In this episode we talk about Beer Advocate Meet Ups. They are a great way to meet other beer enthusiast in your area. BA Meet Ups occur all over the country, to find one near you go to the events page on Beer Advocates website. Most recently we attended the BA Meet Up in Vermont, this one was at Otter Creek Brewery in Middlebury. There was an amazing selection of beers including homebrews, rare beers, production breweries test batches, and beers from all over the US and the world. Some of the big labels at our event were Westvleteren 12, New Glarus Raspberry Tart, Russian River Damnation,New England Imperial Stout Trouper and the list goes on and on. What I like most is you can try these rare beers along side of more popular beers in the same style and determine for yourself what is hype and what is truly a world class beer. That and of course all of the great friends we make.
Thank you Mike Garhart for hosting this event and Ruth Miller for organizing and executing it. We had a blast and look forward to seeing everyone again soon, Cheers from here for the beer.
Episode 2 – Tonight we hosted a Victory beer sampling at our inn (Forty Putney Road) in Brattleboro Vermont. We sample the Wild Devil, Helios and Tim’s new favorite – V12.
Thanks for the questions and keep them coming. We intend to do this “show” on Tuesday and / or Thursdays – still working out the details. Any suggestions? When do you have time to watch?
VIDEO – Victory Brewing Company has recently been doing some expanding at the brewery. One of the reasons for the expansion is that as of today, Victory Brewing Company is now distributing in our great state of Vermont. We were lucky enough to get the first keg of Victory beer in Vermont at our Inn, and even more lucky to have Victory Co-Founder Bill Covaleski come up to share the first pint poured in Vermont with us!
In this episode we chat with Bill about the expansion of their distribution area and plans for New England. While Victory makes 30 different beers all of which are available at their pub in Downingtown, PA, Vermonters can look forward to trying the Hop Devil, Prima Pils, Golden Monkey, Storm King and Wild Devil starting this week. Your interest and demand will determine what other of their brews may make it our way.
Victory is one of my personal favorite breweries. It was Victory’s Hop Devil that turned me onto those glorious bitter sweet hops nearly 10 years ago. It was also the Victory Golden Monkey that taught me a hard lesson about ABV. Bill’s motto is “Respect the Monkey”, I know first hand why … hehe.
According to Bill Victory is now available in 39 states across the US. So grab yourself a Victory beer and tell us which one is your favorite, and which you are hoping to see near you. We will see you next time on here for the beer, Cheers!
From the New York Times article - B & Bs Seek to Be a Guy Thing
We are honored to have been mentioned in the New York Times! The best part is that they called us “beer geeks”, which is why I thought now was a perfect time to remind our readers that we have a great little Inn in Vermont with it’s own private pub for our guests.
Our small pub has about 35 beers (3 drafts) and focus on both local and interesting brews. We also have a beer tasting every Saturday night at 5:30 p.m. where our guests can sample 7 Vermont beers from a variety of Vermont breweries – each poured along with some lite fare and of course local cheeses.
Earlier we shared the story with you about Rock Art brewery and their fight with the Hansen Corporation over the use of the name “Vermonster”. Here is a video with Matt Nadeau of Rock Art Brewery explaining the situation.
Vermont Pub and Brewery owner and brewer Greg Noonan died in his sleep at home early Sunday morning. According to this Beer Advocate forum post visitors to the Vermont Pub and Brewery on Sunday found the pub closed, with a sign posted: “Greg Noonan March — 1951 – Oct. 11th 2009. ”
We always enjoyed chatting with Greg, who had some of the best craft beer stories to share in Vermont. Always approachable and generous, he had a strong impact on many brewers in our region. His reach though, was in fact much further than just our small state. Debbie Cerda, the Austin TX craft beer examiner had this to say:
He was a well-known speaker at brewers’ conferences and author of numerous trade journal articles and books.
Greg was instrumental in getting “brewpubs” legalized in Vermont, lobbying the State for years to legalize small pub brewing and distribution. In New England he is often spoken of as the “Godfather” of brewing in Vermont and we have not met a brewery owner in the state that hasn’t referenced Greg in at least one aspect of their own brewery. Many sources cite that his lobbying work and research in Vermont was used as a basis to legalize pub brewing in other states as well.
In 2005, Greg received an award for innovation in brewing from the American Brewers Guild. Business People-Vermont reported on Greg in this article:
Noonan was brewing beer as a hobby while working as a manufacturing manager for paper and wood products companies in Massachusetts. Microbreweries were just becoming trendy on the West Coast, and he decided to pursue the commercial possibilities for his craft.
He had managed restaurants in New Hampshire and Boston and wanted his own restaurant to feature his brew. He used the results of his research for Brewing Lager Beer to launch his brewpub in Burlington.
“I specifically sited my brewery in Burlington because it’s where I wanted to live. I admired the politics in Vermont,” says Noonan. “I had $175,000, which is a shoestring budget in the brewing industry; brewing equipment is very expensive.”
He applied to several banks for additional funds, but lenders were skeptical. “The banks all said, ‘What is a brewpub?’ But I plunged on anyway with the money I had.”
Greg Noonan was an inspirational brewer, not only in the larger context of his influence on the industry as a whole, but also on a personal level. At any visit to the Vermont Pub and Brewery Greg was happy to talk “shop” and share a pint. Our last meeting with Greg was at the Craft Brewers Conference, where always a good sport in the interest of beer, he “volunteered” to be in this video at cask night. His generosity and dedication to the craft brewing world will be missed throughout Vermont and undoubtedly throughout the entire brewing community.
The background on Greg in this post was shared by Debbie Cerda, be sure to subscribe to her blog.
I received an email last night from Matt Nadeau, the owner of Rock Art Brewery in Vermont. Rock Art is a small brewery that makes some notable beers. One of my personal favorites is their “Vermonster“, which is a big delicious 10% ABV 100 IBU barley wine. Well it seems that Hansen Beverage, the owners of Monster Energy Drink, have contacted Nadeau and threatened to file suit against Rock Art for the trademark infringement of using the word “Monster” in the name of this beer.
Rock Art has been brewing the “Vermonster” which has been trademarked in Vermont since 2006, and sells 95% of it within 50 miles of their Morrisville Vermont brewery. Recently, Nadeau has considered expanding the distribution of his “Vermonster”, which apparently has triggered the response of the Monster Energy Drink Legal team.
Not only is this ridiculous, but also a bit ironic considering that one of the most absurd series of trademark lawsuits of all time comes from “Monster Cable” who has a history of suing almost everyone who uses Monster in their name, including yes – Monster Energy Drink.
One of the “tests” of trademark infringement is often referred to (at least on my beloved Techdirt) as the “moron in a hurry” test. Could a moron in a hurry tell the difference between the two products in question?
Interestingly, when Nadeau offered to sign an agreement that Rock Art would never enter the “energy drink” market, he was told by Monster’s lawyers that they were not concerned with energy drinks, but that they intend to enter the beer market. Sadly that leads me to believe they are going to pump out another ridiculous “energy beer”.
Nadeau stated in his email that trademark infringement suits like this can cost upwards of $50,000 to defend, which doesn’t surprise me at all. Perhaps he should take to e-Bay like the owners of Monster Mini-Golf who were sued by the Monster Cable folks for trademark infringement earlier this year.
I wish Matt and the folks at Rock Art the best in this battle. I am sure that it’s not going to be an easy one. I will keep you updated as I get more information, but in the interim I suggest you go out and pick up a bottle or two (or 12) of the Rock Art Vermonster while you can.
Let’s face it, if the folks at Hansen Beverage were sipping on Rock Art’s beer instead of their “energy drink”, they probably wouldn’t be so on edge and we may not be telling this story at all.
From the elusive Lawson’s Finest Liquids of Vermont, the Chinooker’d IPA is an atomic hop bomb – and that bomb’s name is Chinook. This is Lawson’s award winning single hop IPA – with that single hop being Chinook for the slower readers out there. Chinook hops are not for everyone, especially me – but Amy got all hot over this brew. Call me a cascade pussy.
Bitter as hell, with a load of citrus and grapefruit in the taste. Far from poundable, at nearly 7% ABV and with a taste bud destroying hoppiness; Lawson’s Chinooker’d leaves a dry and almost perfumy aftertaste on the back of the tongue.
If you are looking for an East Coast hop monster, this beer certainly fits the bill and has an incredibly high flavor to dollar ratio. I won’t be going back for another, but hell – this is the perfect brew to get Amy all chinooker’d.
In this episode we venture north to Harpoon Brewery to check out the Harpoon Championships of New England BBQ competition. We enjoyed some great barbecue, great beer and live music all outside on a beautiful Vermont summer day. This family friendly event offered all of Harpoons standard beers and all of their craft brew soda’s (unfortunately they hid the Leviathan brews for the day). We were hoping to taste some of the BBQ delights from the infamous “I Smell Smoke” team, however it seems they were completely sold out in the first hour of the event. Perhaps next year!
Overall this was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon, my only wish was that I could have had a sample of two of the Leviathan Series. I was looking forward to taking home a growler of the newly released Big Bohemian Pilsner, but they were not offering it on draft. I guess we will have to give a call to Scott Shirley, head brewer at Harpoon Windsor, and give him a piece of our mind! Just kidding Scott…
I guess we will just have to order ourselves a case for our Putney Road Pub. So if you are in the Brattleboro area we hope that you will come join us for a pint!
In this episode, Mike Gerhart, Brewmaster for Otter Creek Brewery and Wolaver’s Organic Ales takes us on a “Beer Geek’s Brewery Tour”. This is not your typical “dumbed-down” brewery tour, so you won’t hear anyone explain what a mash tun is in this video. While not a super technical look, Mike shows us what it really takes to operate a moderate size brewery. We walked away filled with new found knowledge of the process and hope you are able to do the same.
For more about Mike Gerhart, Otter Creek Brewery and Wolaver’s Organic Ales checkout our other video “Otter Creek Brewery – Interview with New Brewmaster Mike Gerhart”. You can also visit them in Middlebury, Vermont. Of course, if you are making the trip up be sure to stay with us at Forty Putney Road B&B, the perfect spot to share a pint and relax from your trip.
In this episode we are invited up to Harpoon Brewery’s Windsor, Vermont location to see the bottling the forth beer in their new Leviathan series, a Quad. We jumped at the opportunity to get an inside look at Leviathan. We tasted the first in the series, Leviathan Triticus a wheat wine, in July of 2008 at the Vermont Brewer’s Festival in Burlington, VT. We were instantly impressed. We found ourselves equally impressed by the next two of the Leviathan series, the Baltic Porter and the Leviathan Imperial IPA. The good news is you can still find the Baltic Porter and Imperial IPA in stores, the bad news is Triticus was never bottled was only available in kegs, so it can not longer be found. However, according to Head Brewer at Harpoon Windsor, Scott Shirley, we will all have a second chance as they will be bottling another batch of Leviathan Triticus sometime this year. Scott was kind enough to chat with us and explain a little about the Quad and the Leviathan series, sharing whats next for the series in the interview (you’ll have to watch the video, don’t want to give it all away here!). If you are into heavyweight beers we highly recommend this Harpoon series.
In addition, Scott was gracious enough to show us around the newly renovated facility. Harpoon Brewery in Windsor, VT is no longer just a tasting room in the gift shop it is now a full fledged bar and restaurant. Open for lunch Sunday through Thursday (closed Mondays in Winter and Spring) and open for lunch and dinner Friday and Saturday. The new pub is beautiful with a spacious bar and dining room complete with a wood burning fireplace. Peek through the wall of windows to check out the brewery and bottling line, or take one of the weekend tours. There is more information on the Harpoon Website.
