Vermont: The Country's Raddest Beer Destination Is Full of Misty Mountains and Hazy IPAs

Here are 10 of its best, most influential breweries.

https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/best-breweries-in-vermont



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN RANGE RUNS LIKE A CURVED SPINE through Vermont, bisecting it north to south. Along it, you'll find places as varied and intricately intertwined as bustling Burlington and ghost towns like Buels Gore. Route 7 runs like a zipper past farmland, maple creemee stands, and mountainside farmhouses. I-89 and serpentine Route 100 beam past ski resorts and the state-spanning Long Trail. Along these billboard-free roads, there are a few constants. Local dairy can be found at the gas station. Three-hundred general stores operate among the 251 named towns. And beer is everywhere. “Vermont beer” isn't just a geographical designation; it's a categorical distinction, both fostered and defined by its home state. Genuinely experiencing one of America's most lauded, under-visited, and influential brewing movements means going to the source.

Forty years ago, bold statements about Vermont’s influence would have seemed ironic, if not implausible. Vermont was early to prohibition and late to transition out of it -- some areas stayed dry for nearly 80 years. But the late blooming of Vermont brewing culture was one of its greatest advantages. Beer writer and food historian Adam Krakowski, a specialist on Vermont bootlegging and teetotaling, says prohibition erased most brewing traditions and heritage from the culture entirely. In other words: it wiped the slate clean. “By then, you have carte blanche,” Krakowski says. “There’s no rules, trends, or history to follow. You are not bound. Vermont was the total wild west.” Today, Vermont has about 14 breweries per 100,000 people over 21, leading the country in number of craft breweries per capita. In the last decade, the number of local breweries has tripled. What started in the '90s with breweries like Magic Hat, Long Trail, Harpoon, and Otter Creek gave way to wild innovations that took everything the state represented and distilled it -- literally -- into some of the country's most respected and beloved beers.

The Alchemist probed the now-iconic rise of hazy, drink-fresh New England IPA, originally called Vermont IPA, with Heady Topper. Lawson’s Finest Liquids created the aura of the small-batch beer drop. Hill Farmstead revolutionized the craft beer canon with the normalization of the 750ml bottles. It also, as the first brewery in the world to use (and trademark) “farmstead” in its name, intentionally shifted the vocabulary around beer to a level of reverie previously reserved for wine. Breweries like these became pilgrimage sites for beer fans, proving the viability of a contemporary craft model: can art, four packs, destination releases and limited distribution. Vermont beer is what happens when you live in a small state, topographically whittled into small towns by mountains, with some of the best brewers in the world. Here, the old trope “You’re only as good as your competition" becomes "you’re only as good as your neighbors."

Brewers share equipment, materials, and help distribute each other’s beer. Sometimes, they set up shop directly across the street. Vermont beer is not only beer: it’s a signal of community, a tight-knit one where old-guard brewers adroitly cultivate the next generation's leaders before sending them off on their own. “I think Vermont is home to the best brewers and beer in the country due to the homegrown aspect,” says Krakowski. “[In] how many places could you go to your competition and ask for help to get better?" For most, visiting these breweries isn't a current option. And though Vermont beer is best experienced in person -- against the saturated greens of summer, wine-colored leaves in the fall or a glinting tundra of snow in the winter -- getting a taste of the state's best breweries offers an extrasensory opportunity to experience what "Vermont beer" really is. The 10 essential breweries on this subjective list don't cover the full spectrum. Vermont's gems are too many to fit neatly into a compact list, and extraordinary breweries are certainly missing. So when the time is right, go to Vermont and discover them. It’s a place to experience in person, with the blue haze of Green Mountains holding court below the skyline.



Hill Farmstead

Greensboro Bend

After studying philosophy in college and brewing in Denmark, brewmaster Shaun Hill opened a brewery in his barn, a quiet sanctuary in the mountains a dozen miles from cell service. The Hill family has lived for eight generations in the belly of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, an enigmatic and arrestingly beautiful sweep of land where the rural U.S. becomes something like Narnia. In the past decade, Hill Farmstead has been named the best brewery in the world for seven consecutive years; surpassed its original business goal by millions; and expanded beyond the barn to an adjacent rustic spaceship of an onsite tasting room. Glowing pours of Anna, Edward, Poetica, and more of the best beer in the world can be sipped on the porch, a picnic blanket on the grass, or alongside a small, clear pond.

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