We’re Hiring!
Lawson’s Finest is currently looking to fill the following positions:
TAPROOM & RETAIL POSITION – to develop and execute an exemplary service culture.
We look forward to seeing you at our opening of the Waitsfield brewery, taproom and retail store!
June Beer News
BEER DELIVERIES
The week of June 5th (and all month long!) features Typecast IPA, a New England Farmhouse IPA collaboration beer from Lawson’s Finest and Two Roads Brewing! Brewed with white cedar boughs and spruce tips. Dry hopped with Vermont and Connecticut grown hops! Cans and draft will be distributed throughout the states of VT, NY, MA, RI, ME, NH, CT, NJ, PA, DE, VA, MD, DC, CO.
During this month, you can Find Our Beer – Sip of Sunshine IPA and Super Session #8 (cans and draft) in Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, and New York. Delicious, fresh and quenching beers for your sunshine adventures!
SPECIAL EVENTS
June 1-2 Lawson’s Finest will represent Vermont at the Washington DC Savor Craft Beer and Food Experience. Visitors will delight in the tastes of barrel-aged Fayston Maple Imperial Stout and Sip of Sunshine IPA, poured by Sean Lawson himself!
June 1st Meridian Pint in DC hosts a Savor Pre-Party! The full Lawson’s Finest draft list includes Triple Sunshine IPA; Jade IPA; Super Session #8; and Sip of Sunshine IPA.
June 6th is Fire on the Mountain: An Evening of the Grateful Dead to support our friend Ray Paczkowski who is recovering from brain surgery. Come to the Zen Barn for some superb music and drinks featuring Lawson’s Finest Super Session #8!
June 7th Doc Ponds in Stowe VT throws a Typecast IPA release party with Lawson’s Finest and Two Roads Brewing. We will also provide a log of Jade IPA and complimentary schwag!
June 9th is the annual Sugarbush Brewgrass beer festival. Lawson’s Finest will be pouring Jade IPA, Typecast IPA, Sip of Sunshine IPA and Super Session #8.
June 14th is a back-to-back Typecast release party at Worthy Vermont! Join us at Worthy Kitchen 4-6:30pm and Worthy Burger 6:30-8pm for amazing beers & food!
June 15th you’ll have the opportunity to Meet the Brewers! Sean Lawson and Phil Markowski will be at Two Roads Brewing in Stratford CT for a Typecast IPA release party from 6-9pm!
June 15-17 is the Killington Vermont Bike & Brew, a weekend of organized mountain biking for all skill levels, Vermont’s largest downhill critical mass ride, on-site camping, vendors and demos, new and used bike sale, craft beer garden, whip-off competition, skinny bridge challenge, kids race and live music. Make sure to take time to sip your Lawson’s Finest!
June 19th join us at the University of Vermont for Taste It. Learn It in conjunction with the Vermont Brewers Association. You will taste four different beers (two from each brewer) while hearing from the brewers about the various styles of beers you are enjoying, followed by a social hour in the Amidon Lounge on the second floor of the UVM Alumni House.
June 22-24 Lawson’s Finest is excited to be a part of NEMBAfest in the beautiful Northeast Kingdom. It is sure to be a fun-filled weekend of riding, camping, demo’ing the latest mountain bikes and checking out the last gear, music, food and more!
NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW
WE ARE HIRING! Lawson’s Finest is currently looking for a Maintenance Manager to help ensure delivery of the best products and customer experiences possible. Over the upcoming months, we will be posting lots of job opportunities to complete our team prior to our Autumn grand opening of the Waitsfield brewery, taproom and retail store.
Lawson’s Finest is proud to welcome Jonathan Wilson as our Finance and Administration Director. Jonathan brings decades of experience and wisdom to this position, most recently from Farm and Wilderness, an organic farm in Vermont rooted in social justice, adventure, & fun. Below is a photo of our ever-expanding team!
The aerial photo featured on this post is soaring above the construction progress of our new taproom, brewery and retail store location on Carroll Road in Waitsfield – opening this autumn!
Construction Progress Update – Our brewery equipment has arrived after a very long trip from Germany! Check out our latest time lapse video of the care taken to place each piece in it’s final resting place!
May Beer News
BEER DELIVERIES
The week of May 11th we will release Jade IPA (bottles and draft), a special beer named after our youngest daughter using Pacific Jade hops! Bottles will be available 5/11 at Beverage Warehouse, 5/14 at Mehuron’s Supermarket, 5/15 at Craft Beer Cellar Waterbury, and 5/17 at Warren Store and Hunger Mountain Co-op.
The week of May 14th is “American Craft Beer Week” in Denver Colorado! To help celebrate, Crooked Stave Artisans Distributing will be delivering Lawson’s Finest Sip of Sunshine IPA and Super Session #8 (cans and draft) to a limited number of accounts to serve our western friends!
The week of May 29th will debut Typecast IPA, a New England Farmhouse IPA collaboration beer from Lawson’s Finest and Two Roads Brewing! Brewed with white cedar boughs and spruce tips. Dry hopped with Vermont and Connecticut grown hops! Cans and draft will be distributed throughout VT and CT.
During this month, you can Find Our Beer – Sip of Sunshine IPA and Super Session #8 (cans and draft) in Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, and New York. Delicious, fresh and quenching beers for your springtime adventures!
SPECIAL EVENTS
May 1-2 we are in Nashville TN for the Craft Brewers Conference, which means special tappenings for Lawson’s Finest fans, including Triple Sunshine IPA and Spring Fever!
May 5th is the annual Montbeerlier event! It is a day full of music, great beer, and positive vibes in Vermont’s capital. We will be bringing a special “Super Sunshine IPA” cask to commemorate the day, which is a blend of Super Session #8, Sip of Sunshine IPA and fresh squeezed blood orange juice!
May 10th Lawson’s Finest is honored to participate in Taste of Vermont hosted in Washington DC. The Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Vermont Convention Bureau, and the Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation will host with honored guest Senator Patrick Leahy.
May 12th is the Rising Pint Brewfest in East Hartford CT. Lawson’s Finest will be pouring Jade IPA and barrel-aged Fayston Maple Imperial Stout! Event proceeds will go to the Folds of Honor Foundation, an organization helping families of those killed on active duty or have returned home severely wounded from duty; and Our Companions, an organization that runs a no-kill shelter for pets in Connecticut.
May 17th an exclusive number of attendees will join Sean Lawson for an intimate private tour of Lawson’s Finest new brewery, taproom, and retail store under construction in Waitsfield, Vermont slated to open to the public this autumn. 100% of the ticket price will be donated to the Vermont Brewers Association to promote and strengthen the culture of craft brewing in Vermont through marketing, education and advocacy for Vermont made beer.
May 19th you’re invited to join us at the 3rd Annual Gathering at the Bines Brewfest! This one day beer festival will be held at Two Roads Brewing Company in Stratford, CT. $35 ticket includes entry to one of the sessions, access to cluster truck food hub, custom festival taster glass, and unlimited 3oz samples from over 45 breweries!
May 31st we are proud to join breweries AZ Wilderness, Night Shift, and The Lost Abbey at Churchkey in Washington DC for a special night of phenomenal brews! Lawson’s Finest beers include barrel-aged Fayston Maple Imperial Stout, Jade IPA, and vintage Maple Tripple in addition to Sip of Sunshine IPA and Super Session #8!!!
June 1-2 Lawson’s Finest will represent at the Washington DC Savor Craft Beer and Food Experience. Visitors will delight in the tastes of barrel-aged Fayston Maple Imperial Stout and Sip of Sunshine IPA, poured by Sean Lawson himself!
NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW
We have enthusiastically hired Scott Shirley for our position of Brewery Operations Director! Scott R. Shirley served seven years in the U.S. Navy as a Nuclear Welding Inspector before deciding on a career in brewing. He is a graduate of the American Brewers Guild 1996 Diploma Course and of the University of California, Davis, General Certificate in Brewing and Packaging. His brewery experience includes Production Manager at Long Trail Brewing Company, Brewer at Tuckerman Brewing Company and for the past 17 years has been the Head Brewer for Harpoon Brewery in Windsor, Vermont. Scott will be working closely with Executive Brewmaster and owner Sean Lawson to craft many of Lawson’s Finest fan favorite beers from the 7bbl Warren brewery at the upcoming 30bbl Waitsfield brewery, and develop new recipes that are sure to be crowd pleasers. Welcome to the team Scott!
Lawson’s Finest Liquids is pleased to announce that we are expanding our Vermont distribution network to cover the entire state! Vermont Beer Shepherd from Waterbury, Vermont will proudly represent Lawson’s Finest Sip of Sunshine IPA and Super Session beers in previously un-served parts of the Green Mountain state. The distribution areas for Vermont Beer Shepherd will include the far northern part of Vermont, including the St. Albans, Newport, and St. Johnsbury areas, as well as the southwestern part of the state, including the Bennington, Manchester, and Ludlow areas. More info to come!
Our 10th Anniversary celebration raised $10,884 for two local non-profits! Beer fans from Vermont and throughout the Northeast congregated in Waitsfield Saturday, April 7th at the Valley Players Theater for another successful and fun-filled day and evening of music, great food and unique specialty brews! Every year, this event benefits a different set of charitable causes. This year’s beneficiaries are Mad River Valley Television and the Mad River Path Association. Each will receive a check for $5,442 to support their efforts in our local community. If you missed out on the event, you are not alone – tickets sold out in only an hour! Sean and Karen Lawson look forward to welcoming the entire community to their new taproom location on Carroll Road in Waitsfield this autumn. Once open, Lawson’s Finest will continue their 10th Anniversary celebration with a series of special tappenings!
Construction is progressing at our Waitsfield brewery, taproom and retail store. The brewery equipment and cellar tanks will be arriving this month, which keeps our autumn grand opening on track! When our Waitsfield brewery opens, Sip of Sunshine IPA and Super Session #8 will continue to be brewed by Lawson’s Finest Liquids at Two Roads Brewing in Stratford CT.
April Beer News
BEER DELIVERIES
The week of April 9th we will distribute limited bottles of Spring Fever and Triple Sunshine IPA! Quantities are extremely limited, therefore retailers may not receive both beer varieties. Bottles will be available 4/10 at Craft Beer Cellar Waterbury and Mehuron’s Supermarket, 4/12 at Warren Store and Hunger Mountain Co-op, and 4/13 at Beverage Warehouse.
During this month, you can Find Our Beer – Sip of Sunshine IPA and Super Session #8 (cans and draft) in Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, and New York. Delicious, fresh and quenching beers for your springtime adventures!
SPECIAL EVENTS
We are celebrating our 10th anniversary on April 7th! Wow, how quickly a decade has passed. Tickets are sold out, and we truly appreciate the dedication of our loyal fans throughout the years!
Friday the 13th is lucky this month! We will be doing a special beer tasting at Middlebury Co-op from 2-5pm; and at the Healing Waters event at Rough Cut in Middlebury from 6-8pm. Project Healing Waters brings a high-quality, full-spectrum fly fishing program to an ever-expanding number of disabled active military service personnel across the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, in Military Hospitals and the Warrior Transition Command.
April 30-May 4 we’ll be at the Craft Brewers Conference in Nashville. Our new GEA brewhouse (pictured below) will be on display in Nashville before it makes its way to Waitsfield Vermont to our new brewery!
NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW
We are thrilled to announce the hiring of our Sales & Distribution Manager, Seth Talmon (pictured below). Seth comes to Lawson’s Finest Liquids with over 20 years of sales management experience (the last 12 years in the craft beer industry). Seth is moving from Colorado with his wife and son and can’t wait to be a part of the Mad River Valley community. Besides his passion for beer he enjoys mountain biking, trail running and jamming on his mandolin with friends.
Last month Karen and Sean Lawson were graciously hosted by Simon Pearce to help create the custom light fixture that will adorn our taproom. Below are some photos from that very special experience!
Last month SD Ireland poured our brewery floor. It was quite a production with 55 trucks and 535 yards of concrete! Check out the video here.
One of our key local partners, the Mad River Path Association, visited to tour our taproom under construction. Here is a video of their experience!
We are proud to be a part of Looking for New England, a documentary film about a French brewer’s quest to make the perfect New England IPA.
We’re celebrating a decade!
UPDATE 4/12/18
We are pleased to announce that our 10th Anniversary celebration raised $10,884 for two local non-profits! Beer fans from Vermont and throughout the Northeast congregated in Waitsfield Saturday, April 7th at the Valley Players Theater for another successful and fun-filled day and evening of music, great food from Canteen Creemee and unique specialty brews! Every year, this event benefits a different set of charitable causes. This year’s beneficiaries are Mad River Valley Television and the Mad River Path Association. Each will receive a check for $5,442 to support their efforts in our local community.
If you missed out on the event, you are not alone – tickets sold out in only an hour! Sean and Karen Lawson look forward to welcoming the entire community to their new taproom location on Carroll Road in Waitsfield this fall. Once open, the Lawson’s will be continuing their 10th Anniversary celebration with a series of special tappenings! Visit Lawson’s Finest website for ongoing updates and videos of the construction, as well as their monthly beer news.
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Lawson’s Finest 10th Anniversary Celebration will take place at the Valley Players Theater, Waitsfield, VT on April 7th, 2018. We are thrilled to celebrate ten years of brewing with tasty beer, retail merchandise, food, music and a great time as we raise funds for two local worthy causes: Mad River Path Associationand Mad River Valley Television.
NEW THIS YEAR – EACH TICKET ALLOWS FOR ENTRY INTO THE BOTTLE SALE AND EVENING BEER LOVERS BALL. THERE ARE NOT SEPARATE TICKETS FOR EACH SESSION. Your ticket purchase allows entry into the beer bottle sale held from 2:30-4:30pm, AND entry into the evening ball from 6-10pm.
TICKETS SOLD OUT IN AN HOURS TIME! WE REALLY APPRECIATE OUR LOYAL FANS, AND LOOK FORWARD TO HOSTING YOU AT OUR NEW WAITSFIELD BREWERY, TAPROOM & RETAIL STORE WHEN WE OPEN IN AUTUMN!
Each ticket is $35 plus Eventbrite fees and includes entry to the Beer Lovers Bottle Sale and evening Beer Lovers Ball, and a Lawson’s Finest tulip glass to keep. LIMIT 2 TICKETS PER PERSON. Tickets require ID at the door and all attendees must be 21 years or older. Cash sales only!
Beer Lovers Bottle Sale – 1 Session ONLY (2:30-4:30pm) – You will have the opportunity to purchase up to the limits of all bottles listed below. The Bottle Sale will also have Lawson’s Finest retail merchandise and draft beer for purchase. At 4:30pm all attendees must depart the venue in order to change over the room for the evening Beer Lovers Ball. We encourage you to bring a cooler or plan a way to keep your beer cold after you purchase! (Note: Maple Tripple and Barrel-aged stouts are cellar worthy and do not require refrigeration – just cool, dark storage!)
Beer Lovers Ball – (6-10pm) – Your ticket includes live reggae music from Mike Martin y Los Rootsticks, a deluxe dinner buffet provided by Canteen Creemee Company, and a cash bar (draft list below) featuring a wide variety of Lawson’s Finest on tap. There will be no bottle sales or merchandise sales at the evening Ball.
PLEASE NOTE: ONLY CASH ACCEPTED AT BOTH THE DAYTIME BOTTLE SALE AND EVENING BALL! No credit or debit cards or out of state checks will be accepted!
Parking – Limited on-street parking is available on Route 100 near the Valley Players Theater. Additional parking is available behind the Village Grocery and the Bridge Street Marketplace.
10th Anniversary Bottle List
2016 Maple Tripple (12%) – $25/500ml – LIMIT 2
Glenora Whisky Barrel-aged Maple Imperial Stout (11%) – $15/375ml – LIMIT 3
No Collusion Hopscotch Barrel-aged Maple Imperial Stout (11%) – $15/375ml – LIMIT 3
Triple Sunshine IPA (10.5%) – $12/22oz – LIMIT 4
Spring Fever (3.8%) – $8/22oz – LIMIT 4
10th Anniversary Draft List
Brewer’s special cask of Super Session #8 with blood orange (4.8%)
Triple Sunshine IPA (10.5%)
Spring Fever (3.8%)
Glenora Whisky Barrel-aged Maple Imperial Stout (11%)
No Collusion Hopscotch Barrel-aged Maple Imperial Stout (11%)
Rotating tap featuring Pow Pow IPA (8.5%); Peril IPA (11%); and Chinooker’d IPA (6.9%) while they last!
You can find cans of Sip of Sunshine IPA or Super Session #8 throughout the Mad River Valley. Please check out the Lawson’s Finest Find Our Beer page for retailer locations to make those purchases!
