Lucy & Howe Brewing – Jericho, VT – New England Beer Buddy

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By New England Beer Buddy Beer Beer To Go Blog Breweries Craft Beer Craft Brewery New England Brewery Taproom Vermont Brewery April 22, 2024

I’ve always loved the marriage of a place that serves both beer *and* coffee. If you think about it, it’s an obvious concept with a perfect convergence. For both beverages you use the word “brewing” as a process and many a stout, porter and even certain IPA utilize coffee in their flavoring. So in a recent travel through Vermont I was thrilled to come across Lucy & Howe Brewing in the small town of Jericho.

Taking a scenic drive on VT Route 15, you drive up to the building sporting a sign for “Jericho Ale and Bean“. This former general store location not only hosts Lucy & Howe but Brew House Coffee as well. I’m not going to lie, I actually walked past the front door looking for the tell-tale signs of a brewery. Unlike me, pay attention to the printed sign on the first door you see and and walk on in.

Once inside you see exactly what you’d expect a joint beer/coffee effort such as this to look like. Plenty of seating throughout. A wall length cooler filled with 4 packs of beer and bottles of cold brew to-go. The right side of the building is devoted to fulfilling your java needs and on the left you’ll find tap handles of delicious, truly local beer.

My visit was blessed with 9 different options that all ran the beer style spectrum. Each item was advertised with a creative display on the back wall. On the counter was a printed listing of their brews with a unique twist…both “Lucy” and “Howe” each give personal takes and descriptions of what is available. Not just the flavor, body of the beer, etc. but why they chose to create that particular offering.

As this was Vermont and IPA appears to be available on every street block, it was cool to see that Lucy & Howe sort of staying away from these abundant hoppy selections and they instead went for the classic styles. Kolsch, Dark Lager, Table Beer, Martzen and Porter were all greatly represented, along with a Pale Ale.

But for those of you who just can’t shake that IPA fix, yes, they do offer some IPA as well. However, from reading their personal descriptions of these few items, they seem rather, playfully, reluctant to do so.

As I got there around open I was able to chat briefly with co-founder Jesse Cronin. What started as a small brewery in his barn during the 2020 pandemic has turned into a unique beer taproom/coffee shop venture. Along with his wife Libby Bonesteel and their business partners Jay and Dena Wimette (the Brew House Coffee side of the building), the current location opened in 2022.

For those curious how Jesse and Libby became “Lucy & Howe” the name derives from the name of the builder of the house (Lucien Howe) where Jesse brews. There’s a bit more to that story which, to be honest, confused me a little so if you go to their website you should be able to get a clearer understanding of the name origin.

As for the beers that were tried I found a huge highlight, naturally in a place such as this, to be the “Centaur Hands” Coffee Porter. Advertised as a stout *or* porter (trust me, it’s a porter) it offers a very strong coffee nose and some subtle roasted flavor.

What really made my day was the fact Lucy & Howe had a Kolsch on tap. “Haircuts and Lasertag” (great f’n name!) is an incredible offering of the style with a smooth, easy drinking body and bready character. I liked this one so much I actually filled a growler to take home.

My drinking buddy went for the “Dad Jokes and Pop Culture References” Pale Ale collaboration with neighboring Weird Window. I found it to be a rather session-able pale that was loaded with nothing but New Zealand hops.

As an aside, a mural at Lucy & Howe just gave me a new life motto:

Friendly owners, a spectrum of beer styles and a creative way of describing their offerings made Lucy & Howe a wonderful stop during a weekend Vermont beer journey. Definitely find the time (easy to do if on the way to Burlington) to add this to your map.

Location: 51 VT RT 15, Jericho, VT 05465

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