In a few months, Burlington will become home to yet another brewery when Foam Brewers opens its tasting room at 112 Lake Street, in the space most recently occupied by San Sai, which closed in October. (San Sai co-owner Kazutoshi "Mike" Maeda is in the process of moving to a new location — more on that another time.) The new brewery will offer full pints of eight draft beers and will focus on seasonal brews (saisons, IPAs and wheat beers in summer, darker stuff in cooler months). Foam will also brew kombucha in-house and offer cold-brewed coffee on nitro.

The new brewery will pair its liquid offerings with a modest seasonal menu of local cheeses, artisanal charcuterie (some of it made in-house), fresh bread and house-fermented vegetables. The last plays into one of cofounder Todd Haire's obsessions. "I'm kind of a geek when it comes to fermented things," he says.

During the warmer months, Foam Brewers will add pit-roasted barbecue and house-smoked meats to the menu. 

Haire is a former head brewer at nearby Switchback Brewing, where he met Foam cofounders-to-be Sam Keane and Robert Grim. Haire and Grim spearheaded Switchback's pilot beer program, while Keane worked as a production brewer. Before joining Switchback, Haire spent 13 years at Magic Hat Brewing in South Burlington, where he also rose to head brewer. (He is also working on the micro-batch House of Fermentology with Bill Mares, though the two projects are not formally connected.) 

Late last week, a wave of sadness rippled through the local food and restaurant community as information leaked out via social media and scattered news outlets that chef/restaurateur Michel Mahe had died. 

Mahe — known for his gracious hospitality and wild ambition as much as for his food — grew up in a New York restaurant family and cooked at landmark restaurants Gotham Bar & Grill and Michael's on 50th before landing in Vermont in 1999. After opening Starry Night Café with a partner that year, the chef went solo and debuted the Black Sheep Bistro in Vergennes in 2002, which he followed with many other eateries, including the Bearded Frog, Bobcat Café & Brewery, Next Door Bakery, Park Squeeze, and, in early 2014, the Lobby. His culinary portfolio spanned from pub fare to upscale and fanciful, all delivered with friendly, easy charm and minimal pretense.

More than a dozen protesters from Quebec's Innu First Nation are due to arrive in Vermont this weekend to protest the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers, being held in Burlington. They are protesting against the construction of a new hydroelectric dam on the Romaine River by Hydro-Québec, which they say would destroy their entire way of life. Vermont purchases the vast majority of its power from the Canadian utility giant and Gov. Peter Shumlin currently chairs the New England Governors' Conference.

This new dam is but one aspect of a much larger development project in the region known as Plan Nord. According to the Québec government's official website, Plan Nord is "one of the biggest economic, social and environmental projects in our time." The 25-year, $80 billion project will create or consolidate an average of 20,000 jobs per year, the Québec government says.

The Innu people — not to be confused with Canada's Inuit people — come from the community of Mani-Utenam, near the city of Sept Iles.  They are an indigenous population from northeastern Quebec and Labrador who claim they have never ceded their rights to the land to the Québec or Canadian governments.

In March of 2012, members of the Mani-Utenam community, which numbers roughly 4000 people, erected a blockade along Québec's Highway 138, the main artery along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River. The blockade was a protest against Plan Nord and dams being built along the Romaine River, about two to three hours northeast of their community. Highway 138 is the only way, except by boat, to access the inland areas along the north shore. It's also the only road into this part of Québec, and facilitates most of the industrial development that happens in this region.

Among the activists coming to Vermont is Elyse Vollant, an Innu grandmother who in June was arrested at the blockade, along with several others from the community. After the blockade was removed by dozens of riot police and Surete du Québec (Quebec state police), the Innu erected an encampment alongside 138.

Many Innu feel that the Charest government has ignored their concerns and traditional right to the land.  While some tribal councils have signed on to the Romaine project, other Innu view these councils as colonial forms of government that were set up by the Québec government without much consent from Innu decades ago.

According to Vermont activists working with the Innu, Mani-Utenam has not signed any agreements around the Romaine project.  However, Hydro-Québec has started clear cutting swaths of forest near their community for the transmission lines that will will carry power from the dams. For more on the Innu protests from earlier this year, check out this piece by Alexis Lathem in Toward Freedom.

Seven Days spoke with Vollant last weekend by phone in advance of her trip to Burlington. (French interpretation courtesy of Andrew Simon.)

SEVEN DAYS: Under Canadian law, do the Innu people have any legal rights or say over how this land will be used?

ELYSE VOLLANT: In general, First Nations have the right to a say over what happens in their territory. The communities affected held two referenda and said no to the dam being constructed. Hydro-Quebec, even after the referenda, has continued their construction work, putting in pylons for the dam... We have a right to determine what goes on in our territory and Hydro-Québec is not really listening to us when they continue the construction. 

A new four-minute online film featuring Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is taking aim at a powerful pair of billionaire brothers who the senator claims are bankrolling think tanks and politicians to spread misinformation about Social Security.

In a fast-moving online film titled "Echo Chamber" (embedded below), in which Sanders is the narrator, the independent senator offers a litany of examples in which he claims David and Charles Koch have spent tens of millions of dollars to dupe the American people into believing that Social Security is going bankrupt and needs major changes to survive.

A group of think tanks have received more than $28.4 million in Koch funding and produced more than 300 position papers distorting the purpose and effectiveness of Social Security, according to filmmaker Brave New Foundation.

The film reveals a cottage industry comprised of Koch brothers’ spokespeople, front groups, think tanks, academics and elected officials, which have built a perpetual echo chamber that Sanders argues is transforming what were once "fringe" ideas into popular mainstream public policy arguments.

Those fringe ideas? That the retirement age for Social Security needs to be increased to 70; that Social Security is already bankrupt; and that Social Security, or portions of it, should be privatized and invested in the stock market.