Stuck in the middle of nowhere

Author: Tamara Hilmes

If you find yourself spending your spring break in Vermont, never fear - awesome tours for all ages await.

Not venturing to Aruba or Cabo this spring break? Bummed that you are going to be staying in snowy Vermont while your friends work up a tan? Do not despair, Vermont has plenty of exciting adventures waiting just beyond Otter Creek - and beyond Otter Creek Brewery, as well. If you have already visited the landmark brewery just outside Middlebury, you might consider traveling to one or more of the 14 other breweries located in the Green Mountain State.

The Vermont Brewers Association encourages the visitation of multiple breweries with their "Vermont Brewery Challenge." The challenge involves either picking up or downloading an "Official Passport" to get stamped at each of the breweries you visit. The passport can be redemed for a number of rewards and "Vermont Beer Gear" according to their Web site. Passports can be redeemed after four or 10 visitations, or if you are really feeling ambitious, you can redeem it after visiting all of the breweries in Verrmont for a "Collector's set of Vermont Beer Gear."

So rather than just picking up a 12-pack of Magic Hat at Hannaford during your week alone, why not round up your remaining friends and head up to Burlington to visit the Magic Hat Brewing Company and see how it is done?

"Vermonters know how lucky they are to live in a beautiful state," states the Association on their Web site, "where fine handcrafted beer, unique fruit wine and hard cider are as plentiful as maple syrup. Now you can experience the unique qualities that make Vermont beverages so special.

Passports can be downloaded at vermontbrewers.com.

For those under the age of 21, Vermont still has plenty of unique touring opportunities to offer you. If 15 breweries in one tiny state may seem a little extravagant, then the 36 creameries stationed in Vermont may seem nothing short of extreme. While not all of the factories are open to the public, half of them do offer tours of their facilities as well as free samples.

The Cabot Creamery in Cabot, Vermont, for instance, "offers tours of its facility, and has a retail shop" according to the Vermont Cheese Council's Web site, which, much like the Vermont Brewers, offers interested tourists a map outlining the trail of cheddar producers around the state, as well as links to information about each of the individual factories.

If you have conquered the cheddar creameries, try visiting one of the many plants specializing in other types of cheese including granular curd cheese. At the Frog City Cheese Factory in Plymouth, a factory that specializes in this rich and tangy cheese, visitors have the chance to "watch the cheese making process through several viewing windows," as stated on the Cheese Council's site, a process which involves "many of the precise hand processing techniques, which make the cheese what it is."

Although the Vermont Cheese Council does not have a rewards program like the Brewers, some of the creameries offer an unique opportunity to really participate in the cheese-making process. At Cobb Hill Cheese, for example, the farm and factory owners welcome "visitors as viewers or participants."

For more information, or to get in touch with one or more of the creameries, be sure to check out vtcheese.com.