While the St. Patrick’s Day Parade was canceled for a second consecutive year due to the coronavirus pandemic, bars and restaurants will remain open. Corned beef and cabbage, shepherd’s pie, and Irish stew are gracing takeout and dine-in menus across Boston, with some shamrock-decorated pubs offering Irish music and festive swag to dine-in guests.
If you’re choosing to visit a restaurant or bar for the holiday, take note: Businesses are still required to enforce city and state COVID-19 regulations, which include making sure guests are socially distanced, wearing masks except when eating and drinking, and ordering food alongside beverages. Prefer to celebrate in your own home? Plenty of restaurants are offering St. Patrick’s Day specials to go (though a trip to your nearest packie for some Guinness might be required).
The beer case at City Market, Onion River Co-op In 2011, John and Jen Kimmich, owners of the Alchemist, began building a production brewery to package their beers for retail sale. And they made a decision that some in the craft beer industry thought was strange: They built a canning line. At the time, John Kimmich recalled in a recent interview, craft beer came almost exclusively in 12- or 22-ounce bottles; cans were associated with mass-produced beers. He knew of just a few other breweries in the U.S. using 16-ounce cans, but he had fond memories of drinking pounders while growing up in Pittsburgh.
The Alchemist brewery welcomes beer fans to its airy tasting room in Stowe, Vermont.
Daydreaming of a beer-cation to Vermont? These craft breweries need to be at the top of your list and at the bottom of your glass. share this article
Although some of the following breweries have temporarily closed their tasting rooms due to COVID, all are still open to pick up cans, bottles, or growlers to go. Vermont also requires all out-of-state visitors to quarantine for 14 days, or 7 days after a negative COVID test. Visit for the latest travel restrictions.
With 60-plus breweries and brewpubs across the state, Vermont has roughly one beer sanctuary for every 9,750 residents. Thatâs a discerning populace. Not surprisingly, the stateâs craft beer scene is among the best in the nation, home to notable breweries like Magic Hat and Otter Creek that helped establish the stateâs beer scene in the â90s, as well as newer innovators like Hill Farmstead and the Alchemist (mak