Beer Bars and Events – Page 2 – Drews Brews Reviews

Lititz Craft Beer Fest 2015

Posted on October 13, 2015January 6, 2016 by Drews Brews Reviews

The 2^nd annual Lititz Craft Beer Fest has come and gone like a stein of beer in a German beer garden. The recently named #1 town in Pennsylvania to “Get Away from It All” saw several thousand beer enthusiasts flood its streets, clamoring for the mix of local and national brewers pouring their best for the three hour event. With an overcast sky and mild temperature, the weather gave it’s blessing, providing the perfect conditions to enjoy an IPA’s refreshingly crisp bitterness, the acidic bite of a sour, the earthy yam, spices and malt backbone of a pumpkin beer and the roasty, sweet caramel and molasses warmth of the porters and stouts.

It was a day for all styles and one that surely delighted the thirsty crowds, who gobbled up tickets in record time. Much of the positive outpouring of community support is directly related to the efforts of the volunteers and the organizers, who proved themselves last year with a hugely successful effort. It’s a testament to that success that the 2015 Lititz Beer Fest sold out on July 19^th, only 18 days after going on sale and 2 months ahead of the event.

Assuming there is a 3^rd annual beer fest, do NOT hesitate to get tickets the first chance you get because blink and they’ll be gone. Purchasing a ticket will also get you the added karmic benefit of contributing to charity. The event organizers, the Lititz AMBUCS, donate the money raised to help the mobility and independence of disabled individuals in our community. Beer appreciation for a cause. What’s not to love about that?

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Vermont Beer Travelogue – The Highlights

Posted on August 26, 2015February 21, 2016 by Drews Brews Reviews

main-blog - vermont — Image from Curran Photography

As we all know, Vermont is a series of mountain ranges, rivers, and fields all held together by maple syrup and its primary export is nothing, because locals first and locals only seems to be the name of their game. The same can be said for the beer. This means you’ll either need to smash its borders and steal it away like a wallet emptying thief ($75 a case!) or find a brave soul willing to ship it out, knowing they will be shunned from the community should their traitorous ways be discovered.

While it might not be quite that Orwellian, there is a sense of local pride and farm-to-table that pervades their restaurants, breweries and primary past time, lawn maintenance. But when your state produces some of the most coveted (or overrated if you’re of that mindset) beers desired the world over, it’s a trip worth making.

That’s why I decided to take the drive up from PA, stick around for 3 days, and taste/buy as much as my liver and bank account would allow. I’m no Vermont expert and 3 full days in Vermont isn’t anywhere near enough to really experience everything the maple drenched state has to offer, but I did get a good idea of how to pull off a pretty great beer run.

For those that want the full breakdown of my three days in beer-adise, including the best beer route into/out of Vermont, where we stayed along with what to hit before and after your inevitable Hill Farmstead pilgrimage, and a plan of action for coming back with cases of Heady, Sip and Second Fiddle, click the links below. For those just looking for the highlights, read on.

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Vermont Beer Travelogue – Burly Burlington

Posted on August 21, 2015September 30, 2015 by Drews Brews Reviews

Day 3 of our continuing high-end beer binge started with a decision. Do we throw in the crushed pounder can of Heady and take the day off, enjoying the beauty of Vermont’s many rivers, hiking trails and touristy spots forged by nature? Or do we double down and visit more breweries in a single day than we ever have, blowing out whatever whimpering portions of our livers still had the gall to function? It was never really a choice.

While one of us would briefly succumb hard to beer fatigue, it was a great time visiting Burlington in the midst of a jazz festival that we accidentally mistook for a farmers market. I’m pretty sure you’ll find vendors selling maple syrup and hemp-related goods at funerals, riots and the apocalypse. Never change Vermont.

There is one other aspect to Burlington that I should mention, especially for city folk used to tight and tidy city blocks. When someone tells you a brewery is only 7 or 8 blocks away, they are telling you to get back in your car and drive there, or bust out that portable penny-farthing bike you keep in the hipster pocket of your jeans for such an emergency.

While the city center is a lovely grid of shops and brick underfoot, it quickly spreads out along the shores of Lake Champlain with a mixture of the residential and commercial. What we thought would be a brisk 20 minute walk hit the 40 minute mark and we still had a few blocks to go. Not a big deal if we didn’t have to walk the same distance back to the car, potentially in cataclysmic weather (your frogs and locusts and what not). Heed my warning out-of-towners…

But, before we get to that, let’s buy some beer!

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Vermont Beer Travelogue – The Greensboro Loop

Posted on July 2, 2015September 30, 2015 by Drews Brews Reviews

Our Day 2 begins and ends in Stowe at the Mountain Road Resort. While finding accommodations in Burlington may SEEM like the obvious choice, Stowe’s central location to Waterbury, Burlington, Greensboro, and Montpelier make it ideal for tourists with beer on the brain.

Our just shy of $100 a night, off-season room came with a queen bed, extremely comfortable fold down couch, access to an outdoor pool, indoor heated pool, two hot tubs, rec room, lodge with a bar (of course stocked with Heady Topper), continental breakfast with various breads and pastries made by the resort owner, and hotel guests that weren’t there to party at all hours of the night (and stayed off my damn lawn!).

While the questionably reviewed Burlington Days Inn Colchester is cheaper at $68 a night, I reckon my 35+ years on this earth has earned me some creature comfort. The cheap bachelor party days of piling 20 guys into a single room and sleeping in the bathtub are behind me. Bring on the carefully cultivated seasonal menus and sprawling mountain views of Stowe. But if you are a rough-and-tumble “I don’t care where I sleep” type, by all means go for the cheapy option.

Note: If you haven’t, check out Day 1, the Pillaging of Route 7, which details the best breweries to hit on your way in or out of Vermont.

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Vermont Beer Travelogue – The Pillaging of Route 7

Posted on June 22, 2015September 30, 2015 by Drews Brews Reviews

Vermont, a land of keeping it local to a level rarely seen apart from rampant inbreeding in the Ozarks. As the rest of the country shifts to farm fresh, locally-sourced food about as quick as a slug trying to free itself from a greased KFC bucket of molasses, Vermont’s been living it.

The OG of farm to table, they believe it, be it, eat it. This is a state that still has huge tracts of open land and a populace just under three quarters of a million protecting it. We saw a few chinks in that handmade armor over our three days, namely a LongHorn Steakhouse and McDonald’s, but the resistance is strong.

So yes, Vermont is a magical shire of mountain greenery that’ll make you want to dig in your roots and maintain your lawn (one of the main activities we observed). You may even be compelled to produce maple syrup and advertise it every five feet, but communing with nature isn’t what brought us to this land of hippies and trees.

We came to partake in a beer scene that fervently sticks to its oddly drawn borders. One where “distribution” is a dirty word, where locals buy up every brewed drop, and where a couple thieving bastards from Pennsylvania can sometimes steal it away a case at a time (and with a little sloshing around in our guts). Here’s what we did and what you can do too.

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