Vermont
These 8 Craft Beers Prove Vermont Might Just Be The Best Beer State
Whereas the autumn foliage alone ought to be sufficient to get you to lastly take that street journey to Vermont this fall, there are additionally quaint, little postcard-looking cities, an important meals scene, and a shocking variety of high-quality craft breweries. Positive, California (and San Diego, specifically) will get a whole lot of reward for its beer (particularly IPAs), however with regards to high quality per capita?
Vermont simply may need Cali beat.
Clearly, an precise go to to the house of Ben & Jerry’s and Bernie Sanders may not be within the playing cards for everybody. Particularly for those who dwell very far-off, however that shouldn’t cease you from sampling a number of the pale ales, IPAs, lagers, and different beers The Inexperienced Mountain State has to supply anyway. We discovered eight of one of the best beers that show that Vermont is one in every of (if not the finest) states for beer followers — verify them out beneath!
Fiddlehead Second Fiddle
ABV: 8.2%
Common Worth: $16.99 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
For those who’re a giant beer fan and hazy IPA drinker, you’ve in all probability already tried Fiddlehead IPA. It’s well-known for its juicy, citrus-filled, dank taste profile. It’s time to step it as much as Second Fiddle, its 8.2% ABV, dry-hopped imperial IPA.
Tasting Notes:
Contemporary lower grass, grapefruit, tangerine, caramelized pineapple, and resinous, floral one spotlight the nostril. The palate is juicy and loaded with extra tropical fruits, citrus peels, grapefruit, ripe melon, and dank, bitter, natural hops. It’s a really advanced, multi-dimensional tackle the imperial IPA.
Backside Line:
For those who’re an IPA fan, Fiddlehead Second Fiddle should be in your listing. It’s like somebody took the juicy, tropical fruit taste of a New England-style IPA and paired it with the dank, bitter, citrus taste of a West Coast IPA.
The Alchemist Heady Topper
ABV: 8%
Common Worth: $19.99 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
The Alchemist Heady Topper is greater than only a nice IPA. Similar to Sierra Nevada created the American pale ale type everyone knows and love The Alchemist’s John Kimmich created the hazy, juicy, New England-style IPA when he brewed Heady Topper again in 2004.
Tasting Notes:
The nostril is all bready malts, caramel, citrus zest, tropical fruits, and dank, resinous pine. It’s positively inviting for those who’re an IPA fan. On the palate, you’ll discover ripe tangerine, grapefruit, mango, pineapple, caramel malts, and extra floral, natural, earthy, dank pine needles. The end is a dry mixture of fruity sweetness and bitter hops.
Backside Line:
It is a very advanced, balanced beer. It’s the form of beer that’s on each beer drinker’s bucket listing and one which it is best to positively strive for those who get an opportunity.
Switchback Ale
ABV: 5%
Common Worth: $12 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Known as Vermont’s “#1 draft beer,” Switchback Ale proves that generally easy is healthier. It’s a refreshing malty, hoppy, easy-drinking amber ale. It’s 5% ABV, unfiltered, naturally carbonated, and actually memorable.
Tasting Notes:
Aromas of moist grass, bready malts, caramel, dried fruits, and natural, piney hops greet you earlier than your first sip. The palate is a mixture of bready malts, candy caramel, dried fruits, pine, fruit esters, and natural, barely bitter hops. It’s a crisp mixture of candy malts, fruits, and calmly bitter hops.
Backside Line:
That is an easy-drinking mixture of malt and hops that you simply’ll return to repeatedly. There’s nothing overly dynamic about this beer. It’s simply easy, clear, and refreshing.
Grass Roots Brother Soigné
ABV: 5%
Common Worth: Restricted Availability
The Beer:
For these unaware, Grassroots Brewing is part of the extremely regarded Hill Farmstead Brewery. This offshoot’s most iconic beer is its Brother Soigné, a saison recognized for its tart taste as a result of addition of blood orange, hibiscus, and lime within the fermentation course of.
Tasting Notes:
The nostril is crammed with aromas of daring citrus peels, earthy yeast, lime zest, and a remaining be aware of floral, natural scents. The palate is crisp, tart, and barely bitter with notes of tangerine, grapefruit, lime peel, and light-weight floral taste. The end is dry, crisp, and barely tart.
Backside Line:
It is a actually distinctive beer. It’s a summery, yeasty, earthy saison that additionally has distinctive tart, citrus, and floral flavors. There’s a purpose it’s such a coveted beer.
Zero Gravity Inexperienced State Lager
ABV: 4.9%
Common Worth: $11 for a six-pack
The Beer:
There’s one thing particular a few well-made lager. And in a state recognized for its hazy IPAs, Zero Gravity Inexperienced State Lager manages to make a reputation for itself as a result of its crisp, easy-drinking taste profile of Noble hops and Pilsner malts.
Tasting Notes:
Earlier than your first sip, you’ll get pleasure from aromas of lemon zest, cereal grains, bread-like malts, moist grass, and floral, piney hops. The palate is a mixture of caramel, bready malts, citrus peels, cereal grains, and natural, earthy resinous hops on the very finish. It’s crisp, refreshing, and excellent for any time of yr.
Backside Line:
Zero Gravity Inexperienced State Lager is tremendously well-liked and it positively deserves the acclaim it will get. It’s easy, crisp, and really well-balanced.
Foam Brewers Constructed to Spill
ABV: 8%
Common Worth: $18 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
If you end up with a four-pack of this scrumptious beer, you positively received’t wish to spill any. This 8% ABV double IPA from the parents at Foam Brewers is understood for its hazy, juicy taste profile of ripe pineapple, citrus peels, and tropical fruits.
Tasting Notes:
The nostril is lemon zest, pineapple, grapefruit, mango, guava, bready malts, and grassy, natural hops. The palate follows go well with with mango, caramelized pineapple, bread-like malts, tangerine, and extra natural, floral, piney hops on the end. The ending is a mixture of sweetness and subtly bitter hops.
Backside Line:
It is a nice instance of a New England-style IPA finished proper. It’s hazy, juicy, and fruity, but it surely additionally has sufficient malt and bitter hop presence to spherical it out properly.
Lawson’s Best Sip of Sunshine
ABV: 8%
Common Worth: $17.99 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
Technically Lawson’s Best Sip of Sunshine is at present brewed in Connecticut at Two Roads, however its genesis was in Vermont and it’s Inexperienced Mountain State by way of and thru. It’s recognized for its mixture of tropical fruits, citrus zest, and layers and layers of piney, natural hops.
Tasting Notes:
The nostril is all ripe grapefruit, tangerine, freshly lower grass, pineapple, and different tropical fruit aromas. Ingesting it reveals hints of bread-like, caramel malts combined with pineapple, orange peel, mango, and earthy, dank, vivid hops. The end is a pleasant mixture of sweetness and hop bitterness that leaves you craving extra.
Backside Line:
Lawson’s Best Sip of Sunshine is a kind of beers that you simply at all times wish to seize for those who spot it within the wild. Contemporary, floral, and fruity, it’s an iconic New England-style IPA for a purpose.
Hill Farmstead Edward
ABV: 5.2%
Common Worth: Restricted Availability
The Beer:
Hill Farmstead will not be solely the largest title in Vermont brewing, but it surely simply may also be the largest title (amongst aficionados) in American brewing. One among its most recognizable additions to the beer world is its iconic Edward. This 5.2% ABV American pale ale is brewed with home ale yeast, American malted barley, and Chinook, Columbus, Centennial, and Simcoe hops.
Tasting Notes:
Advanced aromas of lemon peels, tangerine, grapefruit, mango, and natural, earthy pine needles greet you earlier than your first sip. The palate is all moist grass, tangerine, grapefruit, lemon zest, bready malts, and floral, piney hops. The end is crisp and extremely refreshing.
Backside Line:
That is yet one more beer that proves that simplicity is essential. It is a easy fruity, citrus-filled, hoppy American pale ale. Undoubtedly a beer it is best to add to your bucket listing for those who’ve by no means tried it.
PORTLAND, N.Y. (WCAX) – Police say the suspect in a Vermont murder was arrested in New York on Wednesday.
Terrence Biggs Jr., 25, of Michigan, was wanted in the deadly shooting of Austin Rodriguez, 26, of Rutland. It happened at a home on Summer Street on April 22.
Investigators say state police in New York arrested Biggs during a traffic stop in Portland, New York, that is in western New York, early Wednesday morning.
Biggs is charged with second-degree murder.
We still don’t know what authorities think led to the shooting or what the connection was between the two men.
Copyright 2025 WCAX. All rights reserved.
This story by Tim Calabro was first published in The Herald on Sept. 11, 2025.
Phill Gatenby rolled over the Moxley Bridge in Chelsea with a plastic skeleton riding shotgun in his Jeep, having made the long drive from Brattleboro for an early morning visit. Just a year ago, the Manchester, England native — by way of Florida — had never laid eyes on a covered bridge. Now he’s smitten.
Gatenby recalled seeing a covered bridge while driving around and thinking, “Oh, that’s interesting. I’d never seen a covered bridge in my life before. Never really heard of them,” he said. “A couple days later, I was going to Townshend, and all of a sudden it’s the Dummerston Bridge, and I’m just like, different size, different shape, different color.”
He stopped for directions and as he got lost on the back roads, he saw more and more covered bridges.
What started as casual curiosity has evolved into a quest: visit and film all 100 of Vermont’s authentic, historic covered bridges and share the journey on YouTube in a series titled “Vermont’s 100 Covered Bridges.”
So far he’s been to 50 and cranked out 37 videos of his visits — one every Sunday.
The most recent set of episodes has focused on the covered bridges of Tunbridge, Chelsea, and Randolph.
No two are quite alike. From king and queen trusses to parallelogram-shaped spans built on bends, like some on the First Branch, Gatenby has come to appreciate their variety and character.
And, stepping back from the bridges, the entire scene fascinates Gatenby.
“I mentioned this in the Kingsbury Bridge [episode]. I was at the bridge and I looked, and you’ve got the green mountains in the background and rolling hills. Then you’ve got the farm with the — is it the corn towers? — the river and a covered bridge. And it just says, like, you can’t get more Vermont!”
Gatenby’s process is rigorous. Each episode takes hours to shoot and edit. He gets different angles — sometimes driving through a bridge three or four times for the right shot. He’s waded into rivers, climbed steep banks, and once filmed inside a long-retired bridge that had been turned into a town shed.
“I try and do something that’s consistent,” he says. “So it’s, you know, the same start, the same middle. I go in the river. I’ve been in every single river so far.”
Gatenby credits community access TV stations — first Okemo Valley TV in Ludlow and now Brattleboro Community TV — for helping him build his skills and loaning him equipment.
“They literally brilliantly sat down and five, six, seven weeks went through how you do it,” he recalled.
Gatenby’s episodes go out via Okemo Valley TV’s YouTube channel and have regular times on the Okemo Valley and Brattleboro TV stations.
Form, Function, History
Vermont once had more than 600 covered bridges, Gatenby noted, but flooding and age have winnowed down the number greatly. Now, 100 remain and many towns hold clusters of them.
Tunbridge, for example, boasts five (Flint, Larkin, Mill, Cilley and Howe), with the Moxley bridge just over the Chelsea line. Randolph has three (Kingsbury, Gifford, and Braley or Johnson), all of them along the Second Branch.
Gatenby pointed out that three of the First Branch bridges were built by the same person, Arthur Adams. That’s a phenomenon common to covered bridges, Gatenby noted. Oftentimes the same person who had the skills to build a bridge would become the area’s go-to expert.
As Gatenby visits each of the 100 covered bridges spread throughout the state, he points out the history and construction techniques used in each, particularly the suspension methods unique to covered bridges. Most covered bridges in the White River Valley make use of modified king trusses, posts fitted into a triangle, which provide strength to the structure. Some, like the Moxley bridge, use both king trusses and square queen trusses around them.
Vermont’s covered bridges aren’t just structural relics, though — they’re cultural icons.
Some have graced the silver screen, including the Kingsbury Bridge in Randolph, used by Alfred Hitchcock as scenery in his 1955 film “The Trouble with Harry.”
“North by Northwest” has its dramatic crop duster strafing Cary Grant, Gatenby jokes in one of his episodes before cutting to a humble, scenic shot featuring the South Randolph bridge. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite as glamorous as that!”
The Chiselville bridge in Sunderland — Gatenby’s favorite so far — featured in “Baby Boom,” Diane Keaton’s 1987 film, and a year later, in the 1988 Chevy Chase and Madolyun Smith Osborne comedy, the Upper Falls bridge in Weathersfield made for a memorable gag (“I wouldn’t go that way if I were you”).
Another memorable stop is East Corinth, where the prop bridge used in “Beetlejuice” was fabricated out of whole cloth for the two weeks of filming. “Thousands of people go there every year,” he said, noting that the set-piece, used now as a shed at a ski area, doesn’t count among the authentic and historic bridges he films.
Nor, he said, does the Quechee Bridge. Though it is often mistaken for a traditional covered bridge, it’s just a facade.
“It’s concrete and steel. There’s very little wood,” Gatenby said. “You see the wood on the outside and the roof.”
Traditional bridges are completely made from wood and use a variety of truss systems to strengthen the span.
Place and Purpose
Gatenby moved to Vermont from Florida in July of last year. He now lives in Brattleboro with his wife and works as a shift supervisor at a home for adults with mental health issues.
“I’m a trained youth worker in England,” he said, having spent years working for the Prince’s Trust, a charity founded by King Charles. His day job might be demanding, but the early hours leave room for exploration.
“Three o’clock to 11:30 at night, so the daytime allows me to spend time in the TV studio,” he says. That flexibility has enabled him to squeeze in long road trips, sometimes filming six or seven bridges in a single day. “I’ve got to do minimum six, seven bridges each trip now,” he added. “To make it worth it.”
This Sunday, the show’s 38th episode will be released.
“I’m doing a little special 50th episode,” he said, noting the halfway point in the 100-bridge journey. “That’s where I’m bringing in stuff like the Quechee bridge. Because people said, ‘Oh, you didn’t go to the Quechee.’”
As the series nears its midpoint, Gatenby’s audience is slowly growing, both online and in the communities he visits.
“It’s just amazing … you know, and I’m just visiting them all,” he said, “places that I wouldn’t have got to see otherwise.”
With 50 more bridges to go, Vermont’s covered bridge guy still has miles to travel and stories to uncover.Gatenby’s series of covered bridge videos can be watched on Okemo Valley and Brattleboro public television stations or found on YouTube.
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