The lineup for the 2009 Vermont Brewers’ Festival has been released and it only reinforces why this festival has quickly become one of the most predominant summer beer festivals in the Northeast. This year’s attending breweries 
include:
- Allagash Brewing Co. (Portland, ME)
- Brooklyn Brewing (Brooklyn, NY)
- Dieu de Ciel (St Jerome, QC)
- Harpoon Brewing (Windsor, VT/Boston, MA)
- High & Mighty (Holyoke, MA)
- Hopfenstark Brewery (L’Assomption, QC)
- Lake Placid Pub & Brewery (Lake Placid, NY)
- Lawson’s Finest Liquids (Warren, VT)
- Long Trail Brewing Co (Bridgewater Corners, VT)
- Magic Hat Brewing (Burlington, VT)
- Moat Mtn Smoke House & Brewery (North Conway, NH)
- McNeill’s Brewery (Brattleboro, VT)
- Jasper Murdock’s Alehouse/Norwich Inn (Norwich, VT)
- Otter Creek Brewing (Middlebury, VT)
- Portsmouth Brewery (Portsmouth, NH)
- Rock Art Brewery (Morissville, VT),
- Southampton Publick House (Southampton, NY)
- Smuttynose Brewing Co. (Portsmouth, NH)
- Switchback Brewing Co. (Burlington, VT)
- The Alchemist Pub & Brewery (Waterbury, VT)
- The Bobcat Cafe (Bristol, VT)
- The Shed Restaurant & Brewery (Stowe, VT)
- Three Needs (Burlington, VT)
- Trout River Brewing (Lyndonville, VT)
- Unibroue, La Brasserie (Chambly, QC)
- Vermont Pub & Brewery (Burlington, VT)
- Woodstock Inn Brewery (Woodstock, NH)
- Woaver’s Organic Ales (Middlebury, VT)
- Zero Gravity Brewing at American Flatbread (Burlington, VT)
So you can understand why I am more than excited for my maiden voyage to the Vermont Brewers Festival and why I expect it to be one of the highlights of the summer. If you live anywhere in the Northeastern portion of the USofA and can make it to Burlington, VT for a weekend, I strongly, highly suggest that you do; it’s going to be one helluva festival.
The fest itself is the weekend of July 18th and 19th (2009) and will take place in Burlington’s Waterfront Park on the banks of the beautiful Lake Champlain. There are three different sessions — one the evening of Friday the 18th, the 2nd Saturday afternoon and the third on Saturday night (I will be attending the Saturday afternoon session, so be sure and keep an eye out for me if you’re going to be there, too). General Admission tickets to the festival are $25 per person and include 15 drink tickets (additional tickets can be purchased for $1 a ticket) and a souvenir glass. Tickets will go on sale on May 15th and each session WILL sell out, and sell out early, so be sure and get your tickets ASAP. For more information, check out: www.vermontbrewers.com/tickets.html. And I hope I will see you there!
Comments
Sounds cool. I was really disappointed by the Maine Brewers Festival a few years ago; the exhibitors for both food and beer were great, but the venue really killed the enjoyment for me. Inching shoulder-to-shoulder, trying to sneak between 150-person-deep lines without spilling anything just sucked. And no place to sit, and a really, really loud band in a place with awful acoustics. Ouch.
Oh yeah, I hear ya. I stopped going to the Maine Brewers Fest a couple of years ago; I just outgrew it. It really is an obnoxious event. Which is really too bad. But the Vermont fest is outside in Vermont in July; you can’t beat that! See you there!
It looks like some quality brews. But no Dogfish Head? You ae missing out. However, it looks like a good time eitheway.
The Vermont festival is the best we’ve been to on the east coast. Note that the 2009 dates are Friday July 17th and Saturday July 18th………
For nearly a decade, we’ve hosted a “anti-Maine brewers festival” party instead of attending the festival – shorter lines, better food, lots of fun 😉 Guess we outgrew it too.
many thanks for the info, please swap out that 1.1MB image of the logo. 🙂