The Best Breweries In Burlington, VT

Burlington, Vermont, is one of the most famous cities in America’s craft beer scene. The term “Vermont beer” was explicitly created to categorize the famous brews of Green Mountain State. With more than 70 craft breweries, Burlington is a beer enthusiast’s playground.

Some of the best breweries in Burlington include names like Four Quarters Brewing, Zero Gravity Craft Brewery, Queen City Brewery, Switchback Brewery, Foam Brewers, and Burlington Beer Company.

Here’s our list of the best breweries in Burlington, which you should check out today!

• Four Quarters Brewing
• Queen City Brewery
• Switchback Brewery
• Zero Gravity Craft Brewery
• Foam Brewers
• Burlington Beer Company
• Simple Roots Brewing

Four Quarters Brewing

Hate it or love it, true craft beer enthusiasts know the value of small batch specialists, and Four Quarters Brewing is one of them. It is one of the best breweries in Burlington and features a compact taproom, offering some of the best stouts, sours, and hoppy ales.

Try a glowing pour of the famous Spectra – a frothy double IPA brewed with Simcoe and Eldorado hops, finishing with the taste of pines and apricots.

Queen City Brewery

Queen City is famous for its take on German and Irish-inspired pub styles, with low ABV and easy-to-drink beers. It is one of the best breweries in Burlington and offers 16 taps and a rotating beer list, including varieties like English ales, German lagers, and American-style beers. People particularly love the unusual pickup truck parked above the bar!

The Yorkshire Porter is a must-try. Queen City’s take on the classic English ale results in a rich, full-bodied, and very well-balanced beer. The drink has an understated bitterness because of the hops and a malt profile with notes of chocolate and coffee.

Switchback Brewery

Switchback is one of the oldest and best breweries in Burlington. It gained a lot of media attention in 2017 when owner and brewmaster Bill Cherry made it Vermont’s first employee-owned brewery. Some of the most famous beers are unfiltered and naturally carbonated. The building design also gives homey vibes, with floor-to-ceiling windows and wooden paneling. Instead of relying heavily on experimental styles, Switchback focuses on a handful of rotating beers and two year-round brews, the Switchback Ale and Citra-Pils.

The Citr-Pils is a classic Kellerbier, or pilsener lager, and is brewed using a blend of Citra and Saaz hops. The hoppy twist creates a unique blend of citrusy aroma, pilsner, and IPA sensibilities, and a crisp taste. It’s a clean and refreshing drink with a Light Pils base which accentuates the bright lemony citrus notes.

Zero Gravity Craft Brewery

Zero Gravity had humble beginnings in 2004 when the brewpub opened at the American Flatbread Burlington Hearth. Since then, they’ve successfully upscaled their brewery and opened a 30-barrel brewhouse on Pine Street. Zero Gravity offers a one-of-a-kind experience and regularly pumps out classic beer styles, including a Belgian tripel, Indian pale ales, and pilsners.

Their Conehead IPA is their interpretation of an American IPA, although it’s lighter in color than its classical counterpart. The single-hop wheat IPA is brewed using only Citra hops, which give it just the right amount of flavor, aroma, and crispiness, making it a well-rounded drink.

Foam Brewers

Foam Brewers is located in an old brick building next to the Waterfront Park and was opened by master brewer Todd Haire (previously of the Magic Hat Brewery) in 2016. The establishment garnered so much attention that it was quickly named one of the 10 best breweries in the world! Foam Brewers offers an expansive collection of seasonally rotating beers, including pilsners, IPAs, and saisons. It’s also the only brewery offering aged and blended beers from the famous House of Fermentology.

Try the famous Built to Spill, an imperial double IPA. The hazy drink has a straw-yellow color with a citrusy aroma. The taste is very light with pineapple, melon, and grassy notes followed by a citrusy tang and slight bitterness.

Burlington Beer Company

Burlington Beer Co. was named one of the best new breweries in 2016 by Thrillist. It was founded by Joe Lemnah, who is famous for once brewing a pumpkin beer inside a pumpkin! The rotating beers are based on his creativity and feature local, seasonal ingredients, which have made Burlington Beer one of the most popular breweries in Burlington, Vermont.

A clear example of the company’s creative prowess is the popular Barista, a silky jet-black coffee porter aged with roasted beans at the Abracadabra Coffee Company. It is robust and full-bodied, with a strong aroma of freshly ground coffee beans, roasted malts, and caramel. The taste includes notes of toasted wood, rich sweet malts, molasses, and a sugary sweetness at the end.

Simple Roots Brewing

Simple Roots did have simple roots since it started as a garage-based nano brewery in 2014. Since then, it has become one of the most popular breweries in Burlington. The small but mighty brewery focuses on simple styles, such as pilsners, pale ales, and stouts, but they also focus on experimenting with new hops, coffee, sours, and wild yeast varieties. You might also find their beers on tap in some of the best bars and restaurants in Northern Vermont.

Their Tmave Pivo is on draft these days. Try the Czech-style lager brewed with Saaz hops, which features rich and malty notes and a clean, dry finish! In addition to that, the bitterness of the roasted malts is toned down, and there’s a nice nuttiness to the beer, making it creamy, sweet, and easy to drink.