OUR STORY

Where Fermentation Meets Imagination

Burlington Beer Co. is an independent Vermont brewery built around imaginative beer, original artwork and a warm welcome. Our production team in Williston and our taproom and restaurant team on Flynn Avenue bring different parts of that idea to life.

Alex Swanson inside the mash tun while cleaning it, with Joe Lemnah standing on the right at the early Williston brewery. — Alex Swanson cleaning the mash tun at our original Williston brewhouse, with Joe Lemnah on the right. From the company archive.

It started with curiosity

Burlington Beer Co.’s story began well before its doors opened. Joe Lemnah entered the brewing industry in 2006 at Olde Saratoga Brewing, working his way from packaging into cellar operations and brewing. He studied at the American Brewers Guild in 2007, then continued his professional brewing career at Dogfish Head and Evolution Craft Brewing before returning home to Vermont.

Throughout those years, Joe kept brewing at home. He explored unfamiliar grains, seasonal ingredients and different yeast strains, documenting the experiments in HopfenTreader, the brewing journal he started in 2009. Some ideas crossed into his professional work, including a pumpernickel rye ale brewed at Dogfish Head’s original brewpub. Brewing at work and at home fed the same curiosity: what else could beer be?

By 2012, Joe was developing Burlington Beer Co. pilot batches in his family’s old horse barn, sharing them at tastings and searching for a permanent space. Beth and Joe met in 2010 and began brewing together. In March 2013, they brewed a gose with pink Himalayan salt and pink peppercorns, an idea that began with Beth. By that October, Joe had brewed more than 200 batches at home. Those years of practice and experimentation laid the groundwork for Burlington Beer Co.’s opening in 2014.

In May 2014, we released our first full-scale batches from our original 15-barrel Frankenstein electric brewhouse in Williston. Our first batch was C’est Bon!, a French-style table saison. A 15-gallon pilot system kept smaller experiments brewing alongside it.

Room to brew and room to gather

In Williston, the taproom and the working brewery shared a home. Beer, artwork and a place to spend time were already part of the experience.

The early taproom with a couch, wall artwork, small bar, tables and brewery equipment beyond. — Our early taproom, with the brewery just beyond the bar.

A person works with a hose and fittings beside oak barrels inside the brewery. — Hands-on work among the barrels.

Two people work between stainless-steel tanks during the Bring Forth the Mollusk collaboration brew day with Proclamation Brewing Company. — A collaboration brew day at our original Williston brewhouse.

Brewing friendships

AN EARLY COLLABORATION

Bring Forth the Mollusk

Brewing Bring Forth the Mollusk with Proclamation Brewing Company, a collaboration inspired by a Ween song.

That curiosity still runs through our year-round favorites, seasonal releases and limited collaborations.

Our beer heads out into the world

In 2015, It’s Complicated Being a Wizard and Chasing Rabbits became our first beers in cans. Behind each can are the people brewing, packaging and getting it ready for the next stop.

Wizard cans being filled on the early Burlington Beer Co. canning line. — Our first canned releases, 2015.

Burlington Beer Co. team members canning and packing beer beside stacks of can trays at the early brewery. — The team at work on canning day.

Members of Burlington Beer Co.’s first kitchen team celebrate beside the brewery’s first branded truck. — Our first kitchen team celebrating Burlington Beer Co.’s first branded truck.

A new home on Flynn Avenue

In 2021, our taproom and restaurant opened at 180 Flynn Avenue in Burlington’s South End, in a former Lumière photographic factory.

The brewery grew into a second Vermont home, bringing the beer together with food, hospitality and places to gather.

The Flynn Avenue building with its former Vermont Hardware sign before Burlington Beer Co. opened there. — Before: the building before our Flynn Avenue opening.

The brick entrance at Flynn Avenue beneath the Burlington Beer Co. sign. — After: our name above the door on Flynn Avenue.

The unfinished Flynn Avenue interior before its opening as Burlington Beer Co.’s taproom and restaurant. — Before the first guests.

The finished Flynn Avenue dining room with tables, chairs, brick walls and pendant lights. — A new home for beer, food and gathering.

Tim Fealey drawing at a table in the Burlington Beer Co. taproom, May 2022. — Creative Director Tim Fealey drawing at the taproom, May 2022.

Original art belongs here

Original artwork has belonged here from the beginning. Burlington Beer Co. has supported a full-time, paid artist since day one. Creative Director Tim Fealey joined the team in 2018, and his illustrations give our beers a world of their own.

Early Burlington Beer Co. cans lined up below an illustrated chalkboard at the taproom bar. — Early cans lined up at the taproom bar. Archive packaging.

Guests at the Flynn Avenue bar beneath blue-and-white mural artwork on brick walls. — Flynn Avenue
At 180 Flynn Avenue in Burlington, our taproom and restaurant bring beer together with food, hospitality and places to gather.

Stainless steel tanks and kegs inside Burlington Beer Co.’s production brewery in Williston. — Williston
Our production brewery is where our team brews, packages and prepares beer for its next stop.

Two Vermont homes, one shared effort

It takes people brewing and packaging the beer, preparing and serving the food, creating the artwork, keeping equipment running and bringing it all together. Their work makes Burlington Beer Co. what it is.

Come spend some time with us.

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