Hill Farmstead - Greensboro Bend, VT

Hill Farmstead is very well known among beer geeks or beer enthusiasts or beer nerds..whoever they are they know this brewery. Located about an hour outside of Waterbury..home of the Alchemist, this place is hidden in the middle of lots of farmland and thank god for a GPS because I would have had no clue where I was going.

After reading plenty of reviews, I knew this place gets packed early and you can expect to wait. We arrived about 30 minutes early and already had about 20 people in line.  We waited, and waited, finally opened! You then go inside a building where you wait again.  Very basic farm house here with an organized process of getting you your beers.  You step up, tell them what you want, they take your growlers and you wait a few minutes and boom..it's done!

The one nice thing is when you get close to the counter, a nice woman comes and takes an order for 4 samples for 5$.  You can choose any 4 of the beers and she brings them to you one by one. 
Between me and my girlfriend and friend we got 9 growlers.  The Susan is just an incredible IPA.  Society and Solitude #4 outstanding. Abner was really good. The Walden Session was a really nice session.  And for a porter the Everett was incredible.  But for growlers it was all about Society and Solitude #4 and Susan...they killed it!

They have a few t-shirts and very nice stemmed glasses for sale. They also sell bottles of different beers they make..none of the IPAs or anything, usually sours and farmhouse ale type beers.

I wouldn't make the trek out here again, too far and too much work for a few growlers. BUT it did look like they were constructing a tasting room perhaps, and in Waterbury you can get most the beers on tap..so I would stick to that.  They update their taplist daily and are open most days expect Monday and Tuesdays I believe, check them out...www.hillfarmstead.com/

Magic Hat Brewing Co - South Burlington, VT

One word will describe my experience here..SHOCKED.  Now my experiences with Magic Hat isn't much expect that I had tried it once or twice and was never a huge fan.  But I figured hey..it's in the area why not check it out? Now if I had to describe this brewery in one word it would be..Eclectic. 

Upon arriving you are greeted by a giant lighthouse type structure near the entrance and a giant steel door to walk through.  In the building there is a giant room with dim lighting and just a green lit feel to it.  Tons of merchandise..all sorts of cool little things I haven't seen at other breweries.  Even a free photo booth that allows you to take fun pictures and they get emailed to you for free.

As for the beer you get 4 free samples you can choose from the 6-8 beers they typically have on tap.  Being such a long day already, I can't even recall each one I had but I will say I did enjoy them and that surprised me.

They offer tours, which from the looks of the brewery I bet are pretty unique tours.  I bought some merchandise, enjoyed the beers and now I can proudly say I am a Magic Hat fan.  I probably won't be buying their buys on a constant basis but I do look for them now every once in a while and want to give them a chance.  If you are in the Burlington area do yourself a favor and check them out...www.magichat.net/

Otter Creek Brewing Co - Middlebury, VT

Having a little free time we decided to take a hike to Otter Creek Brewing Company located outside of Burlington about 35 minutes.  Quite in the middle of no where we arrived to a packed house on a Wednesday afternoon. Granted it was July 3rd so maybe a lot of people were off?

When we first walked in we saw the head brewer, headband and all sitting at the beer drinking. If you drink Otter Creek you know the guy on the label with the headband.  We got a seat at the bar and ordered a full sampler. This gave us all Otter Creek beers, along with Wolavers and Shedd.  The beers can all be seen below.  The highlights were the Otter Creek Session Ale, Black IPA and Wolavers Wheat was better than I expected. The rest were okay.

We grabbed a cheese plate which had some fantastic local cheeses and definetely worth the money.

There is a small gift shop with merchandise and plenty of 6 packs to take home.  I would recommend this place if you have time to spare or are driving through the area, but I wouldn't go super out of the way since you can get most the beers in beer stores.  Their hours are really nice and they're open daily. Check them out...www.ottercreekbrewing.com/

Alchemy Brewing - Waterbury, VT

 

Now granted I did NOT actually visit this brewery, however my brother did and I got the low down..however by the end of this year I do plan on going to see it myself.
-This place became popular because of one beer..The Alchemist Heady Topper and after drinking one I know why...it's quite possibly one of the best beers in this country.  It is served in a tall can. You can only buy it at the brewery and limited stores in the area, and from what I was told it isn't extremely easy to find. However with some detective skills, they got plenty of cases.
-This beer is served quite thick, and we learned that turning it upside down for some time before drank will heighten the taste because a lot of the goodies in the beer are at the bottom...don't believe us? Try it for yourself!
-We also agreed, this is one of few micro brews that tastes just as good if not better when drank out of the can.
-Heed our advice...if you live any where in this area or within 8 hours driving this beer is WORTH every penny and every mile driven.
Are you ready for a heady? Check them out!  http://www.alchemistbeer.com/