Vermont’s Vibrant Craft Beer Scene

Vermont excels in many areas – cheddar, maple syrup, Segway public service announcements… and pilgrimage-inducing local beer. In fact it has more breweries per capita than any other state; probably because it has less people than any other state, excluding Wyoming. That means clear water, clean air and an expansive palette of local flora with which to craft mind-bending brews.

Editors Chris and Jim heeded the call of the Alpine mecca in order to bag themselves a few trophy suds. In the spirit of legendary beer hunters of yore, they came with an open mind, full hearts and space in their suitcase for spoils to come.

It didn’t take long to track down our first target. Fresh out of tidy Burlington International Airport, we sniff out Switchback Brewing Co., just a few miles away. The breeze coming in from nearby Lake Champlain bests the freshest of dryer sheets, wafting delicately salty wisps of air into the nostrils and setting the stage for a palate tour de force. 

Arriving to a warehouse exterior, we enter to find a sunny taproom full of reclaimed wood and expansive windows. It’s around noon, so after a quick scan of the taps we hop on the comfortably priced flights, served on paddles made from snowboards. This time, they were first class. 

After our flight landed, we enjoyed another kind of flight from Switchback Brewing Co.

The first flames of our fiery passion for flavor were quickly quelled with thirst quenching sud-works, among which included the flagship Switchback Ale, Connector IPA, and the appropriately nutty Dooley’s Belated Porter. The unanimous winner was the Thai Lime Gose, which delicately tickled the palate with tartness. With a quick good luck pat to a resident three-legged dog, we soldiered on.

After consulting our trusty GPS apps (where would we be without them? Lost, probably), we started threading our way through the thin New England state via what turned out to be a main thoroughfare: Shelburne Road.

I knew that Fiddlehead Brewing Company, makers of extremely rare (for out-of-towners) and highly sought after Double IPAs Second Fiddle and Mastermind, was located somewhere on Shelburne Road. Just as we were about to delve into our phone’s location settings again, I spotted the brewery’s sign – right on the side of the road.

Fiddlehead was certainly a microbrewery, in that it was, well, quite small. But when we arrived there at 1 p.m. on a Friday, it was already packed to the gills with craft beer-swilling Fiddlehead fanatics. While only two of the brewery’s flagship offerings were available for growler fills, their bar was loaded with numerous more interesting small-batch offerings such as Brett on the Dancefloor, a Brett Beer, and Amarillo Getaway, a single-hopped Pale Ale. 

Since we had an event to attend, we couldn’t stay too long at this craft beer oasis, but we did nab a growler of Fiddlehead’s flagship IPA. On the way out the door, I spotted a chalkboard sign emblazoned with the release date for Mastermind, which was… next weekend. Oh well, there’s always next time.

Traveling through the rolling hills and stunningly verdant Vermont mountains made me realize why this region was called New England. The flora, fauna and striking vistas were indeed reminiscent of “old” England, and I couldn’t help but compare and contrast the two. Of course, England isn’t the home of Heady Topper, so Vermont’s got the edge on that front.

We arrive at The Middlebury Inn, a beautiful Victorian-style hotel built in the 1800s, and immediately meet up with one of our sponsors for this trip, Woodchuck Cider. A cidery rep provides us with a gift bag and itinerary and says that we’ll meet up in the lobby later for a night of good food and good beer.

Prior to the meet-up, we explore the town on our own and end up at Two Brothers Tavern for lunch, a small but folksy establishment with typical restaurant knickknacks and local breweriana.

The Middlebury Inn, our home away from home in Vermont, was built in the 1800s.

In keeping with the restaurant’s New English style, crispy fish & chips, bread pudding, hearty brunswick stew and a delectable-sounding shepherd’s pie were all available on the menu, along with plenty of other treats. 

I opted for the shepherd’s pie and was thoroughly impressed by the layers upon layers of succulent vegetables and beef underneath the pillowy, golden-brown mashed potato crust. Paired with some mouth-watering sweet potato fries and an Overgrown Pale Ale from nearby Otter Creek Brewing, this was a meal to remember.

After finishing up our delightful meal, it was time to head back to the inn for a meet and greet with other people who would be attending Ciderstock, the Woodchuck Cider music festival that was to be one of our stops during this trip. From our hotel we headed to the Big Moose Pub, a 5-minute walk, and then began imbibing and mingling. Numerous Vermont favorites were on tap, including Long Trail Brewing Company’s Double Bag and Magic Hat Brewing Company’s #9, and the eponymous, taxidermied Big Moose overlooked the frothy fray with unseeing detachment.

The next day, we awoke and headed straight to one of the major reasons for our Vermont trip: Hop Jam, the beer festival located in the cozy climes of the Bolton Valley ski lodge. Of course, in the middle of the summer, skiing conditions weren’t ideal, but that meant that the lodge had been transformed into a craft beer paradise.

Some of the most whale-filled breweries in New England were present at Hop Jam. Many of Vermont’s finest were present, such as The Alchemist, Hill Farmstead, Lawson’s Finest Liquids and the aforementioned Fiddlehead, all pouring some small-batch delights – many of which were brewed only for this event.

Highly acclaimed New England breweries Peace Tree, Trillium, Lord Hobo and Bissel Bros. were also on hand to pour some rare brews. 

Picturesque vistas abounded in pastoral Middlebury, VT.

The Bolton Valley resort was picturesque and blanketed with craft beer enthusiasts. A stage had been erected right in front of the ski lodge and numerous local bands rocked out for the entirety of the event. Food trucks, retail kiosks, a brewery swag center, cell phone charging station, and even an oversized Jenga game made this an expertly planned and flawlessly executed event. A large, airy tent was a perfect meeting place for fellow beer drinkers. Sipping New England’s finest amongst the raucous crowd while taking in sun dappled slopes amongst the clouds was an indelible, quintessentially Vermont-ian experience.

Invigorated, we headed down the winding mountain road towards our next event, Woodchuck’s Ciderstock. As the name would suggest, Woodchuck Cider created a huge outdoor music festival soaked in its delectable ciders. Cage the Elephant were the headlining band and performed their biggest hits with gusto, including “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked,” “Come a Little Closer,” and “Cigarette Daydreams.” 

Once again, local cuisine from food trucks was on display in addition to a games section where numerous cornhole contests were ongoing throughout the event. The weather couldn’t have been better, and as the rosy sun set on this eventful day, Vermont permanently impressed me with the placid generosity of its residents, its mild summer weather and most importantly, its top-shelf breweries. 

The Alchemist’s Heady Topper and Focal Banger, two of Vermont’s finest brews, were couched innocently in an airport vendor’s cooler.

Our flight the next day left at 6 AM, so after a few hours of sleep we headed to the small but well-equipped Burlington International Airport. During the hour long trek back up the Lake Champlain coastline, we split our time between warily eyeing the road for incoming moose, and gazing into the twinkling infinity above. To a city slicker, Vermont’s pristine night sky really drives home the meaning of “light pollution.” 

We grabbed breakfast at The Skinny Pancake, and to our surprise, tucked quietly in one of their coolers were cans of The Alchemist’s ever-elusive Heady Topper and Focal Banger Double IPAs. Such a fortuitous find seemed almost like fate, so we both bought one can each, crammed them into our overflowing carry-ons and flew away, with visions of Fiddles dancing in our Head.

Middlebury Inn Photo Credit: hotelroomking.com