Yankee Brew News Archive

What's Brewing: Connecticut

Originally Published: 12/96

By: Gregg Glaser

Whether it was beer in a bottle from a micro, in a glass at a brewpub, on the golf course or at a weekend camp, Connecticut offered it all for craft beer lovers this past summer and fall.

Bank Street Brewing Company, the long-awaited Stamford brewpub, opened for business last September. The location is a 1913 bank building, beautifully restored and converted into a two-level eating area and a 14-barrel Peter Austin/Pugsley Brewing Projects brewhouse. The first beers on tap included Lock City Pale Ale, Cove Porter, Banker's Bitter, Summer Street Wheat, Shipyard Export Ale and Shipyard Goat Island Light Ale. (Most all the new Alan Pugsley-designed brewpubs carry one or more of the Shipyard beers, a result of Pugsley being a partner in Shipyard.) Bank Street also offers a list of fifteen still and sparkling wines, nine single malt Scotches, four small batch bourbons and seven tequilas. And, oh yes, there's also lunch and dinner.

Erin's Rock is a new Connecticut-based contract beer that popped up last summer. A Darien company, Champion Beverages, Inc., headed by former New Amsterdam Brewing president, Joe Tighe, has Erin's Rock brewed at The Lion brewery in Pennsylvania. Erin's Rock is a blend of a stout and an amber lager, and is hopped with Saaz hops. Champion has one other bottled product on the market as well--Sparkling Chocolate Smoothie Eggcream.

Phil Hopkins of Hartford's brewpub, the Hartford Brewing Company, reported that the Hartford Brew Fest last September drew the biggest crowd ever, topping 5,000 people. The event raised somewhere between $15,000-$20,000 for the Hartford Guides. In other news, Hopkins is set to open his second brewpub in New Haven early in January. The Brewery at Ninth Square will be located in New Haven's historic Ninth Square Project, a development of retail, office and residential tenants. The 8,000-square-foot brewpub will include a 200-seat restaurant, a game room and the Berkeley Coffee Shop. Hopkins describes the decor as "turn-of-the-century industrial, with lots of brick and stainless steel." There will be "no cover charge, ever," says Hopkins. The coffee shop will have a separate entrance, offering breakfast in the morning and entertainment in the evening. Hopkins is outfitting his new brewpub with a 10-barrel brewhouse fabricated by the Branford, Connecticut company, Easy Flow Brewing Systems.

The New England Brewing Company has brewed their winter seasonal beer, Holiday Ale, for the seventh year. The base beer is a Scottish-style ale, seasoned with ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, mace and vanilla. Another winter spiced ale, Feast of Fools Ale, is on tap at Glastonbury's brewpub, the Alewife Grille & Brewery.

Elm City Brewing of New Haven has brewed their first-ever lager. On tap at the brewery's restaurant, the beer is named Elmweiser. At New Haven's 250,000-square-foot sports and TV betting facility, Sports Haven, the same beer is called Shark Suds (there is an indoor shark tank in the Sports Haven bar). Throughout November and December Elm City will offer last year's autumn beer, Chestnut Roasted Ale, and during January and February the special will again be Chocolate Cherry Porter.

Hammer & Nail Brewers of Connecticut, in Watertown, began bottling their Brown Ale last September. A story on Hammer & Nail appears in this issue.

Bloomfield's Farmington River Brewing Company received some national press ink last August. Co-owner Melissa Millan read an article in the Business Marketing section of the July 15 Newsweek titled, "Fresh as a ... Beer?" The writer, Jeremy Kahn, wrote a sarcastic piece about freshness dating on beer bottles and cans. He referred to the practice as the "... newest gimmick in the beer business ... the freshness fad." He wrote, "Never mind that beer never goes bad."

Millan countered with a Letter-to-the-Editor defending freshness dating of beer, explaining that beer is a perishable product, and suggesting that Kahn "... better research his facts before misleading the public." Newsweek responded to Millan's letter saying they would only print it if she gave them permission to re-write the letter in the Newsweek style. Millan paraphrases Newsweek's response, "If you want your letter published, you'll have to go with what we wrote because we don't want to retract any of our original facts."

The Willimantic Brewing Company, a brewpub project in Willimantic, has had a slight setback to its projected opening date. (So what else is new in the craft brewing world?) Owner David Wollner hopes to open the restaurant with guest beers in January, and the brewery side of the operation in March. Willimantic Brewing will be located in 12,000 -square feet of space in the historic Willimantic Post Office building.

Branford is the projected location for a March opening of the Indian Neck Brewery, a brewpub. Co-owners Greg & Kim Waterbury and Doug Hanlon, biologists, chemists and homebrewers all, have been planning their brewpub for two years. They hope to open a 145- to 168-seat restaurant and serve four to five ales, concentrating on English and Belgian styles. A 10-barrel Peter Austin brewhouse, to be installed by Pugsley Brewing Projects, is on tap. The current delay is caused by a set of two appeals from a neighboring restaurant owner to Indian Neck's Planning & Zoning approvals.

Waterford's new brewpub, Post Road Brewing Company, didn't make a Labor Day opening. Their liquor license was delayed by the State Liquor Commission, but was due to be issued on October 8.

Last July, in the bucolic town of Kent in the Connecticut Berkshires, Club Getaway offered Beer Camp. Club Getaway, which bills itself as "New England's Premier Sports Resort," teamed up with William Kingsbury, head brewer of New York City's Chelsea Brewing Company and Westside Brewery, to offer a weekend of beer classes, tastings and meals. The cost from Friday at 6 p.m. to Sunday at 4 p.m. was $360-$390 a person. Club Getaway, with a capacity of 300 people, offers weekend guests just about every outdoor summer sport imaginable at their lakeside setting. They can be reached at 800-927-3664.

In Fairfield County the Amber View Golf Club has 62 members, a PGA pro, a Board of Governors, a Handicap Committee, a club championship and a member-guest tournament. What they don't have is a golf course, steep annual dues or a costly initiation fee. The dues are $15 a year, and the initiation fee is a six-pack of microbrewed beer or three premium cigars.

Amber View is a golf club that the Metropolitan Golf Association and the USGA classify as a "Golf Club Without Real Estate." Jim Keenan, Amber View's President-for-Life, says that the club was formed by friends who didn't have a private course on which to play together. The club's name comes from what the members always see at the end of a great golf day--the amber glow in their beer glasses. In the August/September issue of The Met Golfer, Amber View members are pictured in front of a New England Brewing Company (of Norwalk) delivery truck, each holding a mug of beer and a golf club, with bottles of Atlantic Amber protruding from a golf bag.

Page 7 CT Column - October 1, 1996 Deadline December 1996-January 1997 issue