By the end of 2015, there were 50 breweries in Vermont. Tourists from across the country were making the journey to sample the numerous beers, including some of the best in the world.
Besides the beer tourists, people in the towns where these breweries were popping up, started to gather and just hang out at their town's local craft brewery.
"Breweries use to be this sort of anonymous big factory kind of thing on the outskirts of town and you didn't really know where your beer was made or who made it," said Brent Hallenbeck, a writer for the Burlington Free Press. "All of a sudden [breweries are] a place where you hang out and get to know people."
At breweries such as Stone Corral in Richmond and Frost Beer Works in Hinesburg, Hallenbeck said people are gathering to have a pint, talk with their neighbors and swap stories about what's going on in the town.
You can read more in Hallenbeck's piece Vermont Microbreweries Go Micro-Local.
The VPR Café is made possible by Otter Creek Kitchenware in downtown Middlebury, offering over 70 lines of kitchenware.
