Enjoy flavorful, crisp lagers at von Trapp Brewing, located at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont.
Over the course of many visits to Austria, Johannes von Trapp, the youngest son of Maria and the Baron, gained an appreciation for the crisp, clean Austrian lager beers. When the craft beer movement in the United States gained momentum in the early 1990s, there was a noticeable lack of focus on lagers. It’s not surprising, considering that lagers are more challenging to brew, take longer to mature, and are therefore more expensive to create. For two decades Johannes dreamed of building an Austrian-style brewery at the Trapp Family Lodge, and in 2010 that dream came to fruition.
A humble brewery with the capacity of 2,000 barrels per year attracted attention under the name Trapp Lager, and the brewery received requests from all over the United States. The von Trapp family, who had always been reticent to commercialize their family heritage, realized that they had a product deserving of the family name. The new facility, completed in 2015 under the name von Trapp Brewing, allowed the family to expand beyond their home territory and spread the gospel of craft lagers.
Pint can. pours a clear golden color with a small white head that soon dissipates. The aroma is light to medium in strength with smoke and bread grains. The taste is more of the same, smoked malts with some breads, some fruit, and a bit of bitter pine. The palate is light and crisp with lively carbonation. Finishes long and dry with lingering smoke. Overall: decent smoked beer. paired well with some pretzels. Helles is usually one of my least favorite beer styles, but smoking seems to work rather well.
From monthly beer box, this months focus VT one of few I hadn’t rated prior. Muddled peachy colored brew. Nose is all grapefruit. Tastes of grapefruit, herbal , water crackers, some citrusy hops. Decent ratio beer to juice.
Bright Side draught, 7/5/24. Clear medium amber, dark beige, fleeting head. Straightforward clove, sweet maple and black pepper. Light banana and nutty wheat. Clean. Very light, thin. Clovey spice and really lacking on the texture. Where's the chewy, substantial wheat? Low malt as well. Quite disappointing. Spicy, bitter, heavily phenolic finish.
Can at home. Gold pour and clear with foamy white head. Smoke on nose is light and some honey and. Bread. Tastes of more smoky goodness but not meaty, honey suckle, sourdough, some fruity and herbal tones. Crisp
Big pounder can for 3 bucks. Pour is quite dark brown with a really nice creamy tan head. Nose is a little odd & fishy maple. First taste is a somewhat too sweet for me, considering its a dunkelweisen. Initially I think it would have been better without the maple bullshit in there. After I get over the sweetness, I'm trying to focus on the beer. I like dunkelweisen but this aint floating my likeness boat. In the middle I'm getting a little smoke character hiding in the background. Yes, this whole thing is kindah weird for my basic beer tastes. Almost disappointing.
Brewery draught, 7/16/24. Clear, blackish. Small, tan head, lower retention. Ashen smoke, rich malts and a clean character with no booze. Soft, malty, well-attenuated. Very rich, strong, though not boozey. Woody, dry, ash-tonged smoke with plentiful acidity and readiness on the finish.