Bennington brews up something special at 4th Winter Homebrew Festival

Photo Below: Lamson Brewing Co. hearing they had won the coveted Best Brewery at the Winter Homebrew Festival (photo credit: Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce)

Vermont Business Magazine The Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce and Hopridge Farms held the fourth annual Southern Vermont Winter Homebrew Festival on Saturday, March 7th in downtown Bennington, Vermont at the former Brush Building to a sell out crowd! The Saturday festival opened its doors at noon to exclusive VIP ticket holders for a private tasting of both regional apps and brews. The general ticket holders were able to attend from 1-4pm.

The festival, now in its fourth year, invited the Northeast’s top homebrewers who brought with them their own personal, home brewed beer, cider, mead, braggot and wine. The twenty-five breweries in attendance were competing for a chance to be crowned "Best VIP Hour Beverage," “Best Overall Brewery,” and “Best Overall Beverage.”

In addition, the festival invited regional restaurants to submit their best appetizers, new this year, for the chance to be crowned "Best Apps In The Region."

The festival has sold out the last couple of years before the doors open. “We pretty much hit the spot we wanted to on Tuesday night, and so we shut off tickets.” says Will Gardner, co-producer of the festival and owner of Hopridge Farms. “Of course, the phone starts ringing and people start reaching out on Facebook to get tickets, but we warned them that every year we have seen this festival sell out. We started ticket sales on Black Friday in November 2019. Each year word spreads about the uniqueness of this festival and so each year we end up shutting off ticket sales sooner and sooner. We always strive to find the perfect balance between home brewers, space, attendees, and safety. We are not interested in simply cramming people into a space. We could have sold 200 more tickets but that’s not why we do this."

• Best VIP Hour Brew went to Lamson Brewing Co. with their Peanut Butter Stout. Jack Lamson of Lamson Brewing is also an anchor for WRGB CBS 6 in Albany.

• Best Brewery went to Lamson Brewing Co. as well.

• Best Brew of the festival went to the Moran Brothers Brewing with “Embrace The Oreo.”

• Best Appetizer went to Hannaford Supermarkets with their pulled pork sliders.

“This festival gets stronger and stronger every year because of the help we get from brewers, restaurants and the community,” states Matt Harrington, executive director of the Southwestern Vermont Chamber of COmmerce and co-producer of the festival. “From Paul Carrioccio and TPW who lent us the Brush Building for the weekend, our 30 plus volunteers who put everything together and then took everything apart afterwards, to our great sponsors like Greater Heights, The Bank of Bennington, Bennington Subaru, CAT-TV, The Bennington Banner, Bennington Pizza House and Hannaford. We’re just so thankful to work with such a great team!”

Cody Colombie and Kathryn Frazier discuss best brews and apps on their voting sheet at the 4th annual Winter Homebrew Festival (photo credit: Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce)

Vendors were also on hand selling everything from hops, books on brewing, chocolates, hot sauces, and more. Vendors this year include: Outdoor Secrets Hot Sauce, Rockin Hops, Crazy Mike’s Beef Jerky, Highland Ledge Farms, Saltbox Seasonings, Hoppy Valley, Couch + Cork, I Want Pig Candy, Humble Pie Bakery and Kitchen and Phoenix Inspiration Henna.

Gardner says, “This festival, and the Summer HomeBrew Festival, is all about the brewers. Being a home brewer myself I know the importance of getting your product in front of 500 people. You get tremendous feedback and if you're planning on going professional this is the way to start. Our goal with the Winter and Summer HomeBrew Festivals is to showcase the home brewers, ensure we offer a fun and safe time for the attendees, and to bring folks from all over the Northeast to our beautiful town of Bennington.”

Gardner continues, “The planning process for these events starts 6 months out and we try to cover all angles. We pride ourselves on planning and executing a well run event. Balancing out the multitude of facets is not easy but we have been successful at it for 9 festivals now and look forward to the Southern Vermont Summer Homebrew Festival on August 1, 2020!”

“What’s great about doing all online tickets is that we get to see the demographic of this festival,” Harrington adds. “We find that this festival, like our others, puts Bennington and The Shires on the map drawing people from all around the northeast to visit. At this particular festival we saw 20% of ticket holders from Bennington County, however we saw over 80% from out of the state! This is terrific as people travel to Bennington and Vermont to try some of the country’s best brews. We also know it puts people in one of our downtowns for a continued night of dining and entertainment after the festival. We heard from multiple brewers and patrons alike that they had purchased rooms for the event as well.”

The Winter Homebrew Festival will return in 2021, but for now both organizers suggest checking out their 6th Annual Summer Homebrew Festival in August of this year: www.Bennington.com/summer-homebrew-festival

For more information on the Winter Homebrew Festival visit: www.Bennington.com/winterhomebrew

Photo Below: Attendees at the 4th annual Winter Homebrew Festival in the former Brush Building in downtown Bennington, Vermont (photo credit: Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce)

(Bennington, VT) –– The Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce

Photo Below: Attendees at the 4th annual Winter Homebrew Festival in the former Brush Building in downtown Bennington, Vermont (photo credit: Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce)

Photo Below: Brewery about to refill the tasting glass at the Winter Homebrew Festival (photo credit: Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce)

Photo Below: Michael Madison of the new 421 Craft Bar and Kitchen participating in the Best Appetizers Competition at the Winter Homebrew Festival (photo credit: Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce)

Photo Below: Moran Brothers Brewing celebrating after being awarded Best Brew "Embrace The Oreo" at the Winter Homebrew Festival (photo credit: Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce)