Hermit Thrush Brewery, Brattleboro Beer-to-Go

There's a brand new brewery in my town, and it may be the closest one to my actual home. It's called Hermit Thrush Brewery and lives on High Street in the location of the old Blue Moose store, formerly known as Collected Works, formerly known as Green Mountain Bookstore. It has been remodeled with storied barn board, shiny brewing equipment, soothing terra cotta-colored paint, and rustic shelves of tasteful house stemware.

Here's what you should do at the Hermit Thrush Brewery. Go in and pick a tasting of 4 beers. Then, pick your favorite and put a deposit on a growler ($3 for small, $5 for large), and pay for it to be filled. Next time you visit, bring your clean empty growler and pay for another fill--no more deposit. If you want to taste again, you can get a single tasting or another flight of 4. It's that easy.

Since the place had only been open for 2 days, we of course had to taste almost everything! The Brattlebeer was super light, made with fresh pressed local apples. Brooks Brown was their brown ale, malty yet still light. The Tardy Pumpkin was an unsweetened, unspiced pumpkin ale--we liked it a lot. The High Street VIPA was, of course, a hoppy treat that I'm planning to get to know better in the future.

Check out this promising new brewery, many more beers to come it sounds like!