Beer Spotlight!

Hermit Thrush / Lawson’s Finest Liquids Loungewear

$17.99 for the 16oz four-pack cans
Sour Golden Ale with Passionfruit

We know that Battleboro’s Hermit Thrush Brewery is dedicated to having their beers represent what Vermont has to offer, but we didn’t expect that principle to extend to their collaborations. These people are hardcore!

For their sour Golden Ale, Hermit Thrush reaches two hours north to shake hands with Lawson’s Finest Liquids in Waitsfield. Founded in 2008, Lawson’s is the child that Sean and Karen Lawson had between their first and second daughters. Their original home was in Warren, VT in a barn that Sean half built himself next to their actual house. (… which is kind of how Hermit Thrush started. How hard is it to find start up brew space in Vermont?) They expanded in 2011 and opened their Waitsfield location in 2018.

For the Loungewear, Hemit Thrush starts with the bones of Lawson’s The Space Between — an unfiltered tart Golden Ale dry-hopped with Nelson and Galaxy hops. First, Hermit Thrush ferments the Space Between’s malt bill with their own Brettanomyces yeast strain, then they throw in “a ton” of passionfruit before aging the whole thing both in rum barrels and red wine barrels.

The Loungewear gives you the rare opportunity to make the fine distinction between tart and sour, because you have both going on here. There’s the tartness from the passionfruit and the sourness coming from Hermit Thrush’s yeast. When you first taste it, you get both tastes rushing at you. (This is a zippy beer with a lot of crisp acid to it.) However, as you continue to sip, the fruit flavors build in intensity. Everything — the passionfruit, the rum and wine barrels — all suggest notes of various berries. It’s like all the fruit you would put in Sangria put into a beer. This is not a quiet beer! The Loungewear comes at you really strong, but somehow remains refreshing.

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