I was never a Bud or Miller Lite guy. The explosion of diverse, intense beer has been a movement I was more or less born in to.
With that being said, I’ve come to realize the different experiences that come with visiting a brew pub, verses a restaurant with beers on tap, versus a straight up brewery.
I recall going to a brew pub in Bennington and trying something wicked, in name and taste. The name escapes me, something like “God’s Finger” or “Clap’s Revenge.” Something that was fun in flight form, but a full pint? Not so fun anymore.
There’s something about the brewery experience that invites a wider variety of taste and exploration. After all, you’re at their home base where the wild and weird might not make it out of the driveway.
So this week we went to Odelay and decided to go with Outlaw Brewing Company, four of the six beers on tap were theirs. I had family out for dinner with us, we bought a coupon to Odelay on a whim for their Xmas gift. Last year my brother and I got them tickets to the Japanese drumming at the Colonial. It’s become a game of “I don’t know if they’ll like this but it’d be fun to make them go to it.”
We ran the gamut and got all four of their beers; peanut butter stout for me, Cranky Yankee IPA for Aria, and a brown ale and something I can’t remember and didn’t try for my folks.
The peanut butter stout surprised me, and sometimes that’s half the fun of trying something new while you’re out. The beer was golden, not the dark brown I’ve come to expect from stouts. The peanut butter taste was definitely there, it comes out swinging! But the taste cools off quickly and a hoppy sizzle finishes it off. Aria’s Cranky Yankee fills the whole mouth with a tingly bitterness. A pretty, cloudy beer, but I have to say the stout was the victor out of the two.
Outlaw is a local brewery in Winchester. I’ve followed their Instagram and their barn and batten building is something I want to visit. These guys have their beers on taps all over town, I’m looking forward to going to their location and giving their favorite brews a try right out of their taps.
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Colby Thompson currently lives in Keene New Hampshire.
Colby Thompson is a wannabee Vermonter, living in Keene New
Hampshire. His days are taken up building his tiny house on wheels with his partner, Aria, or working on clients videos for his wedding film business.
Colby traveled around the country twice in his 1975 VW bus and is looking forward to his next chapter homesteading on his land in southern Vermont. He likes beer, cheese and cheap wine.
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