Rutland Beer Works, Rutland VT

Rutland Beer Works

I drove to Bethel VT today to pick up the bassoon from its annual maintenance at Ellis Music Co and decided to detour through Rutland on the way home and try out Rutland Beer Works at the Hop’n Moose. I arrived just as they opened at noon, and by 1pm (on this Saturday in beautiful weather), they were doing a booming business!

They have a good variety of their beers on tap but sadly, aren’t doing flights. Here’s the beer list, though:

My first pint, which you can see in the foreground of this photo of the pub, is the Blonde, and it was a favorite right off the bat. The description is spot on but really doesn’t go far enough — it’s refreshing and complex and just delightful.

Most of the menu is wood-fired pizza options, so I went with that. It was decent enough and tasty enough, but far from the best I’ve had, as if nothing was really contributing the amount of flavor it should have:

I forgot to take a photo of my second pint, their flagship brew, Rutland Red. While I enjoyed it, it wasn’t nearly as memorable for me as the Blonde that preceded it. Number three, however, was truly the pinnacle of the visit — Nellie’s Bollocks. I took away a 4-pack because it was that good.

Would I head back here again? Maybe, but I did give up a visit to Worthy Burger to check out Rutland Beer Works so would probably go back there first if I ever make another visit north 🙂