When last we saw our intrepid pilgrims, they had enjoyed a productive visit to Shoreham, Vermont and acquired the coveted Northern Spies and Golden Russets, a jack o'lantern pumpkin, and a handful of interesting winter squashes. Now night was approaching and there were more treasures yet to be discovered on the map.

Top on the list was something I had already tried three times for, each time with increasingly nearer misses: The Alchemist's Heady Topper. Heady Topper is one of the stars of the many craft brewers of Vermont. What makes it special is a story for another page; for now the story is how I finally got it, and you can too.

Of Vermont's many Craft Brewers (I count 21 on that page) there are three celebrities that are the buzz of beerhounds all over New England and beyond. The Alchemist, Hill Farmstead and Lawson's Finest Liquids are nationally known and celebrated award-winning brewers of interesting ales. They also small breweries with limited production, and so are very hard to find, often not distributed beyond Montpelier and Burlington.

These elusive elixirs are carried at the wonderful Hunger Mountain Coop in Montpelier, but they always sell out before I can get there. What to do?

On a few occasions I had been told of "Winooksi Beverage" or "the beer place in Winooski" as a possible candidate. Before our expedition I did some reasearch and discovered the rather prosaically-named Beverage Warehouse in Winooski, just east of Burlington. They claim to have "over 900 beers (every beer available in VT!)" - Bingo! That's the place!

I called ahead and spoke to Oliver. Oliver understood immediately what I was after and was able to line up for me these choice brews (links open a new page to the excellent and comprehensive BeerAdvocate reviews of the brewers and the beers):

• The Alchemist's Heady Topper double IPA
• Lawson's Finest Liquids'  Triple Play IPA and Fayston Maple Imperial Stout
• Hill Farmstead's Arthur (a sour-ish saison) and
• (Hill Farmstead subsidiary) Grassroots Brewing's Sankt Hans (amber saison)
• Mikkeller/Grassroots Collaboration Wheat is the New Hops
• Citizen Cider bRose Blueberry Cider 

It was really quite a haul, and I am most grateful to Oliver and The Beverage Warehouse for helping me to finally get my hands on these legendary brews. They get Best of Show hands down for this week's entry!

But my luck had not yet run out!

You know by now that I have been researching Artisanal Gins made in New England this year, and I had uncovered a dozen of them. Before departing the store with my treasures, I stepped over into the spirits side to see if they had as good a selection of Vermont spirits as they have of beers. What should I see but a new gin from Smuggler's Notch Distillery (really new, just released in August, barely mentioned on their own website!). That will get its own entry in the Gins of New England page as soon as I can get to it.