Long Trail Brewing Company

Long Trail Brewing Company
Location	Bridgewaters Corners, Vermont United States
Year opened	1989
Active beers
Name Type Long Trail Ale Altbier Long Trail Double Bag Strong ale Long Trail Hefeweizen Hefeweizen Long Trail Pale Ale American Pale ale Long Trail India Pale Ale IPA Long Trail Blackbeary Wheat Fruit beer
Seasonal beers
Name Type Long Trail Harvest Ale Amber ale Long Trail Hibernator Scottish ale Long Trail Belgian White Witbier Long Trail Pollenator Pale Ale

Long Trail Brewery is a microbrewery located in Bridgewater, Vermont, USA. Andy Pherson, founder of the Long Trail Brewery, began his quest in 1989, in the basement of the old Bridgewater Woolen Mill here in Vermont’s Green Mountains. His goal was to brew and sell beer that would be an American-made alternative to imported German and English ales. At that time the brewery was called the Mountain Brewers, though a name was still needed for the beer(s). While contemplating names Andy passed a Long Trail hiking trail marker on his way home in the nearby area and had an epiphany. Seeing the hikers on the sign and the words ‘Long Trail’ he knew right away that it was what he was looking for! Not long after naming his beer Long Trail Ale the name caught on and the brewery began to be referred to as “the Long Trail guys." The name Mountain Brewers was then dropped and the name ‘Long Trail Brewing Company’ was kept and continued on as the brewery we are today.

The first batch of Long Trail Ale was ready for customers in November 1989. In May 1990, Long Trail entered into our first distribution agreement with a Vermont distributor. Farrell Distributing, Vermont’s oldest and largest distributor, was chosen to partner with in this endeavor, and Long Trail has been distributed by this family owned company in the state of Vermont ever since. Through the years Farrell Distributing has seen first hand Long Trail’s growing popularity, its dedication to product quality, its commitment to the environment and its successful growth of Vermont beer market share. Long Trail Ale has been Vermont’s best selling amber ale since 1990, and not long after Long Trail’s start the brewery set their sights on becoming Vermont’s best selling craft beer. Long Trail draught is only outsold, in the state of Vermont, by 'mega-brewer' Anheuser Busch!

By 1994, the brewery had begun to outgrow its basement home in the local Bridgewater Woolen Mill. Long Trail then decided to ‘Hit the Trail’ just down the road to the current location where our state-of-the-art brewery resides today here along the banks of the Ottauqueechee River.

Since opening the doors to our new brewery in 1995 business has continued to grow, as has the size and popularity of Long Trail’s Visitor Center. With a tap room featuring samples, sandwiches, gifts and beer to-go, the Long Trail Brewing Visitor Center has become a local watering hole for vacationers and locals alike. Today the Visitor Center annually caters to an estimated 72,000 visitors each year, making our brewery one of Vermont’s most frequented attractions.

Although in the beginning Long Trail’s beers were only distributed here in Vermont we have since spread our distribution throughout 13 additional states in the Northeast: Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia. Due to the rapid success and popularity of the Long Trail brand, expansion of the brewery itself has been necessary, though never at the expense of our local environment. (Check out our ECO-Brew info to learn more!)

Founder Andy Pherson retired in 2006. The Long Trail Brewing Company is still privately owned, and business continues to grow with the same, environmentally minded business philosophy that started it all long ago.

Long Trail makes a number of different styles of beer, mostly English-style top-fermented ales, but its flagship beer is Long Trail Ale, a Düsseldorf-style altbier. It also participates in the tradition of brewing a "Sticke" Alt (from a dialect German word for secret) known as Long Trail Double Bag, though unlike the German originators of the style, Long Trail makes Double Bag available year-round. During the 1990s it also brewed a Kölsch-style ale as a spring seasonal. In the summer of 2006 Long Trail added a hefeweizen to its list of brews. In the Fall of 2007, they changed the Blackbeary Wheat offering to full-year availability. It was previously Long Trail's summer seasonal brew. In 2010, Long Trail Brewing Company acquired Otter Creek Brewing and with it Wolaver's Organic Brewery.

The Long Trail is a 272 mile hiking trail that runs the length of Vermont.

The Long Trail Brewery was featured in the Discovery Channel's television show Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe in the Chick Sexer episode #1.7.

External links

• Company website