Vermont has the highest number of breweries per capita, making it a truly great place to taste beer. Especially in the cold winters of February when there isn’t much else to do, beer tasting is one of our favorite pastimes. Since we’d been in a bit of a slump and haven’t traveled for a few months, we decided to take a quick weekend trip up to Burlington, VT over the long President’s Day weekend to try out a few places and wander through Burlington for a few days.
Foam Brewers
Right along Lake Champlain, Foam Brewers is a relatively new Burlington brewery, started in 2016. From the moment we walked in the place was packed, the only place we could find to stand was in the corner near some of the merchandise. The nice part about this spot, however was that the sun was setting over the lake which led to some pretty cool photos from our position at the window. It doesn’t look like Foam does flights, so I ended up getting “In Limbo”, a fruited sour with a gorgeous color. It wasn’t overly sour, but very drinkable and I could definitely see this being a fan favorite in warmer weather when the patio is open overlooking the water.
Beers we Recommend
- In Limbo (fruited sour)
The Vermont Pub and Brewery
The Vermont Pub and Brewery is your typical bar and grill in the middle of downtown Burlington. We ended up going here for dinner because American Flatbread down the street had too long of a wait and we had been meaning to try the beer selection anyway. Nothing here really wowed us; my steak was a bit overdone and the waitress forgot to bring Mike his second beer so he ended up actually getting that taken off the bill because by the time she remembered we had already finished eating. The beers themselves were pretty good, but the waitstaff made us feel like we needed to get in and get out because they had a wait. Overall I’d say it was a pretty standard pub, but we enjoyed the other breweries on the list much more. When there are so many options in such a small area, it’s easy to be picky about the establishments.
Beers we Recommend
- Silk Ale (Winter Seasonal Pale Ale)
Switchback Brewing Co.
Switchback Brewing Company has a clean and classy interior with a great view of their brewing room. What sets them apart from the other breweries is their series of smoked beers called the Flynn on Fire Smoked Beer Initiative. Of these we tried the Bisou, which was a French-style smoked saison and had a lot of flavor. The best part about this place though wasn’t the beer at all! Turns out Switchback is very dog friendly- so much so that they have a friendly dog wandering the tasting room. Dogs are so welcome in fact that some people were having a dog birthday party and ended up with about 6 or 7 dogs in the back room!
Beers we Recommend
- Bisou (French Style Smoked Saison)
Queen City Brewery
I really liked how crisp and clean the interior of Queen City was. The stainless steel tanks were right in the forefront and although there wasn’t a ton of space to sit, the bar was spacious and the beers were good. Our favorite was the Landlady ESB which was a light but complex amber ale. Queen City had a large variety of beers for every taste including a Russian Imperial Stout, Hefeweizen (my favorite), a rauchbier similar to the one we tried in Denver, and a barleywine-style ale. Their brewers clearly study brewing and mimic many of the traditional German style beers which I appreciate. You can also order pizza from Pizza 44 next door.
Beers we Recommend
- Landlady ESB (Amber Ale)
Zero Gravity Craft Brewery
Directly across from Queen City sits Zero Gravity Craft Brewery. Zero Gravity definitely has a style about it, both in their atmosphere and their beers. All the beers in the flight we chose ended up being almost all the same color. Zero Gravity seems to specialize in the Pale Ale, and they do it well. So well in fact that Mike ended up buying a six pack of Little Wolf Pale Ale, one of only two beers we took home from this trip. They are able to get the dry flavor without being overly hoppy, although I do think that part of that is that I’m learning to appreciate the hops more. The nice part about many of the breweries in Burlington is that their flights are pretty substantial pours. You get a lot of beer for the money here!
Beers we Recommend
- Little Wolf (Pale Ale)
- Bob White (Belgian Wit)
Simple Roots Brewing
Simple Roots Brewing is an unassuming tap room in a strip mall to the north of Burlington. We actually drove by it at first and had to turn around to go back because it is by far the farthest north of any of the breweries we visited. The taproom isn’t very big and there isn’t a huge selection compared to some of the other breweries, but Simple Roots won our hearts with one of the only sour beers we got on our trip, Labor of Love. It’s no secret that Mike and I are big fruity, sour beer fans, in fact we got a whole flight of sours on our trip to Epic Brewing in Denver!
Beers we Recommend
- Labor of Love (Raspberry Sour Saison)
- New North End IPA
Citizen Cider
While not a brewery per se, Citizen Cider is a staple in Burlington. It’s popular enough that we get their ciders frequently in Upstate New York grocery stores, so I’ve had their flagship cider before and was excited to try some others. Unfortunately some lake effect snow caused us to cut our trip a little short and head home in the morning, which means this was the only location we didn’t make it to over the weekend. I really like Citizen Cider because most of their ciders are dry hopped or otherwise brewed more like an ale, making them drier than your typical Angry Orchard or Strongbow. Guess this means I’ll just have to come back another time to try some more locations. It’s insane how many different breweries are in such a small space!
Ciders we Recommend
- Unified Press (Flagship Cider)
Magic Hat Brewing Company
Magic Hat Brewing Company is the largest of the breweries we visited in Burlington. Their beers can be found in most of the continental states, but all the Magic Hat beer produced comes from this one facility which is pretty cool. If you’ve heard of Magic Hat before, it probably means the only thing you’ve ever tried is #9, but Magic Hat has a lot more to offer. Because the facility is pretty large and well known, they offer tours on the history of Magic Hat and take you back through the production room. Guided tours run most days of the week, but you are free to walk through on your own as well. The tasting room itself has great food (we got tamales which were pretty delicious) and serves a lot of new pilot batches of beers which was pretty cool. One of the most interesting things we tried on our trip was the Marquette, which was a beer/wine hybrid that definitely had the red wine flavor. Mike and I try so many beers that it’s always fun for us to see people experiment with new options, even if they may not ever make it to stores.
Beers we Recommend
- Marquette (beer/wine hybrid) - or check out another of the pilot batches!
- Single Chair (Golden Ale)
All the Burlington VT Breweries we Visited in One Map
Have you been to any of these breweries? Which beer was your favorite? What other Vermont breweries should we check out on our next trip?
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8 comments
This is so cool! I’m a big beer fan, and I wish I lived on the East Coast to try some of these. One of my travel friends love beer too, and if we ever make it over to VT I want to recreate this tour you did! Zero Gravity looks like my scene!
Zero Gravity was really cool! There’s lots of high tops at the bar with tvs and in the back there was a shuffleboard table and a little wood stove around some cool couches for warmth. It looks like it’d be a cool spot in the summer with the outdoor seating too.
Great post. Besides the pub and grill and the pizza place, are there any other places to eat near the other breweries? Also love the dogs in the tasting room. Makes you feel at home only thing more beer. I myself am not into beer, but my boyfriend will love this place. thanks for the info!
Yes! We went to The Skinny Pancake which was a creperie right down the street from Foam Brewers along the water for brunch and Church Street has a couple nice places which is only a few blocks away too. There isn’t really anything by the more southern breweries since it’s more of a warehouse district but the ones downtown have lots of options. A lot of breweries have their own food but not many have real meals, more like appetizers and things to share.
Such a great post! I love all the beer photos 🙂 And I didn’t know Vermont has the highest number of breweries per capita…
This is my partner’s DREAM ha ha. I really wish I could get into beer. Maybe this is where I need to start :-)!
I’d start with ciders and the beer/wine hybrids if you’re into that! Sours are also really distant from most hoppy beers if you’ve never tried one of those before it might be a good option!
Looks like an amazing way to experience Vermont! Cheers!