Burlington, VT brewpubs

Burlington, Vt is a qauint little town, with a pretty decent beer scene. We have 3 brewpubs worth visiting in the immediate area.

The first being the VT Pub and Brewery, on St. Paul & College St., owned and operated by Greg Noonan, of various brewing fame. Great beer, great atmosphere, great pub grub (best french dip I've ever had!) And if greg's around, he's genreally more than willing to show off his brewhouse...

The Three Needs, on College St., is a nice little hippie/townie pub that ties for my regular. No food, but great beer, including their signature Chocolate Thunder Porter. They've gone through 3 brewers since I've been going there. JT went on to brew for Shipyard, Glen still owns the place, and Jeremy if the current. He's been on a great Belgien kick lately, makes for nice drinking...

Last, but certainly not least, there's American Flatbread's Burlington Hearth.
In addition to having a great food menu, this is the beer-lover's bar. With over 50 bottled selections from all over the world, plus over 20 taps, including their own, house brewed, zero-gravity beer, and 3 hand pulled casks:rockin:, this is where I go to geek out about beer. Paul is also a hell of a brewer, coming up with new selections every week or so.

Don't forget to mention The Alchemist about 30 minutes away. They have the best beer I've ever had in VT. I could seriously eat American Flatbread every single day. I love the Burlington area!

Greg and Paul certainly know their $hIt.
Lot's of good beer to be had up north.

My apologies for forgetting the Alchemist (what was I thinking????), and since we're mentioning other areas, I'll include the Shed in Waterbury, right outside of Stowe, which is an awesome place with great food and great beer, and the Bobcat Cafe in Bristol, which, unfortunately, not many people know is a brewpub. They've got an altbier there that is some of the best I've had.

Dutchyman said:

My apologies for forgetting the Alchemist (what was I thinking????), and since we're mentioning other areas, I'll include the Shed in Waterbury, right outside of Stowe, which is an awesome place with great food and great beer, and the Bobcat Cafe in Bristol, which, unfortunately, not many people know is a brewpub. They've got an altbier there that is some of the best I've had.

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Thanks for the heads up on the Bobcat. Looks pretty good. here's a link

http://www.bobcatcafe.com/

Dutchyman said:

I'll include the Shed in Waterbury, right outside of Stowe

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Actually, it's right in Stowe, on of Rt 108. It's at least 5 miles from Waterbury town line - trust me, I live here

Thanks for the reminder that August is coming and we'll be in Stowe drinking again soon! I can't wait!!!!

I'm in Shelburne right now! I'm just up here for a few days taking the Burlington FD test, but I'm planning on moving to Burlington by the end of this year. I've been to VT Pub and Brewery, but I think I'll go there again today. I'm also going to check out the Vermont Homebrew Store. Sounds like a cool place!

BeerNutz on the mojo channel went there...it seemed like a cool town. BeerNutz is a good show, but the hosts are pretty lame...

Don't forget the VT Brewers Festival coming up next weekend. Been a few years since I've been but I'm looking forward to it.

Vermont is a beer lovers paradise. Check this link out:

http://www.vermontbrewers.com/passportprogram.html

Click the download link on the page to see both sides of the actual "Passport." I've got 16 out of the 18 stamps. I've actually been to all 18, but two were closed when I got there. I'll be turning my card in at the Vermont Brewers Festival this weekend. Thanks to The Alchemist for turning me on to this. :cross:

And I'm moving there at the end of this year. HELL YEAH!

I'm getting back into homebrewing after a 15 year absence. I just built a kegerator, so will never bottle again (probably why I left the art to begin with).

I love Vermont particularly Stowe (Mr. Pickwicks is a fav),and am a huge fan of Switchback and the Alchemist. Can anyone (Dutchyman?) share some knowledge of the Switchback ale?


Much Thanks!

Theres also The Shed in Stowe, and the Rock Art brewery in Morrisville, not really a brewpub itself but worth mentioning!

I'll be in Burlington two nights for a conference this week and wanted to get a few opinions of some "can't miss" beers while I'm there. I'd prefer to try something I can't get in the mid-west. I'm up for anything style-wise and would prefer something funky (but well made) than the perfect pale ale. This thread is very informative and I'll definitely be checking out VT Pub & Brewery and American Flatbread. Any opinions on the Farmhouse Tap & Grill?

I live about 1.5hrs away and any time I'm in Burlington I like to check out all three. Farmhouse is new (6months) but worth the visit. They have a good selection of odd bottled beers.

The Three Needs is also worth a shout out. They are creative! Also, not too far away the Three Penny Tap Room in our states capital is very much worth the drive. I think its a half hour to fourty five minutes. On the way, stop at The Alchemist (open after 4) in Waterbury. They have an award winning unique style that I can't describe!

The Alchemist is a great place but last time I was there, the beer... frankly... just wasn't good. Last year when I went up through Vermont on a beer tour, the Heretic (their barleywine) was phenominal... this year, I was really dissappointed in the beer. It just wasn't good. I also had their gluten-free saison (the owner/brewers wife is allergic to gluten so they always have one gluten-free on tap) and that wasn't good at all. Maybe it was the "gluten-free" that was throwing me off but other than it being kinda light in SRM, there wasn't anything "saisony" about it.

Don't get me wrong... next time we go up, we'll absolutely stop at the Alchemist but I was really surprised at the beers when we went up three weeks ago.

If you are going to the Alchemist... GO TO the Blackback Pub and Fly Shop right across the street. It is a brand new, little tiny hole in the wall place. 9 taps of great beers, really cool owner/bartender and great little place. The whole place has about 8 stools and that's... about all you can fit in there.

Right in Burlington... there is a new place... Das Beirhaus... that isn't bad. It is obviously a German "beirhaus" and they have 8 taps of all German beers... Ayinger, VINE-sta-fan... etc. Decent place.

Farmhouse was great. Great food and really solid beer list.

Flatbread is always a safe bet.

Vt Pub and Brewery isn't my favorite place but you gotta go there.

Three Needs is ok. If memory serves me correctly they had about ten taps... a lot of Vt beers on tap (not a bad thing) and then they usually have anywhere between 1 and 4 of their own beers. I had the "Wild Blonde" three weeks ago and it was pretty good.

Bobcat is a GREAT stop if you feel like shooting down to Bristol.

Folks will probably make fun of me but I actually liked stopping at Magic Hat last year when we went up. They had something like 12 different taps running in the sample room. The beers I tried were pretty solid and there were a decent number that I had never seen in stores.

If you're traveling up the west side of Vermont along Rt 7, I would also stop at Long Trail. They have some solid beers. I had their imperial porter last year and thought it was pretty tasty. The bgi reason to stop at Long Trail though... the "yaki wings". GET THEM. Tremendous wings.

There is good brew to be had (although no pub) at Rock Art Brewery
www.rockartbrewery.com

Edit: sorry I didn't read page 2 of this thread and Rock Art was already mentioned

I checked out Vermont Pub & Brewery and Farmhouse Tap and Grill and wanted to give my 2 cents. VT Pub & Brewery was OK. Not remarkable, but not bad. Farmhouse was very busy, but very good. Great selection and friendly/knowledgeable staff. I read about Hill Farmstead Brewery while in VT and tried some of their beer at Farmhouse and I would definitely recommend it. Well made and interesting beers.