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Jon

What are ya drinking?

By Jon, in General Discussion

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checko    180

checko
Posted

Since it's starting to feel like summer I've been drinking Saranac Summer Shandy. It's great for standing by the grill

Went up to visit a friend in Utica a couple years back and we went to the brewery for Saranac Thursday. Whooooo boy did I get bent up that night. I've stayed a fan of their stuff.

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DeerSlayer    241

DeerSlayer
Posted

Switchback Brewery in VT is my favorite VT beer. Yumm!

I was there as well, they just opened an awesome new tasting room with a bar at the brewery. They also had some excellent hot dogs they cooked in beer. I met one of the brewmasters really nice people, and their beer is great!

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RecessedFilter    222

RecessedFilter
Posted

I was there as well, they just opened an awesome new tasting room with a bar at the brewery. They also had some excellent hot dogs they cooked in beer. I met one of the brewmasters really nice people, and their beer is great!

 

Sounds like you went to quite a few breweries. You should check out the VT brewery tour. The more breweries you go to, the more free stuff you get. My girlfriend and I found out about it last year and we made it to 8 breweries. We got some cool little free things but you have to go to 3/4 or all of them to get the cool things (free tshirts, frisbees, pint glasses, etc).

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RecessedFilter    222

RecessedFilter
Posted

Unfiltered, organic ingredients, and a touch of VT honey. I'm a huge fan of Wolaver's but haven't tried this one yet. It's very very good. Their oatmeal stout is one of the better ones as well.

 

Nothing like sipping it while eating some of the best Nj thin crust pizza -Chimney Rock.

 

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DeerSlayer    241

DeerSlayer
Posted

Sounds like you went to quite a few breweries. You should check out the VT brewery tour. The more breweries you go to, the more free stuff you get. My girlfriend and I found out about it last year and we made it to 8 breweries. We got some cool little free things but you have to go to 3/4 or all of them to get the cool things (free tshirts, frisbees, pint glasses, etc).

I like the idea of someone else driving me around. We were there for a week this year. Before brewfest. We did our own tour, got our passports at magic hat and did 10 breweries all together throughout the week, for the free t-shirt at brewfest from the VT brewers association. There are 20 on the passport, each place you go gives you a stamp. this was my 8th year in a row going to brewfest. I usually visited one or two because we were only there camping for the weekend in the past. This year we all rented a house in Charlotte for the week on lake Champlain. So we had more time to see more places then we usually did in the past. Went to a few wineries as well for the girls. I love that state!

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RecessedFilter    222

RecessedFilter
Posted

I like the idea of someone else driving me around. We were there for a week this year. Before brewfest. We did our own tour, got our passports at magic hat and did 10 breweries all together throughout the week, for the free t-shirt at brewfest from the VT brewers association. There are 20 on the passport, each place you go gives you a stamp. this was my 8th year in a row going to brewfest. I usually visited one or two because we were only there camping for the weekend in the past. This year we all rented a house in Charlotte for the week on lake Champlain. So we had more time to see more places then we usually did in the past. Went to a few wineries as well for the girls. I love that state!

 

That's cool man. I've been going for the past 4-5 years and I love it up there. If my girlfriend and I can figure out work up there, if and when we move out of NJ, we will be heading to Vermont.

 

Where do you usually camp at? We've camped at a couple different places with Apple Island being one of the nicer grounds but it is kind of out of the way. We usually use Burlington as our "center" for vacation and take day trips or multiple-day trips outside of the there. When we spring for a rental, we usually rent a cabin up in Jeffersonville. Beautiful cabins on beautiful land. You pay for it but it's fully worth it.

 

What's your favorite brewery/beer up there? Everyone loves Magic Hat but I have a love/hate relationship with them. I feel like once I started getting into microbrews some years ago (well, craft beer since a lot of microbrews are no longer micro breweries), Magic Hat was cool and hip and had cool logo designs and whatever. But as time went on, a lot of their beers dropped off my list of "go-to's. My favorite beer from them is Encore because it is mostly an unfiltered wheat (my favorite beers) but has some light happiness to it. That's it though, #9 and all those are other ones are just 'ok', but that's just my opinion. I do like Magic Hat's brew accessories and everything…I have a few frisbees, tshirts, and whatnot, I do give them major points for coming up with good marketing ideas/products.

 

As stated earlier, Switchback's Ale is probably my favorite. I really like Wolaver's Wild What as well. Wolaver's all around is fantastic and puts out some great tasty brews. I really like Harpoon's IPA and UFO's Hefeweizen is dee-lish! I love stopping at Fiddlehead - it's small, has some really nice varieties, and there is a really good gourmet pizza place next to it. Plus their Growlettes are some really cool bottles. Honestly, I can't say I haven't liked any brewery we've been to in VT!

 

I can talk about Vermont all day. That's obvious.

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DeerSlayer    241

DeerSlayer
Posted

Wow sounds like we have a lot in common when it comes to VT.

 

We used to camp at North Beach in Burlington, it was an easy walk down to the brewfest. This was the first year we all rented a lake house in Charlotte (apparently pronounced Char-Lott if your from Vermont). I feel the same way about magic hat, their beers are good but definitely not as great as they were years back. I'm totally in love with Fiddlehead, we went there twice and had pizza next door afterwards. Great beer my favorite this year was called "Brett on the dance floor" from them. I bought a growler and growlet bottle coosie there this year.

 

I'm really into hoppy beers I like them bitter, ESB's & IPA's are my usual preference.

 

Funny were having this discussion about magic hat, the brewmaster from Switchback and I had basically the exact same opinion as well. He hit the nail on the head and said he feels they have more or less turned into a t-shirt and hat company. Like they're more interested in selling cool schwag rather than concentrating on brewing great beer like they used to. I still will drink a #9 or single chair, my lady loves the Elder Betty. I miss Lucky Kat I really dug that beer. This year I did grab a growler of their new IPL Dream Machine it wasn't bad.

 

Burlington Brewery was also very good, as well as Vermont Brew Pub, we drove up to Trout river, and another day down to drop in brewery and Bobcat. If I could make the same money up there I make here I would move there in a heartbeat. Beautiful state, great skiing in the winter. People are all nice also, I've yet to meet anyone that was an A$$hole up there thus far.

 

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