Nora McGunnigle

The Alchemist, which I've mentioned before in the immediate aftermath of its destruction in the wake of Hurricane Irene, has just announced that they will not be rebuilding its pub- one reason being that their insurance didn't cover any of the brewing equipment they had set up in the basement brewery of their pub. We have made the very difficult decision not to re-open The Alchemist Pub and Brewery.  While it is extremely difficult to walk away from the business we have spent our last 10 years building, this is the best option for us moving forward.  There were many factors that helped us come to this decision. Primarily, we have recently learned that none of the contents in our basement were covered by flood insurance.  Unfortunately, our basement was the lifeblood of our business—our brewery, our beer, all of our food and our offices were in the basement.  Moving forward, we have come to the realization that re-building our basement brewery is not a viable op...

One of the brewpubs that Tom and I loved the most up in Vermont - out of many excellent ones - is the Alchemist Pub and Brewery in Waterbury, VT. We went there for the first time during our elopement/honeymoon and made special trips to be there for special occasions, such as the chef's sister (a friend of ours) visiting, or their 5 year anniversary. For that event in 2008 we actually booked a B&B that was stumbling distance. They were proud to brew all sorts of beers - they had a great wild fermentation selection - I remember their Bacchus, O Positive, and Petit Mutant very fondly. Other favorites included (this is by no means a complete list, because everything there, frankly, was fantastic) Menage a Trois, Sterk Wit, Nightstalker, Farmers Daughter, El Jefe, Revitalization Rye, Shut the Hell Up (oh how I loved to order that!)Panty Dropper, Beelzubub, Uncle Daddy, Heady Topper, Pappy's Parter... the list goes on and on. They also brewed a gluten free beer series, ...