Yankee Brew News Archive

What's Brewing: Vermont

Originally Published: 08/96

By: Tom Ayres

By Tom Ayres

Yankee Brew News Staff

The selection of locally made brews available to slake the thirsts of Vermonters is ever expanding. Pub brewers and commercial beer makers alike are contributing to the mix, steadily reinforcing Vermont's well-earned reputation as a craft brewing mecca in the Northeast.

Pub brewer Ray McNeill of McNeill's Brewery in Brattleboro continues to expand distribution of his bottled beers in the Green Mountain State. In recent weeks, beer drinkers in the Burlington area have enjoyed wider availability of Ray's beers on local shelves, in venues ranging from Winooski's Beverage Warehouse (likely the state's largest commercial beer purveyor) to smaller, rural "Mom-and-Pop" shops like my own local, Richmond Beverage and Liquor. Hand-crafted and bottled at McNeill's brewpub, the 22-ounce offerings of Ray's beers are highlighted by Alle Tage Altbier, 1995 Gold Medal Winner in the German Ale category at the Great American Beer Festival.

There are intriguing new beers to be enjoyed in the heart of Burlington, too--at the state's oldest brewpub, to be exact. The Vermont Pub & Brewery has joined in a growing trend in the Green Mountain State by offering discerning beer drinkers a selection of cask-conditioned ales. A rotating selection of two cask brews are always on tap. Recent pourings have included a tasty "70-Shilling" Scottish Ale (crafted from the second runnings of Greg Noonan's famed Wee Heavy Scotch Ale), Vermont Maple Ale, and a cask version of Dogbite Bitter, one of the pub's mainstays.

Cask beer lovers can sample the current VP&B selections, enjoy late summer in Vermont, and catch live blues bands performing regularly on the pub's outdoor terrace. Greg reports that upcoming beers on the pub's brewing docket include a witbier, Bavarian wheat beer, and "assertive pilseners," lagered a minimum of two months. With a puckish smile, Greg also promises "no stupid fruit beers -- we won't use fruit extracts and we'll continue to brew only 'real' fruit beer in the future." No word yet on what fruit-flavored offerings may be fermenting in the mind of the VP&B folks.

There's now another brewpub to check out in the Queen City. The Ruben James Restaurant, a longtime haunt for college students and the young-at-heart on Main Street near Burlington's famed Flynn Theater, debuted its new pub-brewing operation with a festive Ur-Bock Festival. The newly-dubbed Ruben James Restaurant and Brewery sports a system from the Williston, Vermont-based One World Brewing, which offers "complete microbrewing capability, from permits to the keg" to interested restaurant owners.

"We're providing a turn-key solution to owners who want to capitalize on the increased sophistication of today's beer drinkers," says Jamie Sherman, One World Brewing president. The festive gala at Reuben James featured German cuisine, dancing and the tapping of the brewpub's inaugural keg of its bock, crafted from a malt-extract-based recipe. "One World Brewing provides everything a restaurant or bar needs to create its own microbrewed beer for less than they're paying a distributor now. It's the formula to tap into a very profitable market," Sherman promises. Watch for a full report on One World Brewing and its plans for the future in an upcoming issue of Yankee Brew News.

While enjoying an increasingly vibrant and eclectic brewpub scene, Vermonters are also savoring the benefits of the state's steadily growing microbrewery industry. The state's newest micro--Tunbridge's Jigger Hill Brewery--is profiled elsewhere in this issue. Now comes word that another group of investors is planning a brewery in a leased, 21,600-square-foot building at the Catamount Industrial Park in Milton, just off Interstate 89, twenty minutes north of Burlington.

The Hinesburg Brewing Company plans to brew ales and lager, producing one of each during its startup phase beginning next winter. General Manager Steve Godfrey says the next several months will be spent securing state and federal permits for the operation. Stay tuned for more details on the brewery, which Godfrey predicts will employ 25 people at startup.

A planned brewery expansion and bottling plant that garnered attention in my last column has fallen through. Burlington's Magic Hat Brewing Company won't be setting up shop on what is now Chittenden County Transportation Authority property on Industrial Avenue in Burlington. Negotiations broke down over who would accept responsibility for potential environmental problems on the site. A drum of hydraulic fluid leaked there several years ago and a formal environmental assessment of the site has yet to be conducted. At press time, Magic Hat was considering alternative sites in Burlington, South Burlington and Shelburne for its first in-state bottling operation.

That's it from the Green Mountain State for this go-round. I'm looking forward to sampling a rich range of specialty beers at the plethora of late summer and fall festivals in Vermont and neighboring Quebec. Prosit!