By GEORGE FJELD
BRANDON–With great brews, fantastic crowds, and a multitude of events, the Red Clover Ale Company celebrated its fifth anniversary last weekend! Beginning on Thursday at its weekly Open Mic, owners Pete, Andy and Riker released their 5th Anniversary Double IPA. It is delicious! A multitude of local musicians played and the music was, as usual, excellent. Mari of La Catrina 802 supplied the crowd with homemade Baja-style Mexican tacos.
Friday night featured local favorites Bloodroot Gap and their progressive bluegrass, high energy sound. Shady J’s BBQ provided a mean brisket chili, which incidentally, won the Brandon chili cookoff. They also had crowd-favorite Mac Attack (mac and cheese piled with pulled pork) on the menu. The Red Clover boys released the second beer of the weekend: Common Raven Imperial Stout, a decidedly uncommon and delicious brew!
Saturday topped the weekend cake! The LAN chef provided the food and DJ Fancy Pants the music all day in the taproom. Come evening, the party moved around the corner to the Town Hall, where The Wormdogs, a Burlington-based Bluegrass Rock-and-Roll band wowed the crowd with its high energy original music, with a couple of standards thrown in. Brandon’s own Will Pearl plays drums and vocals for the band, which formed in 2017. I’d describe it as a bluegrass, folk rock, and Phish mashup. The Town Hall was packed for the show and many spent the evening dancing. Cambodian food from Nyam Bai was available and wonderful as well! Nothing better than a fresh spring roll to keep the energy going! And don’t forget the BEER! It flowed all weekend in great abundance.
