E-Malt.com News article: USA, VT: Paine Mountain Brewing opens in Northfield

Back in May, Knotty Shamrock owner Kevin Pecor began construction on a new brewery that would provide suds for his Northfield Irish pub and other area restaurants, sevendaysvt.com reported on December, 10.

By late summer, the brewing equipment was installed and ready to go. And by September, Pecor and his brewers-in-arms — who include Radley Herold and Vermont Pub & Brewery brewmaster Russ FitzPatrick — were running test batches through the system.

This coming Saturday, December 13, Pecor will host the grand opening of the Paine Mountain Brewing tasting room. Currently, the brewery is separate from the adjoining pub, but Pecor says he plans to open a door between the two soon.

The weekend event will offer Paine Mountain's four "staple" beers on tap. These include a Bavarian-style wheat beer called the Knotty Blonde, a black double IPA, the lighter Common Man IPA, and RiRa, aka Russ' Irish Red Ale.

The last beer was named for FitzPatrick, whose assistance Pecor says he's welcomed; he credits the VPB brewer with helping to formulate the other flagship beers. "Russ actually lives in Northfield," Pecor says, "so it's been great to have him around." As for the abbreviation RiRa, he says, it's an old Irish term "for being a little mischievous and misguided" — no connection to Burlington's Rí Rá Irish Pub.

Once the brewery is up and running, Pecor says, he'll connect the two buildings and bring a new farm-to-table menu to the tasting room.

Earlier this week, Pecor shipped his first wholesale kegs to a few accounts via Barre's Calmont Beverage Company.

"When I opened the Knotty Shamrock," he says, "I wanted to brew beer. That was always going to be part of the puzzle. The more I got into it, the more I realized I wanted to do a separate business altogether. I didn't want to isolate the beer to my own establishment."


11 December, 2014