This past weekend my husband and I traveled up to Vermont for a family birthday. As we were there as a surprise, we needed to keep a low profile for the day until the big event. We heard of Hill Farmstead Brewery through our friends at our local brewing company, Tired Hands of Ardmore, Pa. We decided to make the hour drive from our hotel in Montpelier up to Greensboro to fill up some growlers and taste some beers. I can tell you now, we had no idea what we were in for. No surprise to my husband, a native of the state, but for me I am always taken back by the rural beauty of Vermont. Especially on this picture-perfect, 75-degree day, the hills and valleys seemed especially lush and green. As we lost and regained the signal of our GPS, we had to turn around a few times before finding the dirt road that took us to our destination. The Hill Farmstead Brewery is located in the middle of farm country and seems to have little impact on its neighbors. Though the building has already expanded once and is under construction to expand further, it sits along the side of the road as any farmhouse might. As we pulled up and saw cars and shuttle buses along the road, we knew that this very remote location was no secret at all. The line was out the door at the time we arrived; and within minutes, a few people in front of us left, saying they didn’t have two hours to wait for beer. Two hours, is that possible? Yes, folks, it is. With nowhere to go and having already invested in the hour drive, we figured we would see what all the buzz was about. So we stood, and we stood. As the line crept forward, we could see there was a tasting service available towards the front, and about 90 minutes later, we reached this point. Funny how that tasting made all the difference. For $5, we were each able to taste four different beers on tap. The waitress was friendly, very prompt, and there wasn’t a beer I didn’t like. By the time we got to the front of the line, we filled both of our growlers, bought a few bottles, a tee shirt and glasses. Yes, we were hooked. There is just something about the ingenuity of these private breweries that really creates an experience beyond just a beer. I highly recommend anyone traveling through Vermont to stop by and check out Hill Farmstead along with so many other fantastic brewers in the state. — Danielle Hudena Pitonyak, executive vice president