Stowe

A typical Vermont scene (in Summer), green as far as the eye can see dotted with little towns, white church spires and winding rivers, delightful. While away this year we stopped for a couple of days in Stowe, a Northern Vermont town famous for being a rather posh ski resort in the Winter. It's all still open in the Summer of course when the skiers are replaced by hikers and mountain bikers, and, a few foreign beer geeks looking for authentic New England brews! Stowe and the surrounding area is home to a couple of well known breweries but probably most renown is The Alchemist, based in Stowe itself this producer has grown almost entirely on the back of one beer, Heady Topper. One of the first massively hopped New England style IPA's Heady Topper is a true icon of the modern craft scene and while there I simply had  to pay a visit.

The makers of this splendid ale recommend that punters drink it straight from the can, no messing around with fancy glassware, just inhale those wonderful dank piney aromas and sample those exquisitely balanced malts and yeast flavours unadulterated by oxygen in the air. It's a truly great brew and a real treat to sample it straight from source only a few days in the can!

Here's a view across lake Chaplain to the mountains beyond, a beautiful place, although I can't help thinking those original settlers should have called it "New Lake District" rather than "New England", the similarities would seem far more appropriate!