Pigging Out in Vermont

I’ve got to admit it; I’m having a tough time at work.  So when I had the choice of going in on my day off and getting ahead at work or going and spending the day with Jacob, it was a no brainer.  We decided to go get an ice cream, Salmon style.  So Jacob got the GPS ready and his tunes for the radio, and we got on the road to head to Ben & Jerry’s in Waterbury, VT.  Now since this is a Beer Blog, there was beer involved.  You see Waterbury is in the center of some fantastic breweries, and I knew that I was going to be able to do some exploring on this trip.

We headed up Route 100, a beautiful country road that runs up the center of the Green Mountains that had been hit pretty hard by the recent storms.  I love the road, but I also wanted to stop by the home of my new favorite (and extremely hard to find brewery), Lawson’s Finest Liquids (LFL).  I loved their stand at the ACBF, and even the brewery isn’t available for visiting, they do sell their beer at the Warren General Store.  A beautiful place along a little gorge, it had sandwiches and specialty foods (whoopie pies and gummy bears) along with beer.  I picked up a bottle of the Maple Wheat Ale, brewed by LFL for the store.  I wished they had a bigger selection, but it is the only sure fire place that I know of to pick up any bottles of their beer, even if it is only one bottle at a time.  We were both getting hungry, so we got back on the road heading north to get to the Prohibition Pig (http://www.prohibitionpig.com/).

The Prohibition Pig has become my favorite regional beer bar, and no wonder since they are centrally located in the center of some of the most talked about breweries in the country.  I met the owner Chad Rich, who struck up a nice conversation (a LFL T-shirt and my beer book in hand must have singled me out), bought me a pint of his Prohibition Pig Pale Ale that he brewed up at Rock Art, and let me know he was off to buy LFL’s old 1 barrel brewery system.  And the selection!!! They have the Alchemist’s Heady Topper (Beer Advocate’s #1 beer) on draft. They had 3 beers from LFL on tap, including the highly rated Double Sunshine IPA and Toast, their version of a Black IPA.  They also had 5 beers from Hill Farmstead, recently rated the #1 brewery in the world.  I tried the Society & Solitude #5, a Double IPA brewed with New Zealand hops, and their Fear & Trembling, a smoked Baltic Porter weighing in at 9.1% ABV and was easily my favorite beer of the day (boy would I love to try the bourbon barrel aged version).  They also showcase new VT brewers, and I was impressed with the Lost Nation Gose.  For lunch I got the smoked brisket sandwich with their Carolina BBQ sauce (awesome) with a side of shoestring fires (Jacob scoffed those down).  It was a great stop, but I had promised ice cream, so we headed over to Ben & Jerry’s for dessert.

I love Ben & Jerry’s, and Jacob is a huge mint fan.  The place was packed so we agreed that we didn’t need to do the factory tour.  I got a dish of the Salted Caramel (delicious, and helpful with the residual heat of the BBQ sauce) while Jacob got a large Mint Chocolate Chunk shake (and he had plenty of smiles). We walked around for a bit, finding the flavor graveyard.  I remembered loving Vermonty Python; coffee ice cream, with cookie crumbs and chocolate cows (fetchy la vache!), and we found its tombstone.  If you want to resurrect the flavor (and I sure do), you can vote online at https://secure.benjerry.com/contact-us/resurrect.cfm.  Next we stopped next door (literally next door, I love Waterbury) at the Alchemist.  I knew I’d be mocked by my fellow beer geeks if I drove to Waterbury and didn’t pick up a case.  They were out of beer (really, a brewery that is so popular they can run out of beer), but it would be available when they open at 11AM on Monday.

We chose not to head back Route 100, so we stopped by Montpelier and I popped into the Three Penny Taproom, another great beer bar.  I decided to try the Lost Nation Saison Lamoille, and I was quite impressed with my second beer from the brewery for the day.  Jacob guarded the car, keeping the ticket lady from giving me a ticket, and we then headed over to the Hunger Mountain Coop to check out their bottle selection.  I was hoping to find some Hill Farmstead bottles, they were sold out at the brewery so I guess there wasn’t much hope of finding any here.  They did have LFL Maple Wheat Ale, but I had already gotten some from Warren.  I did find some Anchorage brewing brews that I picked up (I come to VT for AK beers), before Jacob and I decided to head home. 

It was a good day – food, beer and companionship.  Jacob made a great co-pilot, concentrating the music selection with ‘80s Rock music that we both just smiled at, tune after tune.  I told hime that he could road trip with me anytime. - 6327/14346

 
 “Prohibition makes you want to cry into your beer and denies you the beer to cry into.” – Don Marquis