If you’ve got plans to come visit us for our third annual cask and anniversary celebration- Montbeerlier Festival, which is happening from 3:00 to 10:00 on Saturday, May 5th 2012- we hope you come prepared to drink some absoluetly incredible casks, as well as our regularly thorough draft list and a few special kegs pulled up from out of the basement.  As in years past, there will be live music starting around 6:30/7:00 and our world famous house-made sausages served right off the grill.  Unlike in years past, when we’ve all squeezed in to the back parking lot, we’ve decided to go big this year: block party on Langdon Street!  With the recent announcement of our pending expansion into the space next door (giving us nearly twice as much space and a full kitchen- finally!) we thought we’d continue the “go big or go home” theme by spreading out beyond the Onion River Sports parking lot and taking it to the street….

All of which will make for a completely amazing day of beer and celebrations.  Which should make you wonder: “where am I going to stay that night?”  For those of you who don’t have a friend (yet) in Vermont’s Capital City (or if you do but when you called them they said “dude, do you know how many people I’ve got crashing at my place that night?!”), then we’ve got this handy-dandy list here for you of places to stay, pretty much all within walking distance of Three Penny.  Also, our good friends at Twin City Taxi (802-522-0181) are always offering 24/7 taxi service throughout the area.

Anyway, because my job is to make your life a little bit easier:

The Inn at Montpelier

147 Main St, Montpelier

802-223-2727

0.1   miles from Montbeerlier & Three Penny Taproom

Capitol Plaza

100 State St, Montpelier

802-223-5252

0.2 miles from Montbeerlier & Three Penny Taproom

Betsy’s Bed & Breakfast

74 East State St, Montpelier

802-229-0466

0.2   miles from Montbeerlier & Three Penny Taproom

Econo Lodge (probably the most affordable option)

101 Northfield St, Montpelier

802-223-0716

0.6 miles from Montbeerlier & Three Penny Taproom

Comfort Inn & Suites (the only choice on this list that will require driving)

213 Paine Tpke North, Montpelier

802-229-2222

4.7 miles from Montbeerlier & Three Penny Taproom

As we frantically move through renovations and the like next door in anticipation of a mid-June grand opening (knock on wood) for our dining room we find ourselves at the point of having to pass along this little note: caution- chaos ahead!  About a week or so before when we were expecting it, this morning our contractor said “If it would work for you, we’d really like to close off your kitchen space and begin renovating that area today or tomorrow.”  And so, our food menu is now slimmed down to a few snack items (for our longtime regulars it may look familiar: an olive bowl, a nut bowl…).  Matthew does have some fresh inventory and quite a few tricks up his sleeve, so don’t expect sandwiches and a few other items to be completely gone for the next few weeks, but as it stands the old kitchen (er, “kitchen” is more like it) is on it’s way out and our new, full-sized kitchen will not be on-line and ready to go until the wall is busted open and we’re ready to seat folks for meals; meaning our food offerings over the next few weeks are going to be sporadic and a bit unpredictable.

Likewise, there will likely be a handful of days during the coming few weeks in which we have to delay opening for a few hours, and even some days when we won’t be able to open at all (lets hope we see very few of the latter!).  We’ll do our best to keep you informed through social media (Facebook & Twitter), but such disruptions are largely out of our hands and pretty hard to schedule with much advance notice, as there are just so many moving parts (carpenters and painters and plumbers and electricians and sprinkler installers and midgets and Lakers fans and, geez, just a whole mess of crazy folks doing who knows what over there in the former Miller Sports)….. we really appreciate your patience and understandimg through it all, and we hope you take solace (as we do) in knowing that once we get to the other side of this all, Three Penny Taproom is going to be bigger and way, way better than ever!!!

As one of my all-time favorite philosophers said, “Anarchy is organization, organization, organization…” (Peter Kropotkin)

May 1st, our *official* anniversary, has come and gone.  We’re humbled by all the “Happy Birthday“‘s we heard over facebook, twitter, and in person.  And it was exciting to share the day with over 2,000 Vermonter’s who came to our fair city to be part of the Put People First march and rally that took place.  But now it’s time to get a bit more serious- and by serious, I mean gear-up for a day full of celebrating and drinking amazing beer!

This Saturday, May 5th we’ll be marking our third anniversary with the Third Annual Montbeerlier Festival!!!  This year features exactly the same great stuff you’ve come to expect from Montbeerlier (rare and delicious cask beers outside, live music from Primate Fiasco, and a ready-to-party-all-night draft list inside) PLUS plenty of new ways we’ve kicked the party up a notch (instead of cramming everyone into the back parking lot we’re going block party-style  and taking over Langdon Street, we’ve upped our cask count to about two dozen, and we’ll be debuting our collaboration brew with Lawson’s Finest Liquids: a hoppy, 3.5% session ale that spends zero time messing around- Three Penny Especiale).  A taste of the casks we’ll be pouring includes:

-Sierra Nevada Hoptimum
-Sierra Nevada Torpedo
-Stone Dry-hopped IPA
-Dogfish Head 75 Minute IPA
-Harpoon Dry-hopped Ryan’s Rye Pale Ale
-Victory Rancher Double IPA (brand new)
-Hill Farmstead Edward
-Mahr’s Helles
-Mahr’s Pilsner
-De Molen Engles
-Lawson’s Three Penny Especiale (double dry-hopped)
-JW Lees Harvest
-BBC Drayman’s Porter
-Smuttynose IPA (dry-hopped with Motueka)
-Trapp Trosten Pin and Firkin
-Clown Shoes Chocolate Sombrero
-Clown Shoes Vampire Slayer

I could let you know about the others, but what would be the fun in that?

Visitors to the greatest capital city in the country may want to note that we’ve compiled a handy guide on places to stay, which you can see here.  Other than that- the whole things kicks off at 3:00, the band should be starting around 6:00, and at 10:00 we get the less than awesome task of cleaning up after y’all (but we’ll be sure to keep the fun rolling as the party continues inside!).  And of course, Matthew and Joey will once again be grilling up some absolutely incredible house-made sausages (last year I think they might have been a bigger hit than the beer!).

See you Saturday!!!

Hey y’all-  Just a quick reminder that we will be pouring Stone IPA and Smuttynose Old Brown Dog, along with a few wines, at this Friday’s Bambno Concert!!!  If you haven’t been to one of the concerts at Goddard Cloege’s Haybarn Theater, you are missing out!  This Friday’s concert will be hot, and we are pumped to be involved.  For more info, or to order tix…http://www.wgdr.org/goddard-college-concerts/

If you’ve got plans to come visit us for our third annual cask and anniversary celebration- Montbeerlier Festival, which is happening from 3:00 to 10:00 on Saturday, May 5th 2012- we hope you come prepared to drink some absoluetly incredible casks, as well as our regularly thorough draft list and a few special kegs pulled up from out of the basement.  As in years past, there will be live music starting around 6:30/7:00 and our world famous house-made sausages served right off the grill.  Unlike in years past, when we’ve all squeezed in to the back parking lot, we’ve decided to go big this year: block party on Langdon Street!  With the recent announcement of our pending expansion into the space next door (giving us nearly twice as much space and a full kitchen- finally!) we thought we’d continue the “go big or go home” theme by spreading out beyond the Onion River Sports parking lot and taking it to the street….

All of which will make for a completely amazing day of beer and celebrations.  Which should make you wonder: “where am I going to stay that night?”  For those of you who don’t have a friend (yet) in Vermont’s Capital City (or if you do but when you called them they said “dude, do you know how many people I’ve got crashing at my place that night?!”), then we’ve got this handy-dandy list here for you of places to stay, pretty much all within walking distance of Three Penny.  Also, our good friends at Twin City Taxi (802-522-0181) are always offering 24/7 taxi service throughout the area.

Anyway, because my job is to make your life a little bit easier:

The Inn at Montpelier

147 Main St, Montpelier

802-223-2727

0.1   miles from Montbeerlier & Three Penny Taproom

Capitol Plaza

100 State St, Montpelier

802-223-5252

0.2 miles from Montbeerlier & Three Penny Taproom

Betsy’s Bed & Breakfast

74 East State St, Montpelier

802-229-0466

0.2   miles from Montbeerlier & Three Penny Taproom

Econo Lodge (probably the most affordable option)

101 Northfield St, Montpelier

802-223-0716

0.6 miles from Montbeerlier & Three Penny Taproom

Comfort Inn & Suites (the only choice on this list that will require driving)

213 Paine Tpke North, Montpelier

802-229-2222

4.7 miles from Montbeerlier & Three Penny Taproom