This is a cool interesting little thing.  It looks like two of Vermont’s largest breweries, Long Trail Brewery and Otter Creek Brewery, are close to a merger.  If the merger goes through successfully (which I suspect it will) it will create the third largest beer sales in the State, and the largest by a Vermont brewery ( I assume beating out Magic Hat and Harpoon — that is if Harpoon is actually kept in the category because of their Boston plant).

The thing that I am most relieved to read is that the merger will not change the products/brands of either brewery.  This pleases me because both Long Trail and Otter Creek brew some personal favorite beers of mine.  Fact: The first beer I bought my Junior year of college (probably my first day back to school), which was the first year I was old enough to buy beer, was a mixed pack of Otter Creek beer.  The Copper Ale , Stovepipe Porter, and Vermont Lager are all amazing brews.  Long Trail also holds a special place in my beer drinking enjoyment, especially for it’s Blackbeary Wheat beer which may very well be the best fruit flavored beer I have ever had (this coming from a person who really doesn’t care for fruit flavored beers, Magic Hat’s #9 and Blackbeary Wheat being two of the only ones I regularly enjoy).  Also, Long Trail Ale, the breweries staple, is just a solid and enjoyable beverage.  I hope that only good things come about through the combination of the two companies.

Honestly, reading about this is just getting me excited to be going up to Vermont in about two and a half weeks.  I’m going to have to pick up some beer over the course of my week long vacation.  God I love my Vermont beers.  It is going to be great!

Big news, people!!

WE’RE ENGAGED!!!

Thought you ought to know

It was last Saturday (10/10/09), and we were up in Vermont for a long weekend camping trip. We had plans for a little hiking, a little Oktoberfesting, and a little cruising around one of our favorite states (if only Colorado was closer!).

That Saturday, we woke up to some overcast, chilly, overall kind of nasty weather. We took our time getting dressed and eating breakfast and decided to hit our first trail, what I like to call the Interpretive Nature Dance Trail. (Note: there was Interpretive somewhere in the name of the trail, so I obviously decided it was interpretive dance.) It was a short blip in the old-wood forest on our campground, and it was pretty cool.

After that, we hit the road, driving down to Bridgewater Corners, VT, home of the Long Trail Brewery. We’re both huge fans of Long Trail, so were excited that we got to hang out there a bit. I pretty much conducted the tour, discussing what happens in the mash tun and the lauter tun and what the grain and water and hops all went through at what stages. It’s my new happy place. We picked up two fresh 6-packs, one of Harvest and one of Blackbeary Wheat (yummmmm) and headed out.

As we were leaving the brewery, the sun came out! I was all sorts of happy and was telling the FI (aaaaiiiiieeeeeee!!!!) so, talking about the sunshine, the cold, the beer, the brewery, the Vermontness, the Cabot cheese we were heading to next, and that I was so happy to have him there with me. Cue cheesy music.

We made our way down to Quechee, VT, not the home of Cabot Creamery, but home to an outlet store location in an antiques mall of some sort near the Quechee Gorge. (Helpful note: our GPS kind of hates Vermont and doesn’t like looking for the streets. You might want an actual map.) We went in and  the FI picked up some Seriously Sharp, while I opted for the Colby Jack. And crackers. We strolled around the antiques shop for a while, admiring some seriously cool beer steins and me not-so-subtly hinting at an antique ring I liked. Cue face-palm.

After wandering around for a while, we decided to hit the road again. At this point, it was about 4:30, and we hadn’t had lunch. We did have the coolers with sandwich ingredients in the back of the truck, though, so we decided to have a picnic. The FI suggested we take a drive down Route 100, a really pretty, scenic road that winds through the valley next to the White River. We drove and drove for a while, and we came upon a little scenic overlook in a town called Hancock. You might not know this, but that’s funny because the FI’s last name is Hancock (and by extension, my married name will be Hancock).

So we pull over, and right after we do, this crazy-ass couple of women from New Jersey get pulled over right behind us by an officer who looked very much like Homer Simpson. One of the women actually got out of the car to take pictures of the foliage, which we found hysterical because it’s a generally-held principle that you do.not.get.out.of.the.car.if.you’re.pulled.over. She must’ve missed that day in Drivers’ Ed.

We walk over to the sign further in the outlook and read all about pending projects, scheduled for completion in 1993 and 1995. Yeah, the sign was just a tad out of date. We also read all about Rock Snot, which evidently is an invasive algae that Vermont hates. We walked down a little embankment, closer to the river. I was snapping away with my big-ass camera the whole time, not paying much attention to the BF. He gives me a hug, and I notice his heart’s beating really fast. Cue Leah starting to freak out.

AND THEN HE WAS ON ONE KNEE! AND HE ASKED ME TO MARRY HIM! And we both proceeded to get all teary-eyed (well, ok, I was bawling out-of-control) and were so excited and overwhelmed and happy.

And now we’re officially planning our wedding for next October! So stay tuned for all the gory details, because I’m so excited to start blogging about wedding things on a regular basis

The bottle and the two glasses it filled up

        When I saw this special edition brew in the store I had to give it a taste because I’m a fan of Long Trail. The brewery is celebrating their 20th anniversary. The Long Trail Website has the full description of the beer and the reason for brewing it. It has some interesting facts on the website. I’m a history buff so reading the background of pale ales and how they started back in England was very refreshing, Almost as much as the beer itself.

        According to the website the beer is brewed with two-row  and crystal malts, and nugget and cascade hops. It has an ABV of 4.6%. This beer has an interesting flavor. For those who haven’t drank Long Trail for long, The Pollenator was originally a seasonal, springtime beer from 1997-2003. They brought it back for their 20th anniversary celebration. This beer is only being made until the end of September so you need to get on it soon.

       The beer has a healthy, deep golden color bordering on amber and a medium head that hangs around for a while. I got very little in the nose from this beer, but it’s designed to be a light springtime beer so that’s not surprising. It is a fine pale ale though. Smooth enjoyable taste with a light action on the tongue. This was a very refreshing beer that was not a mind-blowing taste but just a great beer to sip on if you’re looking for something light but with some taste to it. Congratulations to Long Trail on 20 years and here’s to 20 more! Bottoms up!

Day 6:

We were officially beaten by the rain today… the downpour started when we reached the parking lot of out intended hike and did not let up till we were back at the condo.  We made the most of it and visited some cool places:

1. King Arthur Flour Factory Store – had some sweet and savory treats and good coffee for a post-breakfast “snack”

2 princes

2. Quechee Gorge Shops (our hike was supposed to be the Gorge) – Willem found his Holy Grail – a John Deere Shirt!

new favorite shirt over his old favorite - the tow truck shirt

3. Long Trail Brewery – good beer, a great plate of hummus and veggies, good fries and a cool factory tour – but it was too loud for Willem.

Long Trail - are you noticing a theme?

notice the bottling machine is also named Simon

4. Vermont Country Store – they have all those hard to find things you don’t really need, but always wonder where you would go to buy it if you did… we escaped with only buying some candy.

VT Store between rain showers

Moose Men

I’ve been a subscriber to Pub Crawlin’s rss feed for quite awhile now and really enjoy reading about the beer experiences that are had around the country.  Todays post from that wonderful beer blog hit a key with me as it was all about the Vermont Craft Brews I had to say goodbye to when I moved down to Greenville a year ago.  On the upside my favorite all time beer brewer, Magic Hat, has begun to appear in Greenville (albeit only #9 so far) but some of the others like, Long Trail, Otter Creek, Rock Art, and Vermont Pub & Brewery are not accessible in South Carolina. being a born and raised Vermonter, having a lot of pride in my home state, and also an avid beer lover, I tended to drink a considerable amount of all these beers when back in New England.  My first legal beer purchase was  a 12 beer mix pack of Otter Creek (of which my favorites are the Copper Ale and The Stovepipe Porter).  When I was home for Christmas this year some high school friends and I made a necessary visit to the Vermont Pub & Brewery (not only do they have awesome beer but good food too — not all that different an atmosphere from Blue Ridge Brewery).

Oh, and by the way Evan, the American Flat Bread/Zero Gravity Brewing, mentioned in the Pub Crawlin’ post, is where my parents and I experienced the delicious Gruit Ale (further American Flat Bread very well make the most amazing artisan pizzas in the world, I am so certain in this statement that I am willing to fight anybody who disagrees with me).