As I’ve mentioned several times already, we’re trying to get 10 brewery visits on our Brewer’s Association passports, so we can get a free t-shirt on Saturday at the Vermont Brewer’s festival. We had five so far (after realizing we missed a chance at one in Norwich, near King Arthur’s Flour), but Burlington afforded us the chance to hit five more in a single afternoon!

So, after changing from our bike ride, we climbed up College Street and hit Three Needs, after enjoying an IPA (Chris) and a Coffee-Porter of some sort (me), we headed back down College Street to visit the Vermont Pub and Brewery where I had their red ale (can’t remember what Chris had) and we enjoyed some sustenance (aka nachos).

Notice the biker tan line on my leg!

Notice the biker tan line on my leg!

After the Vermont Pub and Brewery, we headed over to American Flatbread/Burlington Hearth which is also the home to Zero Gravity Brewery. We didn’t have anything to eat here but it smelt wonderful, and we met up with some fellow travelers (aka other beer geeks like us who were also doing the Vermont Brew tour) – nice guys. I can’t remember what I had here (hmm….wonder why at this point), and we didn’t stay long, though we made a mental note to return on Saturday. Our bar friends, gave us good directions to hit the two remaining area breweries in South Burlington so we trekked back to the car and took off.

Next on the list, was Switchback, since our friends gave us directions (it’s little more than a door at the end of some other company’s receiving dock), we found it easy enough but alas they were closed.

The Blue Door of Switchback

The Blue Door of Switchback

Finally, we were off to Magic Hat another five minutes down the road and can you believe they were closed too! We had thought they closed at seven but it was six. Luckily, they were still packing up (they’re doing their tastings outside under a tent while they complete renovations on their brewery and tasting room), and they were nice enough to stamp our cards.

We headed back to Burlington, elated from our day, but fretful that we were one short of our goal of 10 breweries. Would we be able to get the tenth stamp before Saturday? Stay tuned.