There may or may not be a craft beer heaven, but this vibrant city wedged between Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains is close. Located at the epicenter of Vermont's microbrewery scene, Burlington is bustling with pubs and taprooms. Finding one that serves craft on draft is not only easy, it's the rule.
To prove it, we set out on our own pub crawl to see how many bars serving local brews on tap we could find before we ran out of steam. (Yeah, it's a tough job.)
The rules were simple. The crawl had to stay within walking distance of the intersection of Main and Church streets. Burlington beer aficionados readily provided a list of places to check out, but this crawl, as they so often do, progressed randomly.
Note to those who are leery of craft beer: Burlington bars also serve traditional domestic and imported brands, so you will have something to drink as you accompany your favorite beer snob. Cheers!
We started at 7:30 p.m. on Main Street, in a hard, cold rain that threatened to turn to sleet, and quickly found Nectar's Restaurant. This sprawling, quirkily decorated complex has pool tables, numerous TVs, a large dance floor, and an eclectic reggae rock decor that more than offset the annoying disco ball. Phish, the legendary jam band, used to play here. Twenty-five bands perform at Nectar's on any given week, according to co-owner Damon Brink, who calls his place "the hub of the local scene."
The highlight was the $2 draft special for microbrews, served at a polished wood bar with a comfortable elbow-leaning ledge. Of the 23 draft beers, 15 were from local breweries, a couple of which provided a tasty respite from the brutally cold rain: Long Trail Hibernator, a brown ale with an almost sweet finish, and Trout River Rainbow Red, a pleasing, malty brew, almost fruity, definitely easier drinking than your average red ale. Pleased with having spent just $4 for two pints of quality beer, we moseyed back into the freezing downpour.
We did not get far on Main Street before ducking into Esox, a local dive with rough- hewn charm. A sign at the door warned patrons not to spit on the floor. A large, mounted northern pike loomed over the bar, next to the "I'm from Vermont, I do what I please" bumper sticker. The rickety bar stools twirled beneath walls covered in graffiti. "This is our bar," proclaimed one entry.
"Anybody can come in and we give them a piece of chalk," said bartender Lynn Bissonette. For $8.25, she served up an ice-chilled, 32-ounce pitcher of Switchback, a surprisingly fruity American pale ale, which Burlington beeristas agree is one of their best sellers.
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