Matt Cohen plans to open Fiddlehead Brewing Company's doors on New Year's Day.

 by Matt Toll

Beer nuts and brew-aficionados have reason to rejoice this upcoming holiday and New Year's season:  Matt Cohen, former brew master of Vermont's nationally known Magic Hat Brewing Company, has decided to implement the creative entrepreneurial spirit that Magic Hat entertained and open his own brewery - Fiddlehead Brewing Company - just across from Shelburne Vineyards on Route 7. Cohen's Fiddlehead Brewing Company conveniently shares space with building owner John Koerner's planned pizza parlor called Folino's.

Cohen first delved into home brewing in college, when he and his roommates decided to purchase their first home-brew kit. "From there we just kept it up...I loved tweaking and working to make the best taste we can get from the beer, and it's still very much the same process we use on a larger scale in the brewery," Cohen explained.

After graduating from Ithaca College in the spring of 96,' Cohen made the move up to Vermont to pursue work at The Shed Restaurant & Brewery, located in Stowe. From The Shed Cohen moved on to work at the evolving Magic Hat Brewery, where he eventually worked his way up to the head brewer position, one that offered him the necessary experience to venture forth  to open his own small brewery.

Fiddlehead Brewing Company will be offering a variety of complex, yet classic brews that Cohen has perfected in his over 10 years of brewing experience. The brewery draws its name from Vermont's ubiquitous woodland fern and Cohen hopes to spread his brews just as extensively throughout the area in local bars and businesses. "Our first real featured beer is going to be an I.P.A. style brew, with the focus on a dry, yet flavorful beer that one will be able to continue to drink over a longer period of time," said Cohen of what he considers his "go to" beer. "We're going to begin on a 15-barrel system [which is rather small-scale] as opposed to some breweries [that] work on a hundred, or even the larger breweries [that] work on a thousand or more barrel system. This will allow for every batch to be honed to perfection and still have the individual feel that a home-brewed beer can have."

Cohen has already put forth a company mission of sorts, vowing that Fiddlehead Brewing Company, whenever possible, will use locally grown ingredients from throughout the Vermont and New England region, with the hope of eventually reaching the ability to provide beer made with ingredients exclusively grown in the area.

Cohen said, "Obviously, the ingredients need to consistently be the best quality possible; until that's possible, we're going to have to go outside the New England region for certain ingredients. We hope, though, that by working with local farmers we can get to a point where it's all local."

For those who would like a taste fresh from the tap of the new Fiddlehead Brewing Company, a small New Year's opening and gathering is tentatively scheduled for 2-7 p.m. where beer fans and patrons can make themselves acquainted with Vermont's newest brewery and homegrown  brand. 

Matt Toll is a student from Champlain College's professional writing program interning this semester with Wind Ridge Publishing's Shelburne News and The Citizen.