Crop Bistro & Brewery (Stowe, VT)

I randomly found Crop in between a hike up Vermont’s highest peak and a night in Burlington (see previous post), but am sure glad I did. Crop had several beers on tap, but as I had just finished a pretty exhausting morning all I craved was a refreshing American pale ale to go with my cobb salad. Luckily they had just the thing (no notebook on hand, so can’t remember the name of the brew) to quench my thirst. What I do remember is that it definitely packed a hoppy punch with all the fixin’s of your typical West Coast style: big, juicey fruit and floral flavors, with just enough bitterness to balance it out. I could’ve had several of these, but had plenty more drinkin’ to do later in the day!

There are several other hiking trails in this area, as well as skiing in the winter, so if you’re ever in or near Stowe, definitely check out Crop for some apres ski. I used the site EveryTrail.com  to find my course (Mt. Mansfield), which also has a great app for locating and logging hikes.

Zero Gravity Craft Brewery at American Flatbread and The Vermont Pub and Brewery (Burlington, VT)

Burlington, VT is home to four breweries, three within about four blocks of each other. I was fortunate enough to check out two of them on my recent pass-through of this area. The city of Burlington has an eclectic, artsy air about it, which supplies fertile ground for creative types, including brewers.

I started at Zero Gravity Craft Brewery, which is located within American Flatbread. In addition to a nice offering of multiple classic ales including several pales, a California common and a porter, Zero Gravity was also pouring some more experimental brews. The first, and by far one of the more rare offerings you’ll find, was a gruit. Gruit is essentially a beer made using several herbs and spices as opposed to hops, as was the custom prior to the 16th century (and earlier in some areas such as Germany… you should read about it, and you can actually thank political and religious oppression for the use of sweet sweet hops!). Zero’s Summer Gruit Ale contains some of the more traditional herbs you’d likely find in a medieval-style, including sweet gale, yarrow, mugwort and even tea. It really is the perfect summer ale on a hot, balmy day, as was the case on this 80% humidity day in July. There is hint of fruitiness, with a light body, and little to no bitterness despite the clear presence of herbs.

Zero’s Organic Saison was another great summer offering. It was not as dry as you might typically find among saisons, but still crisp and refreshing. My last sample was Hopscotch, a Peated India Pale Ale. This brew was not as smokey as I was anticipating, but definitely still had a moderate to high level of roast and bitterness.

After devouring one the phenomenal pizzas (ahem… flatbreads) at American Flatbread, I headed up the street to Vermont’s oldest brewpub, the aptly named Vermont Pub and Brewery. The restaurant and pub definitely have more of a neighborhood vibe than the bohemian, hipster feel of Zero Gravity, and offers a pretty wide range of beers as well as pub fare. I had a sampler of too many beers to review, but the highlights were definitely of the German and Belgian variety. Beetlejuice is a sour-mashed weissebier. It has your typical big yeasty flavors with the expected banana and clove, but with a nice added twist of a sharp acidic bite at the end. I’m assuming this comes with the sour mashing, which is likely pretty short as it is by no means tart. This beer definitely inspired me to try and recreate a beer that has quite honestly come to be a mainstay at craft brewpubs, with a pretty low amount of imagination. Most brewers seem to rely exclusively on the yeast to provide a majority of this style’s character, so it was nice to try a spin on a very classic beer. The other must try in my opinion is the Spuyten Duyvil, a Belgian sour red ale. This sour red had a little less tartness than is typical of say a Rodenbach Gran Cru, but had an added flavor of ‘barnyard’ (yes, I promise that is a common beer descriptor) from brettanomyces yeast. There is still the lactic acidity you would typically expect, but the brett quality really shines through for a complex and really tasty brew.

The city of Burlington itself is well worth the visit outside of the several breweries (also in Burlington is the brewpub 3 Needs, which I’m told has an extensive draft and bottle list of other sought after craft beers from Vermont, as well as the production brewery Switchback). A meadery and cidery are also within driving distance, and if you have the time (and have yet to begin your tour of imbibing) definitely check out some of the myriad hiking trails. Below is a snapshot I took while hiking halfway up Vermont’s highest peak, Mount Mansfield:

 

Hill Farmstead Brewery (Greensboro, VT)

Beautifully crafted beers surrounded by beautiful country. Hill Farmstead brews out of an old family barn and is set up more like a winery than a brewery. Samples are handed out on a small pavilion, and when you’re ready, bottles are sold from a counter in the barn. There really isn’t much else to say about Hill Farmstead as it’s beauty lies within its simplicity. You won’t find too many wild concoctions here, just good, well-crafted ales.

This simplicity is highlighted in their single hop series, consisting mainly of popular fruity, resiny American varieties such as Citra and Amarillo, and the very much en vogue hops of New Zealand.

The brewery sits on what was head brewer Shaun Hill’s grandfather’s property, and acts as an inspiration for many of the brews, as a majority of the beers are named after ancestors including both Hill’s grandfather (their flagship Edward) and great-father, Abner. The farm property does more than enhance the bucolic atmosphere, but produces several key ingredients. Some of the ‘wild’ ales are aged in barrels inoculated with the local microflora and Hill attributes the soft flavors of his beers to well water sourced directly from the farmstead.

Hill Farmstead has created several collaboration beers with some of the best breweries and brewers on the planet, including Cigar City of Tampa, FL, and famed Danish gypsy brewer Mikkel Borg Bjergsø of Mikkeller.

I was able to try several of the more hoppy beers available, including a session pale ale, and several imperial and double IPAs. What stood out among all of them was their consistent clean flavors and balance. The flavor components are recognizable and none of the ingredients overwhelm each other. This seams to be Hill’s goal, as recognizing and being able to bring out the best qualities from a few select ingredients oftentimes results in the best examples of craft.