best microbrewery

The Alchemist Pub and Brewery: Hand-Crafted Beer and Casual Pub Fare

About halfway between Manchester, N.H. and Montreal, Quebec sits the sleepy town of Waterbury, Vt., home to The Alchemist Pub and Brewery. The geographical details may seem trivial, but the only way to get a beer at this Luxist-nominated brew pub is to go there yourself – all ales flow from The Alchemist's own basement brewery. The only beer that's "to-go," they like to say, is the beer in your belly.

Perhaps things would have been different if the The Alchemist had been founded a few decades earlier – the brewpub is located Waterbury's original post office, which would have made for quite the convenient distribution network. Instead, the building was renovated and reopened as a brewpub in 2003 by proprietors Jennifer and John Kimmich. The pair has been brewing handcrafted beer onsite ever since, using only the best imported malts and domestic hops.

Gallery: The Alchemist Pub and Brewery in Waterbury, Vermont

Beer Taps at The Alchemist Pub & Brewery

Beer and Food at The Alchemist Pub & Brewery

Art on Display inside The Alchemist Pub & Brewery

Every Friday, new casks of beer are debuted, but four stalwarts are always available on tap alongside the newbies.

There's Donovan's Red, a medium-bodied and malty ale named after Waterbury's 19^th Century Irish restaurant. Light beer drinkers will appreciate the appropriately-named Lightweight, a crisp pilsner that took third place at the 2006 World Beer Cup. For hops lovers, Holy Cow I.P.A. is an aromatic blend of six different malts and five different hops. And finally, there's Pappy's Porter, a dark and deep ale that's great for bitter New England evenings in the winter.

The Alchemist also offers a host of nourishment in solid form. The Vermont-centric menu offers seasonal farm produce as well as sandwiches, pizzas, vegetarian food, and a range of daily specials. Take in the paintings of local artists while you dine. And don't be afraid to order too much – the food, unlike the beer, can always be wrapped up to go.

Vote for the brew pub that you believe is the best of breed. The voting period runs through April 30 and winners will be announced on May 1.

Tags: Alchemist Pub, Alchemist Pub and Brewery, awards-main, beer, Best Brew Pub, Best Microbrewery, luxist-awards, microbreweries, nightlife

Lost Coast Brewery: Great Beer on the Lost Coast of California

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Spirits

Lost Coast Brewery & Cafe is nominated for a Luxist Award for Best Brew Pub

On California's northern coastline, the mountains along the Pacific are so rugged and steep that Route 1 veers back inland in order to avoid the treachery. Along this stretch, known as the Lost Coast, the towns have names like Shelter Cove and Petrolia. Route 1 finally finds the ocean once again in Eureka – home of the Luxist-nominated Lost Coast Brewery.

The brew pub offers weary travelers a delicious break from the winding roads that likely conveyed them to Eureka. Proprietors Barbara Groom, a former pharmacist, and Wendy Pound, a former family counselor, gained their expertise by sampling pubs in the British Isles in the 1980s. They returned to the U.S. and purchased the Pythian Castle, a century-old edifice in Eureka, from the Fraternal Order of the Knights of Pythias and started Lost Coast Brewery in 1990.

Gallery: The Lost Coast Brewery and Cafe

Lost Coast's offerings include Alleycat Amber, a caramel-flavored ale with a dash of medium-bodied malts and hops; Downtown Brown, a nutty ale with a hint of hops and roasted malts; Great White, a citrusy beer with unmalted wheat, barley and a "secret blend" of herbs. For those more interested in solid nourishment, there's a wide selection of seafood, burgers, vegetarian fare and other victuals in Lost Coast's café.

Boosted by a banner year in 2005 that saw 24,000 barrels of beer produced, Lost Coast moved into an even larger building down the road. It's currently the 46^th-largest brewery in the U.S., and distributes beer in 19 different states

Vote for the brew pub that you believe is the best of breed. The voting period runs through April 30 and winners will be announced on May 1.

Tags: awards-main, beer, best brew pub, best microbrewery, Eureka, Lost Coast Brewery, luxist-awards, microbreweries, nightlife

Silver City Brewery: Brewing its Own Award-Winning Beer on the Premises

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Spirits

Silver City Brewery in Silverdale, Wa. is nominated as best brew pub by Luxist.

Though Silverdale, Wa. is about 20 miles from downtown Seattle as the crow flies, the body of water that lies between the two towns makes the trip a bit more complicated than one might expect. The journey from Seattle takes you down around the southern boundary of Puget Sound – 70 miles by car – but it's worth the time if you're headed to Silver City Brewery, a Luxist nominee in the best brew pub category.

The Silver City story starts long before the brewpub's 1996 debut. Steve and Scott Houmes first went into business together in 1990, opening a restaurant called Top Notch Burger. Six years later, feeling squeezed by the big burger chains, they decided to regroup and try a new approach by entering the brew pub business. They remodeled their Silverdale location into its modern form, and the rest, as they say, was history.

Gallery: Silver City Brewery

Silver City brews its beers on premises. Some favorites include Clear Creek Pale Ale, a blend of three lightly roasted British malts and hints of caramel; Panther Lake Porter, a dark, chocolatey ale; and Fat Scotch Ale, a malty and whiskey-esque brew that clocks with a hefty 9.2% alcohol content. Silver City sells beer by the glass at its bar and restaurant, but for those who want to take home a larger quantity, the microbrewery sells kegs as well.

The food at Silver City's restaurant makes for a great accompaniment to the delicious brews. The menu includes a variety of salads, appetizers, main courses and desserts – and of course, the Houmes' specialty: a good, old-fashioned cheeseburger.

Vote for the brew pub that you believe is the best of breed. The voting period runs through April 30 and winners will be announced on May 1.