Taste Test: New Year-Round Otter Creek Beers to Replace Old Staples

From muted colors and reserved styling to a VW bus, a Bernese mountain dog and funky fonts, any Vermont beer drinker will notice that Otter Creek Brewing in Middlebury has been going through a rebranding. The imaginative new beers they’ve been releasing paired with colorful new labeling represent a distinct direction change for Otter Creek.

The brewery’s recent new seasonal beers, like Citra Mantra, Kind Ryed, and Overgrown, seem to have become instant classics. So it only makes sense that Otter Creek would continue to fully embrace the success of the Brewmaster Mike “character,” both in their beers and their brand.

We decided to taste a couple of the brews that will be leaving the year-round line-up side-by-side with the two new year-round Otter Creek beers to get a true sense of the brewery’s new direction. Here’s the what we thought:

Copper Ale

Sweet and malt-forward with undertones of caramel. Soft, smooth, and medium-bodied. We can see why this was an old standby for so long.

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