Beer & the Rock Band
In January, Hanging Hills Brewing in Hartford released HeAthen Homecoming Pilsner, a collaboration beer with rock band The Drive-By Truckers. The beer will be released in celebration of the band’s run of Homecoming shows at The 40 Watt Club in Athens, Ga. This is Hanging Hills’ second collaboration beer with the band, and the label was again designed by band artist Wes Freed.
The yearly collaboration is a fundraiser for Nuci’s Space, a musicians’ mental health advocacy non-profit. The beer takes its name from the Homecoming shows, but the term HeAthens is also one of endearment that the band’s fans have used to describe themselves.
The keller pilsner was brewed with pilsner, carahell and carapils malts and hopped exclusively with Liberty hops. It’s available on draft and in cans while supplies last.
The Newest IPA Style
Two Roads Brewing’s (Stratford) newest limited-release is Dry & Mighty Brut IPA (6.8% ABV). The emerging Brut IPA style borrows its name and some of its characteristics from the champagne world — primarily from the word “brut,” which means “very dry.”
“A Brut IPA should have a moderate hop aroma, generally of the fruity and herbal kind, and minimal maltiness due to the extraordinarily high degree of fermentation,” said Phil Markowski, Two Roads Master Brewer. “Brut IPAs should be extremely dry and light in body and low in bitterness. In essence, it should come across as the ‘Champagne of IPAs.’”
Dry & Mighty Brut IPA is available in 12-ounce bottles and cans and on draft.
The Winter Classic takes place at the brewery’s Hop Yard on February 23 from noon-4 p.m., and the Cask Festival is on March 1 from 6:30-9 p.m.
Area Two opens in March. This is a new sour and barrel-aging facility dedicated to innovation and experimentation.
“Spontaneous wild ales from our coolship, a diverse selection of barrel-aged beers and other unique offerings will push the boundaries of beer and fermented beverages,” according to a company statement. “Area Two — where art meets science.”
No Hops
There are always a slew of new beers on tap at Willimantic Brewing.
1881 Spruce Gruit was released on February 2 for International Gruit Day (who knew there was such a day?). It was made without hops, but instead with local spruce tips, local maple syrup and some UCONN alumni sweat.
Just Stout is a robust black ale with hints of cocoa and toasted biscuit flavors. S.W.A.K. Stout is the same as Just Stout, but with added vanilla. Colonial Ale is a return of Brewer David Wollner’s favorite Revolutionary recipe with hints of smoked malt, toffee and caramel.
Email IPA (6.7%) was hopped with Simcoe and Tettnang hops in what David described as a “semi-old-school IPA recipe.” Willi Whammer Barleywine 2019 (10%) is an English-style barleywine featuring U.K. Challenger hops and Maris Otter malt. There are also on-going releases of different barrel-aged beers and “IPAs galore.”
February 14 is the brewpub’s Valentine’s Day party with drink and dinner specials and SWAK Stout. February 18 is Party with the Presidents featuring local historian Bev York discussing past presidents and what they drank, ate and toasted about when sober or not. Reservations are required.
Real Ale
Nod Hill Brewery in Ridgefield is developing a cask ale program focused on traditional English-style beers. The brewery has installed a beer engine and dedicated cellar-temperature space to properly store and serve its casks and intends to serve predominantly session-strength beers from the handpump.
“Our intention is to honor the cask ale experience to serve a properly conditioned and cellared pint,” said co-owner David Kaye, “and bring a little of the U.K. pub vibe to our taproom. I think the relative indifference toward cask ale right now is due in part to scarcity of sessionable, cellar temp drinking beers. Hopefully, this will turn some new folks on to the subtle charms of a pint of bitter — and if not, we’ll be happy to drink plenty of this beer ourselves!”
Beer, Art & Music
Hoax Brewing in East Haven celebrates its one-year anniversary March 22-24 at The Beeracks at the brewery. The free, three-day beer, art and music party will include bottle releases each day, over 20 bands and live art with graffiti, glass blowing and more. There will also be food trucks.
QC & QA
Stony Creek Brewery in Branford has appointed Catherine McGuinness to lead the Quality Control/Quality Assurance (QA) department. She comes to Stony Creek from Yale University where she was a doctoral candidate in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. She studied the dynamic behaviors of the cytoskeleton, the network of protein structures present in all cells of all domains of life, including brewer’s yeast.
Apart from summers as a farmhand in Fairfax, Vermont, McGuinness has spent her career working in academic research. After graduating from Smith College with a degree in physics, she returned to her home state of Vermont where she spent several years working in a biochemistry lab at the University of Vermont. She immediately developed a passion for biochemistry, which pointed her to Yale.
Brown is Back
At City Steam Brewery Café in Hartford, German Schwarzbier is on tap brewed with Vienna and CaraMunich malts and a touch of carafa malt for a jet black color. It was hopped moderately with Tettnang hops. Belgian Wit, also on tap, was brewed with unmalted wheat, oats and spiced with coriander and grapefruit peel.
Broker’s Brown has returned to the taps for the first time in a year brewed with Maris Otter as the base malt plus five different specialty malts and dry-hopped with Simcoe hops. This year’s version features a new yeast strain chosen to accentuate the malt character.
Expanding
Charter Oak Brewing in Danbury has added Casey Dooley to its sales team for New Haven, Fairfield and Litchfield Counties. Mike Granoth continues to brew every week on the 20-barrel system, as well as a pilot five-barrel system.
Beyond the core beers — 1687 Brown Ale, Royal Charter Pale Ale and Wadsworth IPA — Charter Oak has completed dozens of limited releases, most only available at the Danbury taproom (open Thursday-Sunday). All of the core beers have been modified and have received excellent reviews, according to brewery founder and owner Scott Vallely. Due to increased brewery capacity at the new location in Danbury, Charter Oak is reviewing expanding its marketing footprint.
“No Farms = No Beer!”
In January, Kinsmen Brewing in Milldale hosted Connecticut Grown Beer Night to showcase beer brewed only with hops and grains currently being grown in Connecticut. Kinsmen invited friends from other breweries in the state — Alvarium, Black Hog, Firefly Hollow, Noble Jay, Kent Falls, Little House, Bad Sons and New England Cider Co. — with one request: bring a beer with ingredients grown in Connecticut.
Some of the growers and makers of these ingredients include Thrall Family Malt, Last Frontier Tree Farm, Pioneer Hops, Smokedown Farm, DeFrancesco Farm and High Hill Orchard. As Kinsmen stated: “No farms = No beer!”
This special event was just one of many that Kinsmen has planned over the next few months, some of which include a collaboration stout with Eli Cannon’s, NoRa Cupcake and Perkatory Coffee Roasters; the return of Yup/Nope DIPA (8.0%) and 21.3 House IPA (6.6%); the Third Annual Hartford Marathon 5K run in March; and the opening of a new event room ,which will also serve as a second, fully-stocked, taproom for mega-events.
Re-Brand
Back East Brewing in Bloomfield has undertaken its first major rebrand since opening its doors in June 2012. There are new can designs for the company’s three core beers: Back East Ale, Misty Mountain IPA and Porter, a two-time Great American Beer Festival medal winner.
“When these cans originally came out in early 2013,” said co-founder Edward Fabrycki, Jr., “there was only one other brewery in Connecticut who was putting its beer in cans. Clearly, consumers have shown their preference for canned beer.”
Back East has experienced major growth in the past couple of years. The most recent expansion will see its production capacity almost tripling with the addition of a 20-barrel brewhouse and eight 60-barrel tanks.
Cans on the Market
Labyrinth Brewing in Manchester has begun canning its beers. First up were Turbo Love Juice IPA (6.5%; hopped with Citra, Cascade and Loral hops), and Erebus Oatmeal Stout with a special coffee blend. There will be more to follow in cans.
Winter Beer Garden
In December, Half Full Brewery and Mill River Park Collaborative in Stamford opened the Half Full Winter Beer Garden in Mill River Park. The two week pop-up was intended to celebrate and unite local residents, businesses and entrepreneurs.
“We were excited to work with the Mill River Park Collaborative, Innovate Stamford and CTNext to create a festive pop-up beer garden, market and entrepreneurial environment this holiday season,” said Conor Horrigan, founder and Chief Hoptimist at Half Full Brewery. “As with all our events, our goal here is to work with others to bring the Stamford community together by offering different and exciting things to do in unique settings.”