Kirkwood wrote:
Did a weekend road trip to Montreal and took a little detour coming home through Vermont. Spent around 3 hours in Burlington. Was able to enjoy a few drafts at Foam Brewing and two Lawson's beers during lunch at Farmhouse.
Beers were good. Actually enjoyed Foam's sour IPAs more so than their standard IPAs (not knocking their IPAs; it's just the sours were very well done).
Wasn't able to try Alchemist, Fiddlehead or any Von Trapp beers which were available but we had to keep our wits for the drive home.
My takeaway from our brief pit stop is Chicago NEIPAs aren't far off if at all if Foam is considered one of top players. Good to know a couple Chicago (and Old Nation!!!) breweries make NEIPAs that can hold up with the big boys
What did you have at Foam? I like their tap room--when it's not packed--but I'm not a huge fan of their beer. Galaxie 500 is terrific, Experimental Jet Set very good, but the rest of the stuff I've had by them hasn't been outstanding. Personally, I prefer a lot of the IPAs from (the far less hyped and much more widely available) Burlington Beer Company, which makes a few excellent offerings among their massive and generally very good lineup.
Lawson's is another brewery that I would classify as a little overrated. Sip of Sunshine is a very good beer but it's nothing special. The last batch of Double Sunshine I had wasn't that impressive, and The Space Between and Super Session #7 are just plain bad. Super Session #2, on the other hand, is a really nice, dank IPA.
Didn't Farmhouse have any Hill Farmstead on tap when you ate there? That would've been the way to go. On another note, I don't know why Farmhouse doesn't increase their number of tap lines. There's really no great beer bar in Burlington, which is strange since it is such a great beer town, and Farmhouse is clearly missing out on an opportunity here. Incidentally, my favorite drinking spot in Burlington is the Archives, a barcade featuring a consistently intriguing tap/can list. Great place. Manhattan Pizza also has a very good tap list, but it's a bit of a dump, and not in an endearing way. The best beer bar (by far) in the area is definitely Blackback Pub, about 30-40 minutes away in Waterbury. Don't miss it if you get the chance to visit again. Amazing tap list, good food, very friendly staff.
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