MontreHaul and Vermont Sipcation. Part I

MontreHaul and Vermont Sipcation. Part One.

Looking for a roadtrip ?  

Here is a nice little vacation my wife and I recently spent visiting some wonderful spots, sipping some serious suds and foraging some cellar reinforcements !

Portland > Waterbury > Burlington > Montreal > Greensboro > Portland

One of the best parts of this trip is the lack of highway driving involved. From Portland you head west through the hills of Western Maine and across New Hampshire right through the White Mountain National Forest... one of my favorite ranges in the White Mountains has always been Crawford Notch.

From there its through the rolling green hills of Vermont where we come across a super spot for lunch, dinner or just an app and a few great draft selections.

Prohibition Pig

Waterbury, Vermont

ALways nice to grab a few half pours to try some new things and make a decision on what to have a pint of... that along with great service, down home goodness on the menu and a stellar draft and cocktail list make this place a must stop when out foraging in Vermont !

Always order the pickled veggies... draft selections were:

Hill Farmstead Mary

Hill Farmstead Edward

Siren/Evil Twin/Grassroots Siren

Lawsons Finest Sip of Sunshine

ProPig Pale Ale

ProPig Kombucha

The boards speak volumes to the menu offered and even the bill comes wrapped in a reconstituted hop bag billfold. Mmmm Citra.

From Waterbury we hit the road toward Burlington where we secured a hotel via hotwire. It landed us in Essex at the Essex Resort which was a nice place to stay but we didn't spend time exploring all the spa's and resort amenities we could have but rather jumped back in the car to hit up...

Fiddlehead Brewing 

Shelburne, VT

I've had the pleasure of drinking a few IPA's from this brewery and have been pretty impressed with the quality of the beer they have been putting out and heard recently they have been releasing 16oz cans of some of their batches so decided to make the 25 minute trek over from Essex to visit the place, digest our Prohibition Pig lunch and try a few more Vermont brews. The only tasters offered at the brewery were the solid Fiddlehead IPA that I have had before and a slightly lackluster hefeweizen that was definitely drinkable, it just lacked any complexity or focused yeast character for me to get very excited about purchasing some. I inquired about cans and they happened to have 4pks of their Hodad Porter which is a toasted coconut, vanilla and chocolate porter that is pretty tasty and worth picking up a 4pk for sure. The person working the tasting room was pretty friendly and also directed my attention to a barrel aged maple sap beer they had just released in collaboration with the Vermont Folklife Center who shared some old time sap beer recipes with Fiddleheads brewer Matt Cohen.

The description: 

"This year, brewer Matt Cohen has something extra special cooked up, "We're doing a little twist on our Sap Beer and aging it in bourbon barrels for a few months.”

What is sap beer? Stated simply, sap beer is beer brewed using fresh maple sap in place of water. Sap beer is traditionally made with sap collected late in the season—the “frog run” as sugar makers call it--when the sound of peepers fills the air and trees are getting ready to bud. The history of sap beer runs as deep in Vermont as the roots of a sugar maple, and Frog Run Sap Beer is a contemporary sap beer tied to Vermont’s traditional sugar making and brewing cultures.

Fiddlehead Brewing Company’s Frog Run Sap Beer is made from sap provided by Moonlit Mapleworks in Bristol, VT, and the result is a bright, refreshing ale with a crisp, subtle maple finish. "

I noticed the barrels he said the beer had aged in to be Stranahan's bourbon and inquired a little more about the process and the final product. Questions like how much sap was used in the boil as well as what type of yeast strain was used in fermentation of the beer... all these questions were answered with the classic, "well thats a trade secret, bub !" and after a few of those answers and the possibility of being called bub once more...I reluctantly purchased a 750ml bottle of it seemingly blindly for $20, stay tuned to see what this bottle is all about in a future review.

From there we proceeded down the road to downtown Burlington where we took a relaxing stroll amongst the ever increasing chain stores that line up along the main pedestrian walk way... these days aren't quite as special as the old days being that of the early and mid 90's when the magic of Phish was in the air and the local breweries like Magic Hat, Longtrail, Catamount and Otter Creek were producing beers that at the time I found to be most unique and interesting. Well times have changed and now it kind of feels like a large open air mall but there are still a few choice spots to catch some tasty food and the new breed of Vermont brewers that have taken the reigns and pushed the envelope of what a great beer should taste like.    

For dinner we chose:

The Farmhouse Tap & Grill

Burlington, VT

Looking back I cannot quite recall exactly what we had but I know there was pickled vegetables involved, a nice slab of local meat that was braised to perfection and salad that incorporated a strawberry vinaigrette very nicely. The atmosphere was laid back but bustling with people... we actually had to chill on the back patio and wait for a seat for a half hour but it was an easy wait sipping some Lost Nation Gose and talking about what the rest of our adventure through Montreal was shaping up to be ! Presentation was spot on and service was fantastic... we opted on a to go dessert which was a great desicion upon arriving back at the Essex Resort to share a piece of dark luscious black chocolate cake with a can of Fiddlehead Hodad Porter to wash it down with.

-----Day One Complete---- 

Portland > Waterbury > Burlington, DONE.