BOV road trip to Vermont

BOV & Family hit the road for Labor day, finally visiting family in VT after promising to do so for far too long. The timing was pretty beer-tastic, because only days before, a new issue of Beer Advocate arrived at my door complete with a focus on Vermont craft breweries in their regular beer destination column. I’m not The Beer Geek or anything, but we share one thing, which is that we both have wives who indulge, even join in with, us when every journey is planned with reference to good beer possibilites along the way. We sampled well, hitting the Long Trail brewery and otherwise quaffing some mighty Rock Art barley wine, Harpoon IPA, Otter Creek 15th Anniversary IPA, Southampton Dubel and Switchback Pale Ale. Click through for the travelogue!

As was getting ready to leave, I caught the spreading news about beer expert Michael Jackson’s death- very definitey a shame, his writing has inspired and influenced any beer writer of use, or if it has not yet, I say hit the books. Start with Great Beers Of Belgium, as I did so very many years ago now, and you’ll be well on to what made him so great. Otherwise, I’m sure the eulogizing by those who actually knew him is abundant, check here and here to start. Sad news, but as he’d have liked, ocassion for a toast, which was accomplished within minutes of our arrival in VT by splitting the bottle of Southampton; my brother in law always keeps quality beers about the house, and this was a perfectly well-brewed Dubbel with loads of clove in the nose and firm malt center accompanied by some raw wheat/hay. Just what was needed after the long drive, and as a Belgian style beer, absolutely appropriate as our own liquid eulogy.

[this link for NPR's Fresh Air interview of MJ; this for a video interview; HT/Lew Bryson; There is a toast to the man planned for 30th September!]

Our first beery destination was the Long Trail brewery in Bridgewater Corners. As you see here, they keep pretty conservative hours:

We cruised in at 10 minutes to closing, but still long enough for a few beers. For myself, their Harvest ale was a tasty pour with a slick hop dimension, but in the end their flagship beer is my favorite; here it stands next to a cool glass of their blackberry wheat:

The brewery is sited, like so many things in Vermont, alongside a small creek in the valley between mountains. From the back deck, you can walk down to said watercourse, the view looked like this:

As we were leaving—ok, being urged to leave, honestly—I noticed that their collection of old cans was pretty well organized, and Lo!, right there in the NYS section, one can grabbed my attention rather quickly:

We didn’t take their self-guided tour, due to the time constraints, and the constrainsts of a 9-month old, a 4-year old, and a 9-year old, however, it’s an amazingly compact installation, especially when you consider how wide their distribution has become. And in keeping with their Green Mountain State locale, it is a very eco-friendly operation to boot. Since we missed their grub hours, we pressed on to picturesque Woodstock, VT, where a local eatery also hooked us up with the Switchback, from a very small brewery in the Burlington area. Their pale ale was tasty, but not especially memorable- though it made a sound accompaniment to my burger and fries, as a pale ale should.

Our second night there, we ate lavishly on sausages we had purchased from the farmers market. Really, not an actual farmers market, but rather, something more definitely aimed at the hoards of NYC-area dwellers that summer in VT, complete with crafts, yummy organic veggies, free range meat, and artisinal cheeses. I must say, however, that the various and delectable sausages we bought paired very well indeed with Rock Art brewery’s Barley Wine, which is not a barley wine at all, but still contained lots of robust malt flavors that went well with the meats & seasonings and had enough alcohol (again, not enough to be a good barley wine) to thoroughly clean the palate, leaving you in full anticipation of the next bite. Delicious! Though the Rock Art might be functionally mislabeled, I still thought it was the best find of the trip. I’m having my last bottle as I finish writing this post, in fact.

Over the course of the weekend, I also helped consume a sixpack of Harpoon’s IPA. What? Harpoon’s not from Vermont, you say? Ah, but it is- they operate a brewery in Windsor, VT as well as in Boston. Their IPA is straightforward and unpretentious, serving up a pleasing hop bitterness all the way through the sip punctuated by a crisp hop snap at the finish, thus making an excellent accompaniment to the onset of changing leaves and fall. It worked especially well in the evening, watching the huge moon rise over the mountains. But it is far easier to photograph in the daylight:

The weekend was capped by a leisurely drive back, which itself was highlighted by a quick stop in this fine establishment located on Rt 7 in Troy, NY.

Despite the unassuming exterior, within you will find a broad selection of imports and craft beers, strongest especially with local beers- Vermont is well represented, but I saw this as my chance to pick up some NYC breweries I don’t normally see at the west end of the state. I walked out ith a sixer of Mendocino’s Summer Ale, (yes, they’re from CA, but they also have a site in Saratoga Springs) six more of Sackets Harbor’s 1812 Amber ale, and the pièce de résistance, a 750 ml bottle from Captain Lawrence, their 2006 Xtra Gold American Trippel- which I intend to cellar for some time still. What makes it an American Trippel? It’s a bit stronger, and it is dry-hopped with Amarillos. Should be pretty snazzy in another year or more, I bet. For kicks, I also grabbed a Russian beer, Baltica. They come in Numbers 1-9, I decided 5 looked awfuly appealing. More on those as I get to them!

All in all, a fun weekend- we didn’t get anywhere near Magic Hat, so another trip perhaps. In the meanwhile, I have to say that while NYS is certainly a behemoth when it comes to craft beer, the VT is holding it’s own very well.