{"id":464,"date":"2010-07-23T12:54:43","date_gmt":"2010-07-23T16:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=464"},"modified":"2010-07-23T12:55:16","modified_gmt":"2010-07-23T16:55:16","slug":"at-the-18th-annual-vermont-brewers-festival-in-burlington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2010\/07\/23\/at-the-18th-annual-vermont-brewers-festival-in-burlington\/","title":{"rendered":"At the 18th Annual Vermont Brewers Festival in Burlington"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_51\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/acrossthewater\/files\/2010\/07\/brewfest_1.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-51\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-51 \" title=\"brewfest_1\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/acrossthewater\/files\/2010\/07\/brewfest_1-300x234.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"234\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-51\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&quot;Flavors passed over my palette one by one, and before I knew it my 3 ounces of heaven was gone.&quot;<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.northcountrypublicradio.org\/news\/audio\/100722aebeerfest.mp3\">Brew fest brings beer makers and beer lovers together<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Leviathan Big Bohemian.  Turbodog.  The Hef.  No, these are not superheroes from the summer\u2019s latest blockbuster \u2013 they\u2019re names of beers.<\/p>\n<p>Gone are the days of the simple pilsner or pale ale.  This much was clear \u2013 or amber colored \u2013 at the 18<sup>th<\/sup> Annual Vermont Brewers Festival in Burlington this weekend, where more than thirty regional craft breweries tapped kegs of their finest fermented concoctions.<\/p>\n<p>The brewers looked like rosy-cheeked mad scientists.  They pulled samples of beers made with coffee, chocolate, hibiscus, rye peppercorn, maple syrup, raisins, honey and pine needles.  Reading through the beers\u2019 descriptions, I encountered terms like \u201cnitrogen pour\u201d and \u201csteam-extracted fruit juice\u201d and \u201cnaturally carbonated in the firkin. <\/p>\n<p>Now, I\u2019m no beer connoisseur.  When I buy the stuff, I use the same tactic as when I buy wine: the label has to be pretty and the price just right.  So when I stepped up to the counter of Lawson\u2019s Finest Liquids from Warren, Vermont, I worried that I was out of my league.  I decided to order the Bourbon-Barrel aged Fayston Maple Imperial Stout, because the name is fun to say, and because who ever thought of aging beer in Maker\u2019s Mark barrels?<\/p>\n<p>But when I took my first sip of the thick, dark brew, I understood why artisan beer has the cult following that it does.  I felt like I was drinking an ice cream sundae and maple syrup and a nightcap all at once \u2013 in a good way.  Flavors passed over my palette one by one, and before I knew it my 3 ounces of heaven was gone. <\/p>\n<p>People say that any alcohol industry is recession-proof.  When it comes to beer, craft brew may be the only thing keeping that adage true.  In 2009, U.S. beer sales were down 5 million barrels. Craft beer sales, on the other hand, were <em>up<\/em> by 8.5 million barrels, according to the Brewer\u2019s Association. <\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s no surprise, then, that more than 10,000 people shelled out for the fizzy tour-de-force.  They were seasoned tasters and home brewers \u2013 but they were also newcomers like me.  But by now I think we all have one thing in common: We think craft brewers are superheroes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brew fest brings beer makers and beer lovers together<br \/>\nLeviathan Big Bohemian.  Turbodog.  The [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}