Only seven months late, but its finally time to take this out of drafts and finish it up!

What better way for a whiskey drinking, beer loving girl to celebrate being a quarter century old than to hit up a brewery? Since I was in Vermont, I headed to Long Trail Brewery for the perfect celebration. (Well perhaps had I been in Dublin I could have hit up Jameson and Guinness, that could have topped it…) Accompanied by my boyfriend, his friend and his sister (one of my best friends), we headed off to the Brewery for lunch and a tour before heading home to CT as the weekend drew to a close. We first decided to eat, so we headed to the outdoor seating area for some grub. When given the choice of drinks for lunch, we all chose the sampler as it seemed to make the most sense (plus it was only $6 for 24 oz. of beer).

We began with the Blackberry Wheat, which became my favorite of them all with it’s light and unique taste. It was followed by the Harvest, took me as a bit bitter, perhaps because I loved the one before it so much, but it was also too dark. Third up was the Long Trail Ale, which was just a generic ale. Nothing special, but not bad. The second half began with the Pale Ale and ended with the Traditional IPA, neither of which stuck my fancy. And taking up the spot between those two was the Double Bag. I like the name better than the taste, but it was a nice heavier beer.

While not all the beers were stellar, the tasting sampler was great and definitely the way to go if you’re not familiar with the Long Trail beers. The beer sampler was also better than the tour, which isn’t so much of a tour as it is a sort walk down the hall reading posters. My favorite part of the brewery was the deep well in the middle of the outdoor seating area that is one of the sources of the fresh water that they use in the brewing process. I would suggest if your in the area to take a break to sit down to try the sampler and have a bite to eat.