Still Sucks

So I was reading about the 25th anniversary of the VT Pub and Brew last week and I started to get a little nostalgic. When I was first able to drink we often went to the sister brewpub the 7 Barrel Brewery in West Lebanon and the craft beers were a revelation. When I moved back to VT in the early 00's the Pub and Brew was our go to spot. The beers were decent and the liquor pours were stiff. Then a funny thing happened... the rest of the world caught up. Craft brewing became a thing and there were delicious beers all over the place. The P&B did not keep up. In fact their beers were often flat, lacked flavor or nuance, and generally gave you diarrhea. Not a recipe for success. We just stopped going. Like the Tavern on Church Street, they still get plenty of traction from tourists, college kids, and morons... the P&B will be fine without me and my boozy buddies. I just miss it. Kind of. So on Friday I had a short window and thought f*** it! Let's hit up the P&B!!! A few of us cruised up and took a look at the bar. It was mostly empty (5PM on Friday) and looked seriously depressing. We ended up at Manhattan's Pizza which has revamped its interior and beer list and generally is a cooler more hip place to be. They got it and updated.

So I was in the Farmhouse last night and they had a collaboration from the P&B and Magic Hat... a sour IPA of sorts. Well, shoot... that is close enough to celebrate all of the things Greg Noonan and the P&B did right not? Wrong. It was flat, didn't have any depth, and was a pretty shitty beer. Well, the P&B generally makes shitty beers these days and so does Magic Hat so teaming up why would I expect two bad brewers would suddenly figure out how to make a good beer? It is too bad but the beer movement has passed these two gray beards, much the same as it once ran over Catamount brewing. It happens. Doesn't diminish the legacy but if they want to stay relevant than it is time to update and move forward. One man's opinion.