every season and puts it out for national distribution in mix their cases...I'll tell you now, there isn't one. Their IPA on Tour beers aren't bad either.

 

Thanks for the response. Very informative.

 

It's not the Ringwood, it's the way they use it. Many brewers make very good beer with it, e.g. Geary's Hampshire Special, Shipyard Prelude and several Long Trail beers. MH's 'yeast management' is different, to say the least: They have gone for hundreds, maybe thousands, of generations without going back to the source for fresh yeast (standard practice is 10-12 generations, maybe a little more if you're careful). It has mutated like crazy and is now a diacetyl machine. I was handed a MH 'IPA' a couple of years ago and could not smell hops when I cracked it, just diacetyl, and I'm not particularly sensitive according to my fellow beer judges.

Also, it's unfair to drag Sam Adams into this. Yes, they make some bland beers but they have stringent quality control, and they make some good specialty products.

 

You're the only one who said anything bad about Sam Adams...

VS

 

So true

 

Point taken. My choice of words was poor. The company is great. They support homebrewers, spending a ton on the Longshot competition among other things. They also give a lot of support to small craft breweries, pretty much just because they are good guys who like beer. I find a few of their beers a little boring but the same can be said of Stone, Allagash, and some other stellar breweries.

 

At least we can agree on something.

 

*jumps on the thread bus and steers it back in the correct direction* Figure we might as well skip the magic hat discussion since it's most likely been talked about and criticized until the poor thing is a lump of dead meat.

Let us instead focus on how awesome vermont is? And the list of places if one was to visit that would be an absolute must to visit?