The Roving Locavore

Is that some kind of summer-in-Vermont activity for kids?  Do you ride it or eat it?

Actually, you drink it!  It’s a red ale brewed by Jasper Murdock’s at the Norwich Inn, on Main St. in Norwich, Vermont.  The microbrewery makes English style ales which are served only in the little pub at the back of the Inn.

When we stopped in yesterday, on tap as well as Whistling Pig Red Ale were Oh Be Joyful, JM’s Extra Special Bitter, and Second Wind Oatmeal Stout.  The names are all clever little snatches of idiom, some of which are particular to New England.  (The only reason the word “wicked” doesn’t show up is, I’m sure, because of Pete’s so-called Wicked Ale, about which there isn’t much wicked, as far as I’m concerned.)

Let these sentences from their website wet your whistle:

Jasper Murdock’s Ales are crafted from fine English malts, with hops grown in England and in our own hop garden at the Inn. Because filtration can strip flavor and body from a beer, the ale yeast is allowed to settle out naturally in an extended cold-aging period to ensure that all the goodness reaches your palate. The beer is then pumped underground from the beer cellars to our pub at the Inn.

Normally, at this spot, I’d go for a fat pint of extra hoppy ale to be sipped slowly in a rocker on the front porch.  But last night I was feeling sassy, and ordered a Bombay Sapphire martini—up, dry, twist—instead.   Peter and I found two rockers at the corner of the porch.  We discussed my dissertation, poems, upcoming trips, and Rome, and watched the comings and goings of Dan & Whit’s shoppers—including a recumbent cyclist (whose personality, I think, like those who share his practice, must combine exhibitionism with an unwavering belief in scientific studies and an abiding love of corny puns).