Hill Farmstead Brewery — Vermont’s World-Class Hidden Gem

Greensboro Bend, Vermont has a population of roughly 600 people. It has one general store, one post office, and Hill Farmstead Brewery — which has been rated the best brewery in the world by RateBeer multiple times and draws thousands of pilgrims annually to a dirt road in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. This is not a normal situation. Nothing about Hill Farmstead is normal, and that’s entirely the point.

Shaun Hill founded the brewery in 2010 on his family’s ancestral land, and everything about Hill Farmstead reflects that rootedness. Beers are named after family members — Edward (an American pale ale named for his great-great-grandfather), Abner (a double IPA), Anna (a farmhouse ale) — and the sense of place and lineage infuses the whole operation. The beers themselves are extraordinary: technically flawless, philosophically grounded, made with local Vermont ingredients wherever possible, and exhibiting a terroir that you can actually taste.

The IPA and pale ale work at Hill Farmstead is some of the finest in the world — clean, precise, brilliantly hop-forward without being aggressive. The farmhouse and wild ale program goes equally deep. And their Society & Solitude hoppy ales — released in numbered editions — are the kind of beers that end up on lists of the best anyone has ever tasted.

There is a wait on weekends. The drive is remote. Neither of these things matters once you’re there.

The best brewery in the world is on a dirt road in Vermont. Plan accordingly. Go anyway.

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