I love summer.  No, I mean, I really love summer.  How can you beat fresh veggies from the garden? and here at Three Penny, that means literally we’re serving not only farm-fresh veggies from local farms such as Dodge Farm in Berlin and Screaming Ridge Farm here in Montpelier- but co-owner Matt McCarthy has a pretty sizable garden at his house which has been pumping out some great stuff for us- and from time to time I even bring a few of the over-flow veggies from my garden in for Joey and Jake to work their magic on….

And summer isn’t summer without some beer league softball.  This year, our Three Penny Taproom team looks to have finally grown out of being perennial basement dwellers and risen up to a legitimately mediocre team!  Hey, one step at a time.  The regular season closes out with a double header on Wednesday, July 28 starting at 6:00 and then a final doubleheader on Monday, August 9 starting at 6:00.  Playoffs (everyone gets in, double-elimination tourny) will begin the week of August 16.  Come down to the Dog River Fields in Montpelier and drink some beers with us, and have a blast cheering us on!

Plus, summer in Vermont is a proverbial hot-bed of great music festivals.  Case in point: the 8th Annual Northeast Kingdom Music Festival, coming up August 6 & 7 in East Albany, VT.  A finer collection of amazing music you’ve mostly never heard of cannot be found.  This year, along with such staples as me riding around like a madman on my golf cart and Three Penny co-owner Scott Kerner (aka MC Jay Walker) keeping you informed from the Main Stage mic, the NEK Music Fest will feature a Three Penny tent manned by Joey and slinging out what is increasingly known as Central Vermont’s best tacos (sorry, we won’t be serving beer- it’s a BYOB party).

And speaking of August:  Scott and Matt, always trying to think of new ways to keep things interesting, have put together India Pale August- a whole month of over a dozen IPA’s on tap!  Some of what we’ll be featuring includes Hill Farmstead’s Edward IPA, Abner double IPA, and Citra and Sorachi Ace single-hop IPA’s, plus McNeil’s Warlord, Brewdog’s Punk IPA, Lawson’s Finest Chinooker’d, a double dry-hopped Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous, Victory Hop Devil, a few from Mikkeller’s Single Hop Series, and a bunch more.  Now that’sa fine collection of IPA’s!!!

Enjoy it all while it lasts folks… I’ve already started stacking wood!

Cheers,

Wes

Geez, I am no where near as good at keeping you up to date with our on-goings as I should be.  I gotta start utilizing this News Feed more.  Fact is, there’s just always so much happening around here- and you should know about it!

I’ll start off by noting that we’re usually a lot better about mentioning what’s happening at the Taproom on our Facebook page, so if you’re on facebook you should ‘friend’ us (or ‘like’ us or ‘fan’ us or whatever it’s being called these days).  Facebook.com/threepenny I think, or you can maybe just find us here, or just do a search for “Three Penny Taproom” in Montpelier, VT.  Along these lines, we’re on Twitter, too.  That one is Twitter.com/threepennytap.

As far as happenings here, this coming Sunday (July 11) we’re having a ‘happening’, but not here.  It’s the second installment of Punk Rock Brunch, in which Scott, Joey, and a rag-tag assortment of other associated hooligans takes over Montpelier’s best breakfast/lunch spot (Kisment, of course)- and punk rock the place out to hell.  No, it’s not a band, it’s brunch with grounds in your coffee, the stereo turned up way too loud, and the kitchen staff throwing salt at each other.

Next Sunday (July 18) we’re hosting another of our (increasingly imfamous) beer & cheese pairings.  This one is called Celebrate the Northern Forest: Craft Beer and Artisan Cheese and will feature specially selected craft beers courtesy of our own Scott Kerner, paired perfectly with six artisan cheeses hand-picked by Central Vermont’s own Jeff Roberts (author of The Atlus of American Artisan Cheese).  In addition, chef Joey Nagy will be providing some incredible accouterments for your enjoyment.  The event runs from 1:00 to 3:00 and costs $45/person.  Sign-up and pre-pay in person here at Three Penny- but do so soon, these events always fill-up quick!

In between these two events, this coming Wednesday, July 14 (Bastille Day!) we’re pulling out any stops that may have been left in order to bring you an Allagash Bash!  We’ve got 10 different kegs from Allagash Brewing sitting in the basement, ready to go on tap that day.  Not only will we be pouring, on draught, Allagash beers that you probably didn’t even know they put in kegs, but we’re also honored to be hosting Allagash Brewing founder and president (and all-around great guy) Rob Tod!  This will be a not-to-be-missed party.

OK, I think that’s it- for now.  Cheers!

Super excited to let you all know that we’ve just expanded our bottle selection, and by my count, we’re now carrying 66 different bottles of beer! (well, OK, 65 bottles of beer and one of hard cider).  Among our new offerings are a bunch of Trappist beers (Rochefort, Orval, Westmalle) as well as a number of new Cantillon’s- actually, it looks like we’ve got 24 Belgian bottles alone! Yum!  Plus bottles from Germany, Norway, Japan, and more!

Yeah, Beer!!!

Just ’cause we’re that nuts, we’ve decided to open up for each and every match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup from South Africa.  If you’re wondering when your favorite team, Serbia, plays your best friend’s favorite team, Ghana, you can find that (and the entire schedule) right here.  Looks like a bunch of 7:00 AM and 10:00 AM opening shifts for us here.  It is Vermont State law that we can’t serve any alcohol before 8:00 AM, but we’ll have coffee and probably some bites to eat available.  And once it’s 8:00 AM you can get your game on with a glass of some of the world’s best beer or even a bloody mary.

The only bad news I’ve got for you is that for Saturday’s USA vs England match Three Penny has been rented out for a private party/fundraiser for the fine folks of Capital Soccer.  Sorry everyone.  We’ll be opening our doors to the public around 4:30 PM.  Cheers… and good luck on your World Cup brackets!

As you may know, last March Matt, Scott and I went to Chico, CA to take part in the very awesome Sierra Nevada Beer Camp.  The result of that unforgetable weekend is the one-time batch of Sierra Nevada Knightro- a very classically done ESB, nitrogenated just to keep you on your toes!  Well, the beer has finally made it to Vermont, we’ll get our first few kegs of it in Wednesday, and Friday, May 28 we’ll be on full-trottle throw-down mode with a super special Knightro kick-off bash that you won’t want to miss!  Only the half-dozen or so bars that took part in Beer Camp that weekend in March will have this one, so unless you’re in Mamouth Lake, CA, Phoenix, AZ, Tampa, FL, Boise, ID, or North Jersey, we are the place you’ll wanna come to try this super special brew!  Cheers!!!