The Launch of VT's Newest Brewery

A article I wrote about the launch party at The Pitcher Inn:


The Big Basin Band opened with a rendition of “They Call It Lawsons Finest” to the tune of “Mellow Yellow”. The fanfare had begun, and the energy behind the taps multiplied as the theme song played on. Maybe a new wheat beer named Mellow Yellow is in order?

The porch and gardens of The Pitcher Inn were transformed into a picnic scene, as party goers mingled around enjoying BBQ country ribs, grilled jerk chicken and flank steak with cilantro dipping sauce, smoked pork BBQ sandwiches along with sides of potato salad, cole slaw fried plantains and many others. Kudos on the use of the natural hardwood charcoal. I bet thats why there was none to be found at Mehurons that Sunday!

Sean and his wife Karen were offering their selections of: “Fistful-O-Hop IPA”, “Crooked Cabin Ale”, “Weiss-K”, “Papelblonde” and “Woodchuck Stout”. The beers nicely ran the gamut in body and flavor profiles the whole way through. (Not necessarily in that order.)

I caught up with Sean at his brewery over a pint of Crooked Cabin to ask him his thoughts on the future of his newest operation billed as a “nano-brewery” by some. Yes, a nano is smaller then a micro. With Sean’s isolated availability and small batch production... a fitting term.

Sean got his start in brewing back in the college days, where he was often told: “Wow...you made this? This is really good...can you show me how?”. And so a passion begun. He moved on to spend time at The Brekenridge Pub and Brewery in Brekenridge, Colorado and Beaver Street Pub and Brewery in Flagstaff, Arizona where apprenticeships helped him to advance his craft.

Lawson’s Finest Liquids began production in Warren in March of 2008, “high on the hill, in the sugarhouse brewery”, focusing on supplying several local restaurants as well as the Warren store.

Right now Sean is committed to focusing just on The Valley for his beer supply, with a “think big, start small” philosophy. His goal at this stage is not on growth, but rather focusing on offering quality to the local community. He compared this to the Old World tradition of a pub, where you had to actually go there to get the beer. In the U.S, prohibition wiped out the community brewery, but current trends are seeing this becoming at the forefront of artesianal beer production. With the localvore movement alive and strong here in The Valley and Vermont, a welcome addition to our scene.

Sean talked about another VT brewery, Switchback, which shares his same philosophy of keeping it in Vermont. It can only be found on draft throughout the state. (And some varied locations on the extreme eastern border of New Hampshire). But how he differentiates himself from Switch back as that he believes in making as many small batch styles of exemplary beers as possible, while Switchback only focuses on one.

A major issue plaguing small craft brewers these days is the current hop shortage. In just the past year, the industry has seen the cost of goods rise 300-400 percent, as well as some favorite hops such as Chinook and Centennial become almost unobtainable. The catalyst for this was that last year unusual weather in Europe cause their harvest to fall well below expectations. Germany’s crop was OK, but the harvests in Czechoslovakia and Slovenia fell 30% below what was forecasted. All this combined with a bad harvest in Washington found brewers now paying $26.00 a pound for the same hops they bought at $2-3.00 a pound a year ago. Sean deals with this by teaming up with a local group of home brewers dubbed “The Lager Boys” to put in a bulk order to help keep costs somewhat reduced. With the planting of Dave Hartshorn’s hops this year, we may see the first local hops going into Lawson’s Finest perhaps as early as next year.

We ended the night by tasting his coveted “Chinookard”, brewed with his private stash of the now rare Chinook hops...a robust IPA with a hint of apricot. He then poured me a sample of the super secret, brewed once a year, single batch “Maple Tripple”. This beer is made entirely from maple sap and maple syrup. With all the liquid coming from a tree, he joked it was his “No water added” beer. This beer had a pleasant body, and not a overpowering sweetness as I would have thought. The alcohol level was also up there in the 10-11% region, but was well balanced by the sugars. We both agreed it would be a perfect “dessert beer” paired with a VT apple pie.

Sean will be making his debut at the Vermont Brewers Festival in Burlington on July 18-19, 2008, as well as The Great American Beer Fest in Denver this October, of which he dubs “The be all and all of beer in the U.S.”. For your more immediate craving, you can find his beers on tap at American Flatbread in Waitsfield, The Pitcher Inn, and at the Village Porch in Rochester. You can also find his bottled beer served at The Common Man, and in take home format at the Warren Store. Additionally Sean will be at the Waitsfield farmers market this Saturday offering samples and bottles to buy and hopes to have a presence there at least once a month. Just please don’t buy all the Pappleblonde, as I believe it is my favorite.