The Alchemist - Waterbury

The Alchemist is a really cool place - a little funky in a Vermont way. Good selection of beer, french fries were a hit. We saw a rainbow on the way home, nice way to end a long day of brewery hopping (6 breweries in one day)!

Magic Hat - South Burlington

Magic Hat is by far the coolest place we've been.

Lost in Burlington & Vermont Art

Photo 1: We found this cool tower of filing cabinets.

Photo 2: Lost, after only 1 beer, really.

Switchback - South Burlington

Switchback was closed too... met a nice worker there, got our stamp, and moved on!

Three Needs - Burlington, VT

They weren't open but this nice Three Needs employee unlocked the door and gave us a stamp!
I think we were so excited about the stamp because we walked to the wrong parking garage (in the rain) and couldn't find our car(Abby and Tracy share a keen sense of direction). Eventually with the help of our children we found our vehicle and headed to Switchback!

American Flatbread - Burlington, VT

Reflecting on the summer :)

Here it is only 6 days before school starts and I’ve had the best summer I can remember in years. I’m thankful for the special memories with my boys, Mark, my friends and family. The weather has been exceptional, gorgeous, hot, perfect, summer weather! I’ve been fortunate to make it to 12 breweries to date with my dear friend Abby. Spending time with Abby has been a complete joy and source of peace and happiness for me. I’ve certainly gained a few beer pounds in the tummy but I’ve loved every pound. I couldn’t be happier to know and learn that my all time favorite Vermont Beer is less than 15 miles down the road. I guess you really don’t have to look far to find the good things in life! Cheers~Tracy

Vermont Pub and Brewery - Burlington, VT

McNeill’s Pub and Brewery 90 Elliot Street, Brattleboro

July 9 2010

Tracy got a flat tire!!! (see How we Met Tiny)Agggh. Bummer.

So Owen and I continued on to Brattleboro. McNeills was by far the most interesting and the smallest. Located on a side street in downtown Brtlboro, along a section of one level, older buildings. No lunch or dinner type foods served, so Owen and I ate at Frankies (Pizza, grinders and pasta….)located right across the street, and then went back to McNeills. Frankies was a great place to eat with reasonable prices and homemade checkerboard tables, also interesting was that they had signs that said BYOB…

We finally got into the pub around 1:30. My first impression was that it was a very funky artistic place. Old wood surrounds the entire inside with interested colored glass light fixtures as well as wood and stone sculptures. There is even a very large chair fit for perhaps the days of Robin Hood? Owen really liked the chair. The inside is what I would imagine an old fashion beer hall might look like? Many large long tables with chairs and a bar against the wall.

The beer. The unlucky day continues here…..the first two beers were not available so I settled for a medium light beer….from the tap which was exellent. The tap was very unique, not sure how to explain this but it worked by hand pumping. Seemed to operate on the compression of air? The barmaid pumped the handle a few times and then out came the beer. I was a little flustered over not having my first and second beer choice, so didn’t write the name of the beer down…you’ll just have to go and try them yourself!! No tour of the brewery available, but the barmaid told me the master brewer brews down stairs in the basement.

Overall not your cookie cutter place and happy to see some small pubs still operate and have some character!!
Rating: B+ for uniqueness and small hometown feel.

Madison Brewing Company Bennington Vermont

July 18 2010


So this trip to Madison was with my family Craig, Dylan and Owen. Tracy and family were in Pittsfie1d I think? I would like to apologize in advance to all the Redsox fans reading this as Craig insisted on wearing his Yankees shirt. It appears in one pictutre.

Madison is located on Main Street in a two story brick building. When entering one is struck by the high ceiling and long bar that covers the back wall. There is a knight in shining armor to greet you by the door (he just stands there, no one hiding inside it).
There are options to eat downstairs, or upstairs where you can see down into the bar area. You can also eat outside on the roof top terrace, which also has a small cabana style bar. The views are beautiful!! The green mountains almost looked purple/blue due to the humidity?(about 92 degrees that day). The Dylan and Owen left to roam the streets and check out the local shops.

I ordered a Wassick Beer (white) and Craig got a Long Hammer (not a Madison beer). 4 of the 7 beers they brew had run out over the weekend so like McNeills Pub we were a little limited in choice. The Wassick has a thick taste to it and they put an orange slice in it which adds a nice little citrus flavor, Captain Craig who doesn’t like beer (figures he is a Yankees fan) said the Long Hammer was good and that he could drink that if he needed to….! You can tell this place gets very busy on the weekends, it has a college town vibe with young wait staff and lots of patrons for a Sunday.

Check out the food we ordered, a Turkey Cranberry Melt and a Buffalo Wrap. It was delicious!

Rating: A for fun atmosphere, good beer and exellent views of VERMONT!

EXTRA TID BITS…..
On Rt. 9 from Brattleboro to Bennington we stopped at 3 places that are worth mentioning. The first is WaHooo Eatery. Its like a fancy Whippi Dip. But wow is the food good! They use local Vermont produce, it’s clean and they have healthy choices as well as less healthy choices. They also compost and recycle. Craig loved the Philly Cheese Steak wrap and Dylan and Owen said the Cheeseburgers were the best they have ever had.

Also we stopped at both Vt State Parks, as I love to camp at Vt parks. First on Rt. 9 is Molly Stark State Park (named after an independent woman who raised 11 children and was a key reason the battle of Bennington was a success). 23 campsites, 11 lean to shelters and a hiking trail to a fire tower. Very nice bathrooms and clean. We are going back here the end of August to camp for the weekend.

Woodford State Park is 30 minutes past Molly Stark on Rt 9 West. This campground surrounds Adams Reservoir, much bigger and has separate tenting/lean to sites. A small playground a small beach access. Very clean as well and the sites seemed generous.

Norwich Inn and Brewery

Mark and I went on a date to celebrate 15 years of marriage -woo hoo! Norwich Inn it was... I forgot the camera (but you probably live close enough to drive down and see it in person. Quite charming indeed, especially the patio area).
Loved my beer! Oh be Joyful gets the best rating of all beers thus far ~ 10 ~ Yumm-o!!
Mark had Whistling Pig Red Ale and enjoyed it. Atmosphere was lovely. Food was delicious! Great place to celebrate our marriage.

Ratings

Beer Ratings:

Harpoon Summer 9 (Tracy)
Harpoon Raspberry UFO 6 (Abby)


Long Trail Blackberry Wheat 7 (Tracy)
Long Trail IPA 6 (Abby)

McNeil's (Abby)

Madison (Abby)

Oh be Joyful Norwich Inn and Brewery 10 (Tracy)
Whistling Pig Red Ale Norwich Inn and Brewery 7 (Mark)

Vermont Pub and Brewery Bombay Grap IPA 9 (Abby)
Vermont Pub and Brewery Grand Slam - not rated (Tracy)

Magic Hat Summer Wacko 7 (Abby)
Magic Hat Summer Wacko 8 (Tracy)

Alchemist Lightweight 7 (Tracy)
Alchemist Shut the Hell Up 6 (Abby)


French Fry Ratings:

Harpoon 8 (Noah)
Harpoon 6 (Isaac)
Harpoon 8 (Owen)


Long Trail 7 (Noah)
Long Trail 9 (Isaac)
Long Trail 9(Owen)

Vermont Pub and Brewery 10 (Noah)
Vermont Pub and Brewery 10 (Isaac)
Vermont Pub and Brewery 10 (Owen)

Alchemist 9 (Noah)
Alchemist 1 (Isaac)
Alchemist 9.5 (Owen)

How we met Tiny!

Next stop, McNeil's. Owen had a baseball game in Brattleboro so we caravan'd south, meeting at the truck stop in Lebanon. First mistake, pulling into the truck stop... Apparently I ran over a bolt - totally flattened my tire. And this is where Tiny comes in.
Across the parking lot walks a 7'2" 300-and-something-pound-man (see photo). It's 97ish degrees out and wicked humid and this mammoth man doesn't hesitate to crawl under my car to help. He tells us his he's a repo man from Ohio. He goes around repo'n 18 wheelers (big rigs). He packs lead because his job is so dangerous. In fact, just last month he was shot in the stomach while on a repo mission. Tiny had to kill that guy. While we chatted with Tiny, his wife sat waiting in a truck across the lot (she had a gun). Abby got Tiny a blanket to lay on, we emptied my car (which was full of camping stuff and feminine sanitary products), the boys got into Abby's car (because Tiny creeped them out and it was hot) and Tiny began to try and remove my spare tire. It didn't work. The tire was stuck. I went to the garage next store and asked to borrow a better jack (Tiny's request). The garage guy wheeled it out to us, eyeballed the situation, and offered an opinion or two before going back into the garage. Next, two friendly looking dad's and their son stop to see what's going on .... So they start to help too. Total count 4 men, 2 moms, 4 kids (including the friendly dad's son) still the tire won't come off. So we find the bolt in my old tire and roll it over to the garage next door (The dad's suggest we ask them to plug the hole). The garage guys do it, my old tire is fixed. Tiny put it back on but my spare is flopping from the bottom of my car and it won't come off. At this point Owen's going to be late for his baseball game. So we wave good bye and send Abby and Owen to McNeil's in Brattleboro. To make a long story end, we had to drive my car into the garage and have the mechanics torch off my spare tire. Now I'm driving around with my spare in the third row seating area. We made it home. Abby and Owen made it to McNeil's and didn't give it high ratings. The end of day 2.