Vermont's Finest... BEER: Part I

Friday 6/10/11

Brewslut and I departed Annville at 6am with our good friends Dan and Kristen, and drove to Poughkeepsie, NY for a stop at the excellent beverage mart, Half Time, and picked up some beers not available in PA, like selections from Captain Lawrence, Goose Island and some other local stuff with which I was not familiar.  Also had lunch next door at Crew, which was pretty fantastic!  I had Ahi tuna tacos for an appetizer and a veggie burger that was quite tasty.  They also had a nice tap selection including lots of local selections.  I got a Captain Lawrence pale ale that I'd never had before (sorry, no review unfortunately). 

Inside the Warren General Store

Our next stop was the Warren General Store in the quaint little town of Warren, VT, which reminded me of something out of the 80's TV series Newhart.  They boast a wide assortment of artisan cheese, baked goods, candies, nuts and wine.  Oh yeah, and it's pretty much the only place you can buy Lawson’s Finest Liquids, albeit in strictly limited quantities.  According to inside information (thanks Deuane!) they only make deliveries to Warren on Tuesdays and Fridays, and there is typically a 2- to 4-bottle limit per person.  Dan and I each got our four bottles – two bottles of a Weiss-K (a hefeweizen) and two bottles of Permagrin Rye Pale Ale (a rye pale ale, as the name implies).  They also had an ample supply of extremely fresh Peeper Ale from Maine Beer Company.  Needless to say (and much to the chagrin of one of the workers) Dan and I emptied the shelf after we found out that it was bottled just a few days prior to our visit!  Brewslut overheard him say, "Now I don't have any beer to sell for the rest of the weekend!"  Well, what's the difference?  You sold it all to me, right?  

Ebenezer's... the #1 rated beer bar in the country... and it's in the middle of nowhere!

After Warren, we were off to Ebenezer's in Lovell, ME.  We stopped here last year during our Kate the Great Day trip to Portsmouth, NH.  I opted for a Saison Dupont as my first choice, and it did not disappoint.  This isn't the benchmark of the style for nothing.  Check out my BA review here.  I also enjoyed a vintage Sierra Nevada Bigfoot from 2004 (Chris also tapped 2002 and 2003 simultaneously...wow!). Where else are you going to have an opportunity like that?!  If we had more time, I would have tried all three.

Tap handles at Ebenezer's

Last time we visited, only Dan was able to secure a tour of the fabled "cellar of doom".  This time, however, we were all fortunate enough to get a tour of the beer cellar, which was pretty ridiculous even by our standards.  Racks upon racks of Cantillon beers.  I mean, this place had more Cantillon beer than Cantillon itself, it seemed.  Rare bottles of vintage Russian River beers were strewn about.  Unlabeled lambics from the Mesozoic era were even plentiful!  Belgium in Lovell, ME indeed!  Here are some pics from the cellar...

We purchased two rare bottles from the cellar: Allagash Victor Francenstein, and an extremely rare blended gueuze from Belgium that was one of only 40 bottles!  But since it isn't an actual beer that was brewed (it is a blend), I was not able to add it to BA.  M'wah!

Afterwards, we stayed at the Central Lovell Inn, a quaint bed and breakfast (or in our case, just "bed" as we were heading to Rosie's in town for breakfast). 


Saturday 6/11/11

After and early rise and shine, we were off to Rosie's, just down the street in Lovell, ME.  This is where author Stephen King likes to have breakfast on occasion, but sadly he was not there on Saturday morning.  I had my VHS copy of Maximum Overdrive ready for him to autograph.  OK, not really.  While it took quite a while to get our food, we had some pleasant conversation with some locals at the bar as well as our waitress.  I enjoyed my turkey hash scramble, which was the breakfast special of the day.  But I was getting antsy, because we were off to Hill Farmstead, the brewery that provided the impetus of this very trip to Vermont.  I had been pretty damn impressed with Shaun's hoppy offerings thus far... first Abner, then Ephriam and most recently at Philly Beer Week, the Citra DIPA).  All were phenomenal to say the least.  I had also heard that he had a penchant for making some tasty Saisons as well, which is a favorite style of mine, especially during the summer months.  So needless to say I was coming prepared, with four empty flip-top growlers at my disposal.

Greensboro, VT is pretty much your middle-of-nowhere rural town.  I think the last two miles of the trip was on a bona fide dirt road!  From the outside, the brewery is nothing to look at.  As a matter of fact, it looks like a garage from a horror movie.  OK, perhaps not that scary.  But there is a certain charm to this place.  We entered the tasting room, and found a pair of other visitors and a young guy working the bar.  We all opted for the sampler, which included everything they had.  The Citra DIPA had just kicked moments ago, so the Everett porter was about to go on.  In addition to the Everett, we also sampled Abner (DIPA), James (black IPA), Motueka (single hop pale ale), Florence (wheat saison), and Edward (flagship pale ale).  I believe there was a seventh beer, but it escapes me at the moment.  I'm definitely glad I brought four growlers, because we filled all of them with Hill Farmstead's amazing beers!  Overall, this was an enjoyable visit to a simple tasting room.  Hill Farmstead is brewing some of the finest beers on the East Coast.  If you come across any bottles at your local bottle shop, be sure to pick a few up... you won't be sorry!

We drove by Rock Art’s new tasting room unexpectedly, so we stopped in for a quick beer sampler of four beers.  All were surprisingly good, considering I’d never really been a big fan of their beers.  Plus it was only three bucks for the sampler paddle, and I got to keep the taster glass!  It was a very short stop, however, as we were on our way to meet our friends and new VT residents The Bodans at The Alchemist.  I must admit that I was really excited about visiting this place, especially since their Heady Topper IPA had become a Top 100 beer on BA and also after I had perused their website and read about some of their beers.  Sadly, Heady Topper was not on tap during our visit, although we did learn that they were in the process of installing a canning line, and that Heady Topper would be in cans in a few short weeks!  I enjoyed two pints of Shut the Hell Up, a 3.7% ABV Simcoe hop bomb with tons of flavor for such a light session beer.  Awesome!  Also awesome was the smoked tofu burrito I drove into my gullet!   I could have stayed there much longer, but unfortunately I tend to prefer quantity over quality when traveling in the name of beer.

Pleepleus enjoying some of my Shut the Hell Up!

Afterwards, The Bodans joined us for another round up the road at The Shed, where Shaun Hill of Hill Farmstead used to brew.  However, I was not overly impressed with this place.  I opted for their Sanity IPA, described by the waitress as a piney IPA.  Unfortunately, it was an average IPA at best.  Bodan told us that their burgers are phenomenal, but three of the four of us are non-red meat eaters.  Plus we already ate at The Alchemist anyway.   Overall, I wish we would have spent more time at The Alchemist, as it is a far superior place compared to The Shed.  Oh well, live and learn.

On this particularly rainy night, we decided to head back to the hotel in Burlington, get an UNO deck and a corkscrew, and finish out the night with a few hands of UNO and a bottle of red wine that Brandi picked up for $3 at the wine shop next to Crew in Poughkeepsie.  But first, I was on a quest for some soft serve ice cream, which we were able to procure right across the street from the hotel.  Brewslut  posed as my “sis” since we were both dressed like twin siblings, each wearing the same exact blue Selin’s Grove hoodie sweatshirt. So we ended the day with an early night and a few wine-soaked hands of UNO!


Stay tuned for Part II of the Vermont trek, coming soon!

Philly Beer Week(end)

Now that Philly Beer Week has been moved to the first week of June, I guess I know what Brewslut and I are doing for our anniversary from now until we croak!  We arrived into town Friday night around 9pm in time to hit up The Devil's Den for the Bella Vista Bash.  This was one of my "must-attend" events for opening weekend, as the tap list was pretty ridiculous.  I enjoyed the Hill Farmstead Citra DIPA as well as Cigar City's India Porter, while Brewslut opted for Marron Acidifie, a collaborative beer from The Bruery and Cigar City.  We met up with some friends from The Brass Rail crew and decided to swing by Hawthorne's for some grub and more beer, which was a mere two blocks away.  We got there a few minutes after the kitchen closed, but they were gracious enough to serve us!  I went with another Hill Farmstead selection, a barrel-aged Saison called Art.  We both enjoyed the fish tacos in preparation for a trip to San Diego later this summer!  After Hawthorne's, we headed back to Matt and Morgan's, our hosts and innkeepers for the weekend.

The next morning, we treated Matt and Morgan to breakfast at Cafe Lift, as a thank you for their hospitality.  We definitely need to stop in next time we visit, if only for their amazing coffee!  The food was fantastic to boot.  Anyway, Saturday June 4th marked Brewslut's and my twelfth wedding anniversary, so what better way to celebrate than by attending a Beer Festival?  We had purchased tickets for the International Great Beer Expo at the Navy Yard a few months prior to PBW with the anticipation of an awesome event.  While it was organized well and there was plenty of space for all of the attendees, I felt that the selection was rather lacking.  Also, the majority of the selections were poured from bottles in lieu or draughts, which irked me a bit.  If I want to drink from bottles, I will stay at home with friends and crack open a few.  Also, some of the bottle selections, such as Mikkeller Stateside IPA and Dieu du Ciel Corne du Diable did not taste particularly fresh.  Still, I was pleased to see Ithaca and Brooklyn pouring Dark Humor and Cuvee Noire, respectively.  But honestly, I can do without Shock Top and the like.  I don't know... call me jaded, I suppose.  While the roster of brewers ran the gamut of German, Belgian and other Euro breweries as well as U.S. craft brewers, I felt the local scene was particularly lacking.  I understand that this was an "International" beer fest, but no Troegs, Victory, Sly Fox... even Dogfish Head?!  NY seemed to be well represented, though, with Blue Point, Brooklyn and Ithaca all represented.  Blue Point was also the only brewery I noticed that brought a firkin, albeit a rather generic copper ale.  Still, it was something different.  Even all of the food vendors ran out of soft pretzels about an hour-and-a-half into the event.  While we did get to run into several friends at the event, I doubt we will be returning for a second year.  I would have preferred hitting a few of the smaller special events that were going on during the three-and-a-half-hour festival. 

Nuts, me and Suda at the International Great Beer Expo.

 We left the festival about thirty minutes early and jumped back on the shuttle bus, then made our way back to Hawthorne's for a meet-the-brewer event and tap takeover with Hill Farmstead's Shaun Hill.  I had recognized Shaun the night before at the Devil's Den and had wanted to approach him, but I was a bit timid at first.  Later, when I decided to introduce myself, he was busy talking to someone else and I didn't want to come across as rude. 



Hawthorne's patio

We got to Hawthorne's about an hour early, because I anticipated a pretty large crowd for this event.  Prior to Shaun's arrival, we met Hill Farmstead's local rep Mike, and had a nice conversation with him about Shaun's beers and brewing philosophy. After a while, Shaun showed up and discussed his beers with many of the attendees.  I shared a few brief words with him and expressed my appreciation for his beers, especially the hoppy ones I'd had previously (Ephriam, Abner, Cira DIPA).  I also had a lengthy conversation with Jean Broillet, brewer and owner of Tired Hands, a brand new brewery in Ardmore, PA.  I had just sampled his collaboration beer with Shaun, a Biere de Mars, and it was pretty damn delicious.  Jean had been brewing at Iron Hill's West Chester site (my favorite aside from Lancaster), so I was quick to tell him that I had enjoyed our previous visit to The Gathering of the Gourds pumpkin beer event.  I look forward to sampling some Tired Hands beers in the very near future.  If the Biere de Mars is any indication of things to come, then we are in store for some tasty offerings from Tired Hands.

Pleeps ready to enjoy some Hill Farmstead goodness!

When we visit Philadelphia, we can rarely leave the city without a visit to Nodding Head Brewery and Restaurant, especially when Ich Bin Ein Berliner Weisse is on tap.  Nodding Head marks the first time Brewslut tasted a Berliner Weisse style beer, and she immediately fell in love (kind of how she felt when she first saw me back in high school) and it has since become her favorite beer style.  I had checked out their web site prior to our trip, so I knew the Berliner Weisse was on tap.  We stopped in for a "one and done" visit, and it was a tasty as ever!

Brewslut enjoying a Berliner Weisse with Pleeps looking on jealously.

In the meantime, a few friends from Shamokin contacted me about attending a RateBeer.com tasting at a Best Western hotel near the Art Museum.  So, we decided to jump in a cab and head over to the tasting, which was held in what appeared to be the breakfast area adjacent to the lobby.  About 50 Rate Beer peeps were in attendance, and I later learned that one of my good beer compatriots, Kramer, was responsible for setting up the event.  Honestly, I can't even recall what I had at the tasting... I just know I only sampled a few beers, because by that time, I'd had just about enough.  But it was good to catch up with Shinsk, Chu, Kramer and fellow BA Craig (aka corby112). 

After a very good (and lengthy) night's sleep, Matt prepared a tasty vegetarian breakfast for us, complete with scrambled eggs, veggie sausages, toast and coffee.  After breakfast, we said our goodbyes and headed downtown for the first of a few stops before we returned home to Annville.  Our first stop was at Eulogy for the 2nd Annual Coffee Beer Brunch, which boasted an amazing line-up of coffee stouts including Dieu du Ciel Peche Mortel, Central Waters Coffeehouse Stout, Mikkeller Beer Geek Bacon and Terrapin Wake & Bake.  It was indeed hard to limit to one or two, so Brewslut and I shared three selections: Evil Twin Liquid Dookie, Die Striuse Black Damnation IV - Coffee Club, and of course Peche Mortel.  As much as I love Peche, though, I have to give props to the Black Damnation, which was my favorite of the three.  I really wanted to do a flight of all the beers, but unfortunately Eulogy was not offering flights.  M'wah. 

Afterwards, we decided to swing by the brand new Farmers' Cabinet to meet up with some friends, especially since we had yet to get there for a visit.  Brewmaster Terry Hawbaker was there, and I was informed that brewing still is not underway.  But he did promise that his roster was going to be "sour heavy," which got Brewslut particularly excited!  We'd also like to extend special thanks to our fellow Team D(r)INK member Dan for the pours of Cantillon Fou'Foune and Evil Twin Yang DIPA!

Our goal after The Farmers' Cabinet was to get to Monk's early for the Lost Abbey event, but unfortunately I could not find a parking spot and I refused to pay $23 for parking.  I really wanted to go, but Brewslut said she didn't care, so we decided to head over to Dock Street for lunch.  Unfortunately for us, Dock Street is closed on Sundays.  Double M'wah!  However, we remembered that Local 44 was in the neighborhood, so we decided to swing by for lunch and a beer.  Local 44 is owned by the same folks who also run the most excellent Memphis Taproom, as well as Resurrection Ale House, both also in Philly.  We both had a nice cask pull of Midnight Sun Porter, which I was surprised to see.  I had a tasty turkey sandwich with sprouts, tomato, avocado and red pepper mayo and some awesome fresh cut fries, while Brewslut opted for the mac and cheese with a side salad.  After Local 44, I must admit we were both pooped and in dire need of some couch time.  So, we hit the high road to Annville, which brings us to the conclusion of our third Philly Beer Week excursion.  We definitely look forward to our 13th anniversary next year!