Day 2

So after we arrived at Bryce and Eliza's beautiful new apartment and enjoyed beer and a homecooked meal with Bryce, Eliza, and Alyssa, we hit the sack to prepare for day 2.

Day 2-stop one was supposed to be Magic Hat. Carrie has been to Burlington many times, but never has been able to tour Magic Hat, and sadly this trip was no different. We drove the 5 minutes to Magic Hat where we learned that they were under renovations. We were able to taste as many beers as we wanted, and they were having a sidewalk sale, so we bought some clothing and shirts, but a tour was not in the stars for us.

However, it should be noted that while Magic Hat did not give us the tour we had dreamed of, they did give us our first sighting of the Vermont Beer Passport. The beer passport came with a challenge. If you get 4 stamps from breweries/brewpubs, you get a magnet. 10 gets you a t-shirt, and all 16 gets you a beer lovers kit. Stay tuned (or see below!) to see how many we got!



Next stop: Wolavers and Otter Creek!

Pit stop

Our plan on day one of our trip was to complete three breweries and end with Long Trail in Vermont. However, with the aid of our friend GPS and some consultation we determined that showing up 20 minutes before closing time on the 4th of July was just mean. However, it was still under debate until we passed by the Hillbilly Fun Park. At that point the discussion had ended and our first pit stop was born.

Ommegang!

Our second stop on the tour was also in Cooperstown. The Ommegang Brewery specializes in Belgium style beers. The most notable thing about their beer is it comes in larger, corked bottles. We tried a variety of beer here, and although I didn't take any notes on the beer here, I remember liking many of the beers. I brought back three bottles and Carrie and I drank the Chocolate beer when we got to Portland. I'll report on the other two as they are consumed.

The brewery itself is beautiful and the tour was good, although our guide gave some questionable information. Along with the tasting came chocolate, pretzels and mustard. Obviously free food is the way to anyone's heart, especially when paired with free beer.
Although not impressed with our tour guide, the beer was good and the information was still new at this point and so all in all Ommegang was a successful stop on our tour!

Next Stop: Pit stop at Hillbilly Fun Park!

Whoops!

Well, obviously I didn't do a good job of blogging as we went through our beer tour. Blame it on lots of beer and a lack of available internet. Ok, maybe more on the beer. I'm going to go back and review the breweries and brewpubs we went to, and because I know this isn't the last of our beer tours, there will be more to come.

So, stop one on the New England Brewery tour was in Cooperstown, NY. We stopped first at Cooperstown Brewery. We had a great tour here, just the two of us and our very knowledgeable tour guide. Their brewery is small, but they have an impressive bottling line and make quite a few beers.
They had quite a few beers and we were able to taste 7 of them. My personal favorites were the stout and the Brown Ale. The Golden Ale was the most popular, and also good. Their beers have a baseball theme due to the proximity to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Next up: Ommegang Brewery!

New England Beer trip starts tomorrow!

So, the great New England beer trip was thought up as a way to fight off the quarter life crisis that was impending in my life. A few months before I turned 25 I was complaining to Carrie that I was going to sit at home in the dark and wallow in self pity, she suggested that instead we take a road trip to go see our good friends Bryce and Eliza in Burlington. If there's one thing we love more than Bryce and Eliza, it's beer and brewery tours, so we decided to combine our efforts.

Even though gas is quickly approaching 5 dollars a gallon, we plan to do brewery tours in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and possibly Massachusetts if there is time.

Carrie and I leave for our New England beer trip tomorrow at an ungodly hour in the morning. There will be a LOT of coffee consumed. On the agenda for tomorrow: Ommegang and Cooperstown Breweries in Cooperstown, NY (no Baseball Hall of Fame this trip!) and then Long Trail in the middle of nowhere Vermont! Pictures to follow!