Monday Musings: Stowe Beer and Snow Report

Rather behind on the blog last week between a very busy period with my consulting business, and a trip to Stowe, Vermont for the weekend. I didn’t even have a chance to do a formal beer review! I can, however, report on “field research” in Stowe! First stop was the Shed, which I haven’t visited in several years. I sampled their full range and can’t say I was impressed by most of them. The only ones that stood out at all were their Mountain Ale (a reasonable version of an American strong ale, a tad too sweet and syrupy for my liking) and IPA (a decent and straightforward IPA, not overhoped and my favorite of their line-up).

The big news is that the Trapp Family Lodge now has a brewery! I only tried one of the four available, but it was absolutely superb, a dunkel, one of my favorite styles. I shall return for the rest!

Speaking of Stowe and Trapp Family Lodge, cross-country skiing conditions were excellent this weekend, in spite of being late season. The snow was perfect and it was actually borderline too cold for my liking. I don’t mind the cold when I’m hiking but it’s tough with XC skiing because I get hot working uphill, and then am frozen by the wind on the downhills. If anyone’s thinking of heading north, it seems we’ve got at least a couple more weeks of good snow.