Hill Farmstead Brewery Road Trip: Vermont's Northeast Kingdom Beer Route

Greensboro: Hill Farmstead Brewery

Hill Farmstead Brewery sits on the founding family’s farmland outside Greensboro, a small town with no traffic light and few amenities beyond the general store — there’s no food service at the brewery itself, so eat beforehand or bring something along. RateBeer, long the largest beer-review community in the world, named it Best Brewery in the World in 2012 and again every year from 2014 through 2020 — eight titles in nine years, a run no other brewery has matched.^[3] The lineup runs through farmhouse ales like Edward and Anna, hop-forward pales and IPAs like Abner, and barrel-aged sours, most brewed with well water sourced directly from the property.

There’s a taproom (open Wednesday through Sunday, with hours that shift seasonally — check the current schedule before you drive out) and a separate retail/bottle shop for cans and growler fills. Reservations are no longer required for the taproom, but the brewery still sells out of popular releases on busy days, so ordering ahead through its online shop is worth doing if you have a specific beer in mind.^[4]The last stretch in is unpaved and unsigned — expect a gravel-then-dirt road, not a parking lot off the highway. That remoteness is part of the appeal: this isn’t a brewery you pass on the way to somewhere else.

Danville: Red Barn Brewing

Danville sits southeast of Greensboro along Northeast Kingdom back roads, home to Red Barn Brewing on Route 2 in the West Danville section of town. As the name suggests, the brewery operates out of an 1840s-era barn, brewing nano-batch beers across styles like Kölsch, English porter, wheat, and APA — a small, rotating list rather than a flagship lineup. It serves a full food menu built around wood-fired pizza and keeps a smaller-scale, more conversational atmosphere than Hill Farmstead, with occasional live music. Unlike the other two stops on this route, Red Barn is open every day of the week, though hours are shorter on weekdays (currently around 5–8pm Monday through Thursday, with longer weekend hours) — it’s worth checking the brewery’s own site before you go, since hours can shift seasonally.^[5]

Newport Area: Kingdom Brewing

Newport sits at the northern tip of this route, on the shore of Lake Memphremagog near the Canadian border — but Kingdom Brewing itself isn’t lakeside. It’s set on Coburn Hill in Newport Center, a few miles inland from the water, on a farm run by owners Brian and Jenn Cook.^[6]The brewery leans into that farm setting: beers are brewed with ingredients grown on-site, including maple sap, spruce tips, and berries, and the spent grain from brewing goes to feed the farm’s own Black Angus cattle. It’s a small operation with a wood-fired pizza menu and live music at its outdoor Brewcabin space, but its taproom hours are limited and have shifted in recent seasons — recent listings show it open Friday and Saturday, though that’s worth confirming directly with the brewery before you plan around it. If you want lake views to close out the day, plan a short additional stop in Newport proper rather than expecting them at the brewery itself.

Planning Your Northeast Kingdom Trip

• Budget more driving time than you'd expect.The back-roads route between stops runs roughly 20–25 miles from Greensboro to Danville and another 35–40 miles from Danville to Newport — each leg commonly takes 40 minutes to an hour on two-lane roads, longer than the mileage alone suggests. (Pull up the route on a map before you go; conditions and posted speeds on these roads vary by season.) Fill the tank before setting out; gas stations thin out fast once you leave Route 2.
• Check each brewery’s hours before you go — all three vary seasonally. Hill Farmstead posts taproom hours and retail-shop availability online, and popular releases can sell out mid-day; Red Barn is open daily but with shorter weekday hours; Kingdom Brewing’s taproom days have shifted in recent seasons. Confirming ahead avoids disappointment at any of the three.
• There’s no on-site food at Hill Farmstead and no rideshare coverage in the Kingdom.Eat before or after your Hill Farmstead stop, and plan for a designated driver — Uber and Lyft don’t reliably operate in this part of Vermont.
• Lake towns make good overnight bases.Greensboro sits on Caspian Lake and Newport on Lake Memphremagog — either works as a place to stay if you’re splitting the trip across two days.
• Cell service is inconsistent in the Kingdom. Download directions or maps ahead of time rather than relying on live navigation throughout the route.