The Stops:

Vermont Pub and Brewer is the third oldest brew pub on the east coast. VPB has been honored as one of the nation’s 25 best craft breweries by the book, America’s Best Brews. Known throughout Vermont, VPB’s beers are unfiltered, unpasteurized and unadulterated, giving these beers a non-uniform, un-equivalent refreshing taste. VPB utilizes only artesian imported hops and fresh malt, making their beer delightfully refreshing.

American Flatbread works daily toward the apex of artisan flatbread and handcrafted beer. Paul Saylor, Brew master and owner strives to give his customers the opportunity to experience styles of beer which are uncommon in USA. Under the house brand name American Flatbread, Zero Gravity offers an assortment of unique beers brewed right from they’re ‘on premise brewery’. You will instantly fall in love with the delicious organic flatbread and effervescent micro-brewed beer. LUNCH WILL BE SERVED HERE!

Switchback Brewing Company

Located in Burlington, Vermont, Switchback Brewing Company was founded in 2002 by a formally trained master brewer and his friend, the vision was to concentrate limited resources into making just a few beers to achieve the highest quality possible. The success of the flagship beer, Switchback Ale, has driven constant expansion for over 7 years and made the release of three Special beers, Roasted Red Ale, Porter, and Slow-Fermented Brown Ale possible. Switchback is currently distributed in Vermont, New Hampshire and in the Albany region of New York. All Tours will have the chance to meet one of Switchback’s knowledgeable brewers.

The Magic Hat Brewing Company.

Interested in visiting Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, well you can’t, however you can visit the Magic Hat Brewing Company. Established in 1994, Magic Hat embodies similar characteristics and values as its fictional brethren. Like a gelatin-encased sponge animal dropped into warm water, the Magic Hat Brewery has been constantly expanding. BBT customers will witness the new bottle line as bottles rush to be filled with fresh social lubrication. In addition,Magic hat’s new sampler bar will satisfy all your inquiries with a symphony of stimulating tastes sure to send you into a frenzy. Come see where the beer constantly flows.

The Stowe Brew Tour unites the region’s handcrafted beers with the land of Vermont through a pairing of locally-grown fresh vegetables, all natural meats and artisan cheeses. This Full day 5-hour all-inclusive beer excursion showcases the heart of Vermont’s beer culture, by visiting 3 of the top breweries in the state. Learn the art of brewing first hand, from an expert brewer. The Stowe Beer Adventure includes, a sampling and formal analysis of 15 different micro-brews, a very special food and beer pairing at the world reknown Pickwick’s Pub, your own souvenir glass and your own 16 oz can of the Alchemist’s New Heady Topper.

Mr. Pickwick’s Gastropub @ The Ye Olde England Inn

Mr. Pickwick’s Gastropub at the Ye Olde England Inn sets a new standard of luxury. In their CELLARS rest several thousand bottles of wine, vintage ports, rare cognacs, single malts and small batch bourbons alongside an impressive 150 varieties of rare ales and lagers. “The Brew Connoisseur Collection” is an assemblage of rare award winning beers paired locally-grown and organically-produced fresh vegetables, natural meats and artisan cheeses. Critically acclaimed by the International Press, it offers “something unique and satisfying to every palate.”

Rock Art Brewery

Rock Art Brewery was born in the mountains of Vermont, inspired by the spirit of Kokopelli and guided by the beers of the world.  The brewery name symbolizes ancient petroglyphs, images that were etched in rock, therefore “Rock Art”.  Kokopelli is one of those images and some believed him to be a wandering flute player that brought music and good times to the people that he visited.  So grab some “Rock Art” and your friends, and maybe you’ll see Kokopelli too.

Trapp Brewery @ The Trapp Family Lodge

The hills are alive with the taste of Beer is how the song was originally written! More than a decade ago Johannes von Trapp started thinking about brewing his own beer, for guests of the resort. His dream was to produce an American version of the tasty Lager he has enjoyed over the years on his trips to the countryside near his ancestral Austrian home. Trapp Brewery is a popular apres ski destination, with it’s tasty food and brew it is a great place to relax after a day on the slopes. But don’t forget that Stowe, VT is packed with recreational opportunities all year round.

The Alchemist Cannery

The Alchemist Cannery is newest 15 barrel, small production brewery specializing in fresh, unfiltered IPAs in the region.  Alchemist uses only the finest imported malts and domestic hops available to bring you the tastiest and finest selection of beers in Vermont!  After eight successful years of running The Alchemist Pub and Brewery, John and Jennifer Kimmich have built The Alchemist Cannery. Get you hands on the most popular double IPA 16 oz can of Heady Topper!

From Pilsners to Stouts, our cool beer geek guides will introduce you to award-winning beers of all styles and flavors. Whether you’re a light beer person or connoisseur, every tour includes the opportunity to see first hand the inner workings of some of Vermont top breweries. From tasting the raw ingredients to pouring from the taps, our beer geeks walk you through every step of the beer making process. We provide the opportunity to pick a real brewers brain during our Burlington Brew Tour Q&A sessions.

What tour isn’t complete with lots of beer and food! Each Burlington Brew Tour includes a tasting and an in-depth analysis of almost 20 different beers. Every beer has its own little history and we make sure you know that history. A few hours of beer sampling can make a person hungry; each tour includes a delectable lunch at one of Burlington’s top eateries. Yes… All this is included in the price every tour!

The Stops:

Das Bierhaus

Resembling an old Austro-german ski chalet, Das Bierhaus’s marries homemade, authentic German food with some of the best brews in the world.  You may not speak Deutsch, but you sure will eat like one. Enjoy our handpicked sampler dish of wiener schnitzel, 4 different types of Wurst, locally sourced sauerkraut, german potato salad, and sweet tangy red cabbage. Dirndls, Schnitzel, Wurst, Mustard, Alpinism, Spass, Rooftop Biergarten, Understand why we call this the German Taste tour!

The Magic Hat Brewing Company.

Interested in visiting Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, well you can’t, however you can visit the Magic Hat Brewing Company. Established in 1994, Magic Hat embodies similar characteristics and values as its fictional brethren. Like a gelatin-encased sponge animal dropped into warm water, the Magic Hat Brewery has been constantly expanding. BBT customers will witness the new bottle line as bottles rush to be filled with fresh social lubrication. In addition,Magic hat’s new sampler bar will satisfy all your inquiries with a symphony of stimulating tastes sure to send you into a frenzy. Come see where the beer constantly flows.

**Unfortunately with Vermontopia vouchers, once you have requested a tour date and have received an e-mail confirmation there will be no modification or changes to that date**

Burlington’s not big, but it’s definitely beer-soaked. A college town with granola sensibility, here all kinds of craft—beer, cheese and more—flourish on the banks of Lake Champlain.

by Sarah L. Stewart

BREWERIES

Vermont boasts more breweries per capita than any other state, combining nearly two dozen brewers with a population smaller than Alaska’s. Burlington—the largest city, with 39,000 residents—has been a brewing hub since the late beer pioneer Greg Noonan opened Vermont Pub & Brewery (Downtown, vermontbrewery.com) in 1988. Vermont’s oldest craft brewery debuted with Burly Irish Ale, a malty, easy-drinking red; it remains VPB’s most celebrated, followed by the floral, 77-IBU Bombay Grab IPA and Forbidden Fruit, a punch-color framboise brewed with 500 pounds of raspberries. Locals pack American Flatbread (Downtown, americanflatbread.com) for house-brewed Zero Gravity beers like TLA IPA and seasonal offerings like the hopless, herbal Solstice Gruit, served alongside crave-worthy organic pizzas made from local ingredients like homemade maple-fennel sausage and creamy goat cheese. The nation’s eighth-largest craft brewer, Magic Hat (South Burlington, magichat.net), offers free half-hour tours of its theatrical, colorfully lit “Artifactory,” complete with memorabilia from Magic Hat’s 16-year history and samples of lemongrass-wheat Circus Boy and the flagship No. 9. A $60 ticket on Burlington Brew Tours (Greater Burlington, burlingtonbrewtours.com) includes lunch, samples of two dozen beers and transportation to each of the above breweries with a self-described beer geek/homebrewer as your guide. The tour also visits Switchback Brewing Co. (South Burlington, 802.651.4114), made popular by both word-of-mouth and its unfiltered, reddish-amber Switchback Ale and the new Slow-Fermented Brown Ale, both available only on tap or in small kegs; free tours of the brewery take place every Saturday.

BARS

Home to the University of Vermont, Burlington starts thumping when the sun sets over Lake Champlain—most noticeably at Red Square Bar & Grill (Downtown, redsquarevt.com), where nightly live music and DJs can be heard throughout a several-block radius. Local draft selections include Switchback’s Roasted Red Ale and nearby Stowe’s Shed Mountain Ale. Next door, sports bar Akes’ Place (Downtown, akesplace.com) pours Vermont brews like Long Trail Blackberry Wheat and Rock Art IPA on tap, along with several Magic Hat varieties among its nearly three dozen bottle options. A Burlington fixture since 1975, funky bar/restaurant/music lounge Nectar’s (Downtown, liveatnectars.com) claims fame as the spot where a fledgling rock band took flight to become Phish.

DINE

Given Vermont’s übergranola vibe and plentitude of dairies and farms, it’s no surprise that organic, local and seasonal ingredients take center stage on Burlington plates. On the 100 percent recycled-paper menu at Magnolia Breakfast and Lunch Bistro (Downtown, magnoliabistro.com), fair-trade, organic bananas flavor the house-baked banana bread French toast, and marinated local beef anchors the steak and eggs.

A half-hour outside town in a restored brick grist mill along a cascading stream, upscale Hen of the Wood (Waterbury, henofthewood.com) features local produce, meats and 13 artisan cheeses (see sidebar), as well as wild ingredients like its namesake mushroom on a bacon- and poached-egg-topped piece of griddled bread. Leunig’s Bistro & Café (Downtown, leunigsbistro.com) channels an authentic Parisian open-air bistro, offering local cheeses and a $15 prix-fixe late-night dinner menu that includes classic vegetable-and-white-bean soup and savory steak frites. Bove’s (Downtown, boves.com) is a family-run, hole-in-the-wall Italian café that opened in 1941; its signature all-natural pasta sauces like roasted garlic and vodka sell in grocery stores around the country.

SLEEP

Near the lakeshore, the Courtyard Burlington Harbor (Waterfront, marriott.com) and Hilton Burlington (Waterfront, hilton.com) breathe some of the city’s best views of the water and New York’s Adirondack Mountains on the opposite side of the lake. Both are a hop, skip and a jump from downtown’s restaurants, shops and bars. The quaint, former 19th-century boarding house Sunset House Bed and Breakfast (Downtown, sunsethousebb.com) features four distinct, antique-furnished rooms in the center of town. Walking distance from downtown and campus, the 11-room, 1880s-era Lang House on Main Street (Hill, langhouse.com) includes a gourmet breakfast, served with one of the state’s most famous exports: maple syrup (organic, of course).

DO

The commercial and cultural center of Burlington is the historic brick-paved Church Street Marketplace (Downtown, churchstmarket place.com) pedestrian mall. Bars, restaurants and more than 100 stores line its four blocks, including independent shops ideal for scoring unique holiday gifts. The nearby Flynn Center for the Performing Arts (Downtown, flynncenter.org) began as a vaudeville house in the 1930s and now presents an eclectic year-round lineup, from bluegrass musicians to “A Christmas Carol.” Less than an hour from Burlington, the Green Mountains’ 300-inch average annual snowfall gives snow bunnies some of the East’s best skiing at Stowe Mountain Resort (Stowe, stowe.com) and Smugglers’ Notch Resort (Smugglers’ Notch, smuggs.com). The Burton Flagship Store (South End, burton.com), in the global headquarters of the snowboard supply company, is a cavernous gear shop where you can stock up before hitting the slopes or lounge by the stone fireplace and pet one of the resident lab mixes. Free tours of the Ben & Jerry’s Factory (Waterbury, benjerry.com) show visitors the manufacturing and packaging of the ice cream brand born in Burlington in 1978—and yes, samples are included. •

Cheese, please! Artisan cheeses are the microbrews of the dairy industry—and like craft brewers, Vermont has more than its fair share of cheesemakers. Better than 40 dot the state’s rolling rural landscape, producing 150-plus varieties of cow, goat and sheeps’ milk cheeses that are often only available locally or regionally. At Willow Hill Farm (Milton, sheepcheese.com), 15 miles northeast of Burlington, visitors can watch cheesemakers at work and purchase award-winning farmstead varieties like supple Butternut and creamy Autumn Oak in a self-service retail room. Just don’t ask Willow Smart, who in 1991 established the 500-acre sheep-and-cow farm with her husband, David Phinney, to pick a favorite. “It’s kind of like asking someone which is your favorite kid,” Smart says. Nine miles south of Burlington, Shelburne Farms (Shelburne, shelburnefarms.org) is known for its farmhouse Cheddar, made from its own Brown Swiss cows’ milk and aged six months to two years. Another 16 miles south sits Champlain Valley Creamery (Vergennes, cvcream.com), home to an organic, soft-ripened triple crème. The number of artisan cheesemakers in Vermont has grown rapidly since the ’90s, and so too has the state’s reputation for quality cheese: A 2006 estimate valued Vermont’s annual farmstead cheese industry at around $10 million and climbing.

Prevent the infamous Hangover Humbug

not have been faced with the infamous holiday hangover after indulging in some “festive spirits”.  A question that might have crossed your mind is how you could have minimize these unpleasant after effects while not having to forego your favorite brew with friends and families. Well, the answer is…get to know your Congeners!

Congeners “contribute to an alcohol’s unique color, odor, and taste, and punish your head and belly the morning after”.  CNN health delves into more detail about this in a recent article titled “Being Choosy about booze helps avoid hangovers”.  According to the article, the rule of thumb is the darker the liquor, the bigger the hangover.

In the study, 95 people between the ages of 21 and 35 were served either Wild Turkey bourbon or Absolut vodka (which have roughly the same alcohol content) mixed with caffeine-free Coke, which was designed to mask the taste of the liquor. According to the study, bourbon, which is aged in oak barrels, has 37 times as many congeners as vodka, which is heavily filtered to remove impurities.

The people who drank bourbon reported more severe hangovers than the people who drank vodka, but they weren’t any less alert.

This is all well and good, however this is a Burlington Brew Tour blog, so what about the beer…

The staff at BBT did some reading to help out our fellow beer enthusiast and unlike liquor, color or hue in beer does not affect a beer’s likely hangover potential. In brewer’s yeast, especially lager yeast, there are natural chemical byproducts which form during the fermentation process. One of these chemical byproducts is Acetaldehyde.  This chemical usually imparts a green apple flavor in beer. Beer behemoth Anheuser-Busch has been said to have the highest level of this hangover catalyst. Acetaldehyde is typically inappropriate in any beer style, though Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser has integrated it within their flavor profile by using beechwood chips in the fermentation to drop the yeast out of the solution before it can be reduced to ethanol, a byproduct of yeast breaking down sugar.

So, what can we gather from this? We at BBT pride ourselves in supporting our local Vermont breweries that do not focus on quantity, yet quality, and have a much more intimate and involved role within their brewing processes. With smaller staffed outfits, ownership that takes the time to engage and get to know their consumers, and a more organic brewing style than the “big guys”, going local ensures that we say bye to the byproducts and hello to a more enjoyable experience during and after indulging in your favorite brews.

Don’t forget, this is only part of the formula to preventing a hangover, and much of it relies on your own responsibility and ability to monitor your intake at the company jingle ball or Grandma’s holiday gathering.

We hope you all had a very hoppy holiday season and this information helps you enjoy some local brews with macro taste and micro adverse effects the day after!

Switchback Porter & Mussels at RiRa's on Church St.

These conditions, however, did not stop my weekly ritual of microbrews and half-price burgers at RiRa’s, located along Church Street market place.

If you haven’t been in Burlington for Christmas, colorful lights shine throughout the streets, families bustle around to get their last minute shopping in, and to top it off, a thin layer of snow covers everything. A true winter wonderland!

Due to temperature drops, I knew tonight’s microbrew of choice had to be the new Switchback Porter.  Unlike ice-cold light beer, porters warm you from the inside out. After checking out the wide range of menu options, I decided to skew from my usual Guinness barbecue burger and go with mussels in whiskey garlic butter sauce.

The porter’s rich creamy flavor paired splendidly with the mussels.  It was so tasty that I had to snap the picture after the 2nd round. Switchback released this new brew December 6th, so I was very excited to see more pubs and restaurants carrying it.  Next time, I‘ll probably have to go back to my usual burger, but this dish and drink combo were exactly what the doctor prescribed on this frosty winter night.

The moral of this post; bundle up and whether it be RiRa’s or the local liquor store you frequent,  go out and try the new Switchback Porter!