Vermont Brewers Dig Deep for Hops Research

All of that quaffing you do at the Vermont Brewers Festival every summer? Well, it has some good karma.

Some of the money raised during last July's shindig just provided a boost to the nascent Vermont hops industry when the Vermont Brewers Association gifted UVM's Vermont Hops Project with enough dosh to buy a key piece of new equipment.

At the Winter Hops Conference — which took place at the Essex Resort & Spa last weekend — Vermont Pub & Brewery's Steve Polewacyk handed over a cool $20,000 to Heather Darby, the UVM agronomy professor and researcher who heads the project.

"It really helps us further our research by being able to make [our hops] measurements at UVM," says Darby, who plans to use the money to purchase an ultraviolet spectrophotometer for measuring the quality of UVM-grown hops.

For nearly three years, Darby and her colleagues have raised and studied hundreds of hops plants on their test plot in Alburgh. To assess the acids in the hops they've grown, they have generally sent each sample out of state at $35 a pop — which adds up to thousands of dollars each year, and occasionally a lost sample. Since those plants are entering their third year of growth, says Darby, the 2013 growing season will be high time to see how the 20 or so varietals fare at full maturity.

Vermont Foodbank Lands an Unexpected and 'Worthy' $2200

They may possess wild talents, far-flung followers and occasional swagger, but Vermont's brewers, chefs and restaurateurs are also generous. That's what the Vermont Foodbank found out last week when it got an unexpected email from Dave Brodrick, one of three owners of South Royalton's Worthy Burger: A big check was on the way.

The Night Before the Night Before, a December 23 fête at the eatery, drew together hard-to-find beers, five courses of food, a cadre of local restaurant and brewing persona and some 85 beer fans for a benefit that was actually initiated by an out-of-stater: Sam Calagione, the founder of Delaware's Dogfish Head.

,The Worthy crew, along with peeps from Hen of the Wood, Prohibition Pig, Three Penny Taproom and American Flatbread, drew in beers from Lawson's Finest Liquids, the Alchemist, Hill Farmstead Brewery, Zero Gravity and the Bobcat Café and Brewery, as well as finger food from HOTW and sliders and oysters from Worthy's kitchen.

Calagione himself appeared with what Brodrick calls "four super-special kegs," including Birra Etrusca Bronze, an "ancient ale" planned partly according to analysis of 2800-year-old Etruscan drinking vessels (for realz).

The organizers had little problem selling $75 tickets, which probably made some beer geeks very, very happy — and also pulled in $2200 in proceeds.

Grazing: German-Style Beers Debut Tonight at Crop Bistro & Brewery

It was many moons ago that Crop Bistro & Brewery ordered an 8.5-barrel brewing system from Caspary, a Bavarian brewhouse and manufacturer that produces compact, nimble systems with multiple vessels. Then the staff waited, and a corner of the pub sat empty in expectation.

Crop's head brewer, Will Gilson, who joined the staff in September, has had months to ruminate on what he might do with the copper-clad system — the first of its kind (at this size) in Vermont. Gilson is already known for German-style beers, Weiss beers in particular, to which he has devoted himself during his 20 years of brewing in Utah, Vermont and at New Hampshire's Moat Mountain Smokehouse & Brewing Co. (Gilson attributes his love of German styles in part to studying abroad in Germany during college.)

In December, the equipment finally arrived, accompanied by Caspary founder Rudolf Caspary, who traveled from Germany to Stowe to help install it. In early January, Gilson brewed two batches of Münich-style Helles lager while Caspary assisted.

This evening, Gilson will tap that Helles for the first time, as well as his hallmark style: a Bavarian-style Weiss beer. 

Chef Michel Mahe to Open New Eateries in Vergennes and Middlebury

Chef Michel Mahe has found a novel way to make the grey winter months pass quickly: He's working on two new eateries, one each for Vergennes and Middlebury, that will open in coming months.

In Vergennes, Mahe — who already owns three restaurants, in Shelburne, Bristol and Vergennes — is busy transforming the former Park Squeeze on Main Street into a 60-seat burger, flatbread and local-beer joint that he expects will be open by April under the same name.

The place will be similar in feel to his Bobcat Café & Brewery in Bristol, sans an on-site brewery. "I think what the Bobcat has shown me is if you create a local place that is affordable, accessible and casual enough, people will show up in droves," he says. "This will be a sort of 'let's go out and not make a big deal about it' kind of place." He'll leave up the Park Squeeze's iconic neon sign, with its yellow arrow guiding people in.

Though a menu is still a few weeks off, Mahe emphasizes that the fare will be limited to local-beef burgers and "flatbreads with flair." The upstairs bar — which will share the same antique Irish feel of the Bobcat — will offer local brews on tap and be a replacement of sorts for Vergennes' Up Top Tavern, which Mahe closed two months ago.

Grazing: Last Chance to Sip a Williston Beer at a Williston Pub

Alert: It's the waning hours for McAllister Irish Red Ale. If you're near Williston and are curious about very local beer, you might want to track down a pint.

Williston resident Marty Bonneau, a member of the Green Mountain Mashers home-brewing club, first brewed McAllister in his basement for one of the group's periodic contests, this one to turn out a red ale style.

Bonneau's malty, balanced brew won. As part of the reward, Fiddlehead Brewing's Matt Cohen offered to brew a batch to be tapped both at his own establishment and a local pub —  fittingly, McGillicuddy's Irish Ale House in Williston.

Grazing: Washing Down Cupcakes With Wine (at My Little Cupcake)

As a dedicated wine drinker, I can be reluctant to admit that beer pairs stunningly well with food. Yet it can be the naked truth, and one encountered in the unlikeliest of places — such as at my little cupcake in Burlington.

For the past few weeks, the bakers at my little cupcake have been hosting a Friday night fête called 3 Sweet Treats, offering guests the chance to pair three petite desserts with wines chosen by Brad Kelley of the Burlington Wine Shop — for a 10-spot.

You can also drop in at the College Street bakery whenever it's open (till 8 p.m. during the week, 10 p.m. on weekends) to approximate the experience; on the counter is a standing beer and wine menu, including a "free mini cupcake or cake pop" with each drink.

The alcohol menu is static — the choices include Prosecco, red wine, local beer and even ChocoVine — but the paired treats rotate based on what's been baked that day. On the dreary afternoon I visited, I sampled three pairings that sounded promising: Prosecco with a sesame-ginger cupcake; Cabernet Sauvignon with a red-velvet cupcake; and a bottle of Harpoon Octoberfest with a salted-caramel cupcake. 

Magic Hat #9 Lands at #13 on Portland Paper's Beer List

Our alt-weekly comrades at Portland, Ore.'s Willamette Week got into the election-season spirit by rounding up the "flagship" craft beer from each state and ranking each to determine the "President of Beers." (A blind taste test of 50 beers? Tough gig, eh?) The project began with this rousing mission statement:

Beer is liquid culture, and America’s tapestry of wildly varied laws creates very different visions of what’s popular or possible.

...beer birthed civilization. If, as many anthropologists believe, early human clans settled into cities to ferment grains, isn’t the beer ... a fair benchmark of its peoples’ progress? Why even bother with civilization—entering a social contract, punching ballots and paying taxes—if we can’t get better beer out of it?

Naturally, this Vermont beer geek paid close attention to the list — we've still got the most breweries of any state per capita, after all. Willamette Week's team picked Magic Hat #9 to represent our fair state, and it came in 13th on the list. Not a bad showing, but not great, either.

Bite Into Our New Blog!

The Seven Days food writers live to eat, not the other way around. That means that at any given moment, we're probably tasting something we want to recommend — or warn you about. And it's our job to know about new restaurants, dishes, chefs. Through Bite Club, you can get that info as soon as we track it down. In other words, you can get it while it's hot. 

Alice and I are excited to collect all of our food content here on the brand-new Bite Club blog. Our staff blog, Blurt, came to be a rather serious place for pithy posts about food news we've stumbled across, a photo of something amazing we've eaten, a lament for some axed menu item, or a trailer for a new food film. 

On the Bite Club blog, we can roam free. Check in each weekday not only for Alice Eats and Grazing but for Vermont restaurant, foodie entrepreneur and ag news, recipes, and links to the sometimes-strange, sometimes-vital food and drink content we find both locally and on the interwebs. Come and get it!