The era of lining up for a hyped hazy IPA release thankfully seems to be over. Sure, an Instagram post teasing a rare drop can still bring out the beer geeks. But now they’re going to Howl Bier, and they’re showing up for lager.
The cozy new taproom on the Winooski rotary certainly beats standing in the cold. The sun streams in through huge windows, filtered by lush green plants hanging above communal tables. A hops-draped arch, a family heirloom cuckoo clock and a glimpse of the Bavarian Alps complete what Wilson Ballantyne called “Euro-cottage vibes.”
Co-owners Ballantyne and Matt Wiley lean hard on their travels through Europe’s best beer cultures to bring that vision to the Vermont beverage scene. The duo, who met working at Magic Hat Brewing in 2015, like to show off what they found in the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Austria, Switzerland and Germany, from the relaxed public-house environment to snacks such as obatzda, a Bavarian beer cheese. Oh, and a special keg of beer or two.
Just over two months into its run in the upstairs part of the former Archives space, Howl is already proving that it can draw a savvy beer industry crowd, scoring rare imports such as Brasserie Dupont’s Bons Voeux, a boozy holiday saison once reserved for the Belgian brewery’s regulars. Howl also has some of Vermont’s most sought-after sips, with a couple of Hill Farmsteads on tap and bottles of Freak Folk Bier and Wunderkammer Biermanufaktur in the cellar.
The beer list by itself is enough to build Howl’s street cred. But the co-owners also highlight over-the-top-nerdy details reminiscent of the early days of craft beer hype: The date of the most recent draft-line service is stamped in red at the top of each menu. Your beer will be poured from the proper type of tap; while the custom system has just 12, they include specialized German slow-pour faucets, LUKR faucets and NukaTap faucets. And you’d better believe it will be served in the right glass — or big, burly mug.
“Those subtle parts of our approach are fun for us,” Ballantyne said. “But they also show how damn important it is for us to take the high-quality products we’re trying so hard to get our hands on and follow all the way through.”
Beer nerddom isn’t for everyone, but if your requirement for a pint is just “is beer,” you’ll still have fun at Howl. Heck, Guinness has its own section of the menu with a description that simply says, “It’s Guinness.”
Not drinking? No problem: Howl’s nonalcoholic ode to the IPA sits right under its flagship lager in the “haus bier” section. Gluten intolerant, or just not a beer person? There’s a small yet interesting wine and cocktail list, and you can build your own spritz.
Healthy Living’s beer and wine buyer, Micaiah Burkey, recalled when a local sales rep first told him about Howl’s concept — a beer bar on the rotary focused on lagers and low-ABV beers. He wasn’t sold.
“To be brutally honest, with the way the industry is right now, I was like, ‘Man, is this gonna work?'” Burkey said. “Especially in that cursed location.”
He was referring to the fact that Howl’s spot has been home to a series of bars since Oak45 opened there in 2013 — a running joke tied to the perception that the east side of the rotary is pretty sleepy.
But Howl fits seamlessly into Winooski’s bustling beverage scene, part of a little bar crawl up that no-longer-sleepy stretch from Standing Stone Wines to McKee’s Original. And the neighbors have been nothing but supportive, Ballantyne said: Mule Bar co-owner Troy Levy let the biz borrow a keg coupler when one went missing.
Burkey, who runs the Instagram account @drinkingvermont, quickly became a convert. He’s had a weekly pint at Howl since it opened. The taproom fits a trend he’s noticed around the country, he noted: community-first watering holes that focus on mindful drinking.
“It’s what Specs is doing, too,” Burkey said of the café, bar and beverage mart on the other side of the rotary. “They’re tastemakers. They’re at the cutting edge of what’s now a pretty mature industry here in Vermont.”
On a recent morning before Howl opened for the day, Ballantyne took a break from prepping housemade bread dough in the tiny “kitchen” — basically an induction burner and a convection oven — and lead bartender Rose Walterbach sat down at the bar. Together, they shared a sampling of Howl’s offerings. Spoiler: It’s not all beer.
The Flagship
Howl Via Queen City, unfiltered pale lager, $8 per 17 ounces, $6 per 11 ounces or $16 for a 32-ounce masskrug
If you’re going to call yourself a lager bar, you’ve got to deliver the crisp, smooth, sippable suds. Howl’s first “haus bier,” a hazy, pale lager brewed from Wiley’s recipe at Burlington’s Queen City Brewery, is exactly that. The tap house’s take on a German kellerbier, Howl Via is unfiltered and naturally carbonated with one hop and one malt — the beer’s raw form.
“We’re trying to keep it as simple as possible. It’s about tradition and what got us to where we are in the beer industry,” Ballantyne said. “It meant a lot to us to work with someone local, and we know Queen City does Euro-style beers really well.”
The collab is a stamp of approval for Queen City from Howl’s high-standards team. It hinged on the brewers’ willingness to follow Howl’s requirements that the beer be naturally carbonated and transferred with gravity instead of mechanical pumps.
“You’re treating something that’s very fragile with the handling it deserves,” Ballantyne said. “With lager bier, you can’t hide mistakes. They really leaned into our approach.”
Howl has one tap line dedicated to hoppy beers — currently Montréal-based Messorem’s Frigorifié et Précaire IPA. But lagers are increasing in popularity, Walterbach said. Even in Vermont, home of the IPA explosion, “people want low-ABV,” she said. “You want to be able to go out and have a couple beverages with your friends and still be able to enjoy an evening, not call it at eight.”
“We’re not pushing consumption,” Ballantyne added.
Not Bier
Air Quotes, nonalcoholic, IPA-inspired sparkling tea, $6 per 10 ounces
In fact, Howl’s nonalcoholic “haus bier” was so popular that the keg kicked in a day and a half. While it’s tempting to blame Air Quotes’ popularity on Dry January, it’s just really good. Whether for sober folks stopping in or DDs parked in the convenient garage, this is a tasty, unique alternative.
Now in its third iteration, Wiley’s ingenious sparkling tea beverage looks like any other hazy IPA in the glass, foamy head and all. The trick is a base of decaffeinated green tea and fresh citrus juice, dry-hopped with Nelson Sauvin, which gives a similar body and mouthfeel to a big, boozy IPA.
“It’s brighter than some of the canned NA IPAs,” Ballantyne said. “The industry is so focused on making an alcoholic beverage and then taking the alcohol out of it, which is kind of a rough process — and expensive. For us, it’s like, Why bother with all of that?”
Wiley brews up batches of Air Quotes in the taproom’s walk-in cooler, dry-hopping it just as a brewer would when making beer. The staff loves it, Walterbach said — especially an early caffeinated version — but it’s been so popular that they’ve had to limit how much they drink.
Hard-Knock Life
Alpine Negroni, $13, and 5th Quarter Butchery + Charcuterie’s knockwurst, $7
As much as the Howl team likes beer — and NA beer — it knows some customers don’t. With a full liquor license, the bar is able to knock out a few special cocktails, too.
A several-gallon Barr Hill-branded barrel sits behind the bar, full of the Montpelier distillery’s honey-based gin, vermouth, black-walnut bitters and a house blend of amari. The resulting Alpine Negroni is full of the herbal flavors of the beer regions Howl celebrates and softer than a traditional Negroni, with touches of chocolate, roasted walnut and wildflower honey.
Like liquor, food isn’t the focus at Howl. But Ballantyne, a New England Culinary Institute grad and co-owner of Barre’s excellent Pearl Street Pizza, has dreamed up a few high-quality snacks that match the taproom’s concept. He’s quick to say Howl isn’t a restaurant; the house-fermented pickles, cheese selection and small plates are more Bavarian brotzeit — “bread time,” or hearty snacks between meals — than dinner. Still, one could eat a whole bunch of knockwurst, made for Howl by Waitsfield’s 5th Quarter Butchery + Charcuterie.
The snappy, lightly smoked sausage comes topped with Ballantyne’s sauerkraut, just one of the ways he stretches the season by fermenting produce from farms such as Brookfield’s 1000 Stone Farm. The snack also features a creamy, hollandaise-ish beer mustard with a heavy dose of toasted caraway that Walterbach said “goes with everything.”
“No frills,” Ballantyne said. “Just food that goes well with beer.”
Or cocktails, or creative nonalcoholic sips. It’s all something to howl about.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Happy New Bier | Get to know Winooski’s Howl Bier in three drinks and a snack”
This article appears in Jan 22-28, 2025.
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