![]() ![]() ![]() Drinkers seeking a sip of Linehan's Euro-inspired ales can trek to the brewery for a weekend tasting, or find them on draft around Royalton and Randolph.Įlsewhere in Tunbridge, Upper Pass Beer Co. Samples and growlers are available at the brewery and the beers are on draft at area bars and restaurants.Īlso in May, longtime homebrewer Ben Linehan opened Brocklebank Craft Brewing on an old dairy farm in Tunbridge. J'Ville brews include everything from a cranberry-sage wheat beer to an imperial stout - and are often made with the brewery's own homegrown hops. Though the two brewers differ in interests and styles, Stuart's beers exude the same kind of try-anything attitude as Eckert's. Grant didn't distribute beyond the brewery, and called it quits within six months.īy Memorial Day, J'Ville Brewery opened in southeastern Vermont, where brewer Janice Stuart works as the vineyard manager and winemaker at sister company Honora Winery. Stuart makes frequent trips to Winooski to work with brewer Brian Eckert at Four Quarters Brewing. Sadly, few people outside of Franklin County would ever taste Liftline's brews. In May, 26-year-old Matt Grant opened Liftline Brewing in Sheldon after five years of planning and preparation. Though some brew-heads eyed the brewery with skepticism at first, it didn't take long for Frost's mid-bodied, hop-forward pale ales and IPAs to win a loyal following. ![]() Right away, owner Garin Frost hired star brewer Mike Lieser, who honed his chops in Colorado at Avery Brewing and Oskar Blues Brewery. Appalled that the state didn't have a beer week, they decided to take matters into their own hands.įirst, the gains: In March, Frost Beer works opened in Hinesburg. And it's noteworthy that Beer Week was organized not by any group of breweries or by the Vermont Brewers Association, but guerrilla-style by a couple of Chittenden County beer freaks. Those meals were particularly rampant during the inaugural Vermont Beer Week in September. It seems the public finally began to grasp the idea that beer could be as friendly to food as is wine. (More on that below, including my list of "bests.")īars and restaurants responded by hosting more beer-focused dinners and events than ever. I'd argue that 2015 brought Vermont's most fascinating array of new beers yet. Emboldened by drinkers' seemingly insatiable thirst for the latest, greatest, most exciting samples, brewers continued to be creative. Since Vermonters are champion beer drinkers, nothing stayed on shelves long. And heretofore hard-to-find-in-stores beers, such as ones from Williston's Burlington Beer Company, Brattleboro's Hermit Thrush Brewery (both 2014 debuts), Burlington's Zero Gravity Craft Brewing and Stowe's von Trapp Brewing, became widely available. So we saw more bottles and cans on retail shelves - breweries continued to shift from 22-ounce, "bomber" bottles to smaller bottles and cans - which made going to the gas station a whole lot more fun. Which means there was more Vermont beer on the market than ever before - by a long shot. In terms of numbers, we didn't see quite as many new breweries open as last year (I'm counting eight 2015 openings - or imminent openings - to 2014's 11), but dozens of existing producers expanded their output in major ways. If last year was a banner year for Vermont beer, 2015 easily outdid it. ![]()
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