Goodwater Brewery

Microbrewery in Williston, Vermont, United States 🇺🇸
Associated Venue: GoodWater Brewery

Established in 2016

Contact
740 Marshall Ave, Williston, VT, 05495, United States
Description
Founded by Marty Bonneau, a beer judge and avid homebrewer, in May 2016, the name is a translation of his French last name and plays on the old adage “good beer needs good water.” Bonneau has won multiple homebrew competitions and is lauded as one of the most creative forces in craft beer, which led him to a collaboration with Burlington’s own Matt Cohen of Fiddlehead Brewery. Since they opened, they’ve had a hard time keeping up with demand for their four flagship ales — Sweet Winter Brown; Hoppy Side of Pale; Proper Mild, an English-style beer; and InspiRED, an Irish-style red ale. But you’ll get to sample all of these as we tour their taproom and learn how Bonneau applied innovative homebrew techniques to larger scale production brewing. Goodwater brews are also available at locations such as the Bearded Frog in Shelburne and Finnigan’s Pub in Burlington and flow as far east as St. Johnsbury.

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7.5
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5

Can (11/21/24) from Oliver's Beverage Center, Albany. Cloudy, iced tea brown, tons of sparkle, thin head with good retention and nice, soapy lacing. Aroma is strong cinnamon, orange peel, winter spices. Taste is strong cinnamon, ginger, winter spices. Smooth, frothy, creamy texture, soft carbonation, dry finish as taste. Good representative of winter warmer style. Held up even after a year.

Tried from Can from Oliver's Beverage Center on 16 Nov 2025 at 03:48


7.4
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

16 oz can, the rare new tick fridge pull at the Super Bowl party, 2/12/23. Unclear yellowish-orange. Bit of citrus hop and a little pine. Tasty and drinkable.

Tried from Can on 14 Feb 2023 at 22:48


6
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6

From my brother: pours copper to amber with a beige head. Aroma is caramel and toast. Taste is somewhat sweet. Low hoppiness. Basically ok.

Tried on 03 Nov 2018 at 03:36


4.5
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 4

Ken's Pizza and Pub, Burlington tap: lightly hazy with white head. Aroma is light, vague fruitiness. Taste is pretty mediocre, chemically. Very mediocre.

Tried from Draft on 23 Sep 2018 at 01:40


8.3
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

Draft at Vermont Brewers Festival. Wow, a clear IPA. In New England! And it's bitter! AND it has a fruity mixed citrus aroma WITHOUT USING FRUIT! Holy cow.

Tried from Draft on 21 Jul 2018 at 13:02


6
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6

Draught at the brewery, 3/24/18.
Dark chocolate-brown. Clear, little/no head, definitely nothing retained.
Cherry-raisin-plum is vibrant and fruity and a bit of light chocolate sits underneath it. Earth, bread and caramel emerge on the finish, with low acidity showing just a bit of lactic character. Surprisingly low acetic acidity.
In mouth there are notes of soy, brown bread and soft, sweet, sticky caramel. Kind of reminds me of a very old, somewhat oxidized, English barleywine. A bit of odd, not-integrated lactic acidity sits on the finish.

Tried on 28 Jun 2018 at 17:10


3.9
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 3 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 2.5

Draught at the brewery, 3/24/18.
Brass-bronze-maize, mostly clear with a white head fading quickly to nothing.
Smells like chemicals?? Maybe a hint of citrus? Wtf.
Taste is sour bread and chemical. Holy Fu**, this is awful. After a great start, every subsequent beer I've had here has got worse and worse.

Tried on 28 Jun 2018 at 17:07


4.8
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 4

Draught at the brewery, 3/24/18.
Clear brass-golden with a white head that quickly fizzles out.
Smells ok, at least, with the most offensive qualities being only some onion and strong vegetal notes. Otherwise lemon-orange and light, leafy pine. Bare cracker and a hint of biscuit behind it. Not exactly inspiring, but I'll take it.
In the mouth it's sweet corn and butter cream. Oh my, that's disgusting. How are their traditional style beers so good and yet they can't even make a decent hoppy beer? It's not even the hops that are done poorly (though they aren't done great, either). Just compound brewing flaws and exceedingly thin textures.

Tried from Can on 28 Jun 2018 at 17:05


5.1
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 4.5

Draught at the brewery, 3/24/18.
Light copper-to-amber-golden. Clear. White head fades steadily to ring.
Smells like sweat and cascade. Flavor keeps the sweat and cascade, while adding corn and vanillin. Somewhat buttery, as well, with dry, astringent, undermalted textures. Vaguely fruity, lightly herbal, orange rind-like hop notes. Low, somewhat engaging carbonation.

Tried on 28 Jun 2018 at 17:01


6
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5

Draught at the brewery, 3/24/18.
Clear, straw-golden. White head fizzles away to nothing rather quickly.
Smells floral with light grain and oatmeal. Some herbal notes, I guess? For having seven hops in it, this is decidedly very thin on hop character. Not even the typical grapefruit-orange marmalade character you'd expect. Kind of just dull grain, light cereal and soft floral notes.
Grain and oats in the mouth fight each other for the texture and it comes out with a touch of softness at points, but mostly grainy and overly thin. Soft, light flavors showing vanilla, honey and herbs. Lots of fruity ester and light hop on the finish. Very, very marginal.

Tried on 28 Jun 2018 at 16:58


Brewery Stats
Score
Not enough ticks to qualify for a global score
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Beers11
Ticks34