Switchback Brewing Co.

Switchback has been part of Burlington's South End since 2002, brewing an unfiltered amber ale that became a Vermont standard, and it is employee-owned. Its place in this guide comes from a decision announced on 6 January 2026: the brewery installed a BrewVo de-alcoholisation system from Sustainable Beverage Technologies to bring non-alcoholic production entirely in-house.

The move followed the early success of Switchback N.A., which the brewery describes as having quickly proved to be more than a limited or experimental release. Rather than continue contracting the work out, it bought the equipment — and the investment goes further than its own label. With BrewVo installed in Vermont, Switchback now serves as the East Coast production location for BrewVo-manufactured products, brewing alcohol-free beer on behalf of other breweries and beverage brands that want it made properly and made close to home. That is an unusual level of commitment for a brewery of this size, and it means Burlington now has non-alcoholic brewing infrastructure rather than just non-alcoholic beers on a shelf.

BrewVo works differently from the thermal and membrane methods most de-alcoholised beers use: it is a multi-stage fermentation process designed to build flavour and body first and keep the alcohol from ever accumulating, which tends to avoid the thin, worty character that dogs cheaper NA beer.

For a visitor, the tap room on Flynn Avenue is a plain, comfortable brewery bar a few doors from Citizen Cider, and the Flynn Avenue corner of the South End is easily the densest concentration of alcohol-free options in the state — Switchback, Citizen Cider's Clean Mayor and Zero Gravity's Rescue Club all within a short walk. Open noon to 9pm Wednesday through Sunday, from 5pm on Tuesday, closed Monday.

Vice president and plant engineer Gretchen Langfeldt framed the reasoning in a way worth repeating, because it is the argument this whole category has been waiting for a production brewery to make: non-alcoholic beer is still beer, and it demands the same care, experience and respect for process. She also named the real bottleneck — that there is genuine demand in the category but not enough production capacity that prioritises quality — which is precisely why a mid-sized Vermont brewery buying this equipment matters beyond its own taproom.