Alex DeFrancesco was one of the first in Connecticut to grow hops here; now he's brewing beer with ingredients that don't come from much farther away than the family farm.
While pursuing his doctorate in evolutionary biology at Yale in the early 2000s, Geffrey Stopper worked as assistant brewer at the beloved New Haven brewpub, BAR. “I seriously considered starting my own brewery,” he recalls, but his Ph.D. got in the way. “My science career just really took off.”
There was some snickering and eye-rolling when package stores were deemed “essential” while so many other businesses around the state were forced to close their doors. But there’s no disputing that package stores are essential to most Connecticut breweries still in operation during the COVID…
Until recently, Ted Dumbauld never considered producing hand sanitizer at SoNo 1420, the Norwalk distillery he co-owns. In fact, there would have been few bigger insults you could have hurled at him or any other distiller than to compare their booze to an alcohol-based cleaning product. But …
Brandon Collins stood at his station on the canning line at Black Hog Brewing in Oxford, looking out across the brewhouse. An unpaid intern with a master’s degree in chemistry, his 13 years as a protein crystallographer in the pharmaceutical industry shaping his vision, Collins started to se…
Two Roads Brewing Co., Connecticut’s largest brewery, has entered the hard seltzer arena.
Julie Messina couldn't find a suitable elderberry syrup for her son, so she started making her own.
Elliott Davis makes whiskey on the site of two historic 19th-century properties.
Tribus means “three” in Latin — or at least that’s what the three friends who cofounded Tribus Beer Co. think. “We looked it up on Wikipedia,” says Sean O’Neill, one of the three co-owners of the Milford brewery, which opened in August 2018.
Having bonded over their shared love of making beer in college, Carlisle Schaeffer and Sam Wagner operate their own brewery in the heart of Chester.
When people tell me they only like their coffee with cream and/or sugar, I tell them to try one of these roasters.
When Joe Gouveia decided to open a vineyard in Wallingford, people thought he was crazy.
Greg Caucci and his business partner Bruce Staebler did not initially envision opening a brewery with a large taproom. But when they saw the sprawling factory space in the Milldale section of Southington, everything changed.
For most of its existence, OEC Brewing in Oxford has made exclusively sour beers. That changed in recent months when it began offering non-sour or “clean beers” on a regular basis.
Area Two might be the most impressive brewing space in the state. Going inside feels like entering a craft beer cathedral.
If you need a lesson in the way special interests can influence government, look no further than Connecticut beer.
Craft beer needs more diversity. The realization hit New Haven’s Alisa Bowens-Mercado five years ago while she was at a beer festival. She didn’t mean diversity in terms of more women and minority ownership of breweries; not yet anyhow. Back then she was thinking about diversity of flavor.
“The journey of rum with me has been an evolution,” says Dominick Splendorio, owner of Zafra Cuban Restaurant & Rum Bar in New Haven. Today if you want to learn more about rum, Splendorio is the guy to ask.
When Mike Lincoln Jr., the owner and brewer at Noble Jay Brewing Co. in Niantic, was asked to make a beer in honor of U.S. airman John “Chappy” Chapman, the pressure was on.
The Champagne region is not the only place where sparkling wine is produced. We look at three options made here in Connecticut.
When Tyler Cox, the brewmaster at Outer Light Brewing Co. in Groton, decided he wanted to learn how to make a brut IPA, he did something both obvious and brilliant. He called the San Francisco breweries that had first brewed the new style.
A few years into his sobriety, Ian Ceppos found himself craving a drink. Not the alcoholic drinks he had once enjoyed, but something non-intoxicating he could drink in a social setting with friends or over dinner.
One hundred and forty-two years before Connecticut joined the Union, William Thrall established what would become the Thrall family farm in Windsor in 1646. Ownership of the farm was passed down from parent to child over the centuries.
About five years ago Bill Shufelt gave up alcohol. “Nothing super crazy ever happened to me, it was just the right time to stop drinking and it didn’t fit in my personal or professional life,” he says.
Kent Falls Brewing Co. is far from pretty much everywhere. Downtown Kent is a 15-minute drive from the brewery, while the company’s namesake Kent Falls State Park takes about 17 minutes by car. To get to the farm where the brewery is, you drive through a web of winding back roads. You’ll dri…
The growth of Connecticut’s brewing scene, and the U.S. brewing scene in general, has been exponential. By last count there were more than 55 breweries in the state (a few more probably opened as I was writing this sentence). However, this isn’t the only Connecticut craft beverage to see suc…
Say the words “Lower Naugatuck Valley” and the first thing that comes to most people’s minds won’t be “beer.”
The term German beer hall conjures up, for me at least, images of lederhosen-clad waitstaff, accordion waltzes and cartoonishly big beer steins all coming together in a fun and playful atmosphere.
When husband-and-wife team Dan Tomlin and Jodi Harmon found themselves unemployed a few years back, they were forced to improvise to avoid giving up alcohol.
When people try Maple Craft Foods’ bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup for the first time and taste the all-natural sweetness of the Vermont syrup layered with subtle smoke and caramel flavors imparted by aging in bourbon barrels, their reactions are often visceral, Dave Ackert says.
The Greater Danbury area has been something of a brewery desert, seemingly immune to the craft beer revolution taking over the rest of the state and country.
Owner Curt Cameron admits it: a year ago, Thomas Hooker Brewing Co. was not exactly the hottest Connecticut beer brand around.
Harvest Festival at Jonathan Edwards Winery, Sept. 30 & Oct. 1
Coffee in Connecticut doesn’t generally get the same press as other beverages such as craft beer or wine. We’re here to change that by shining a light on some of the truly incredible coffee hot spots in the state. We selected locations where coffee-making has been elevated to an art form and…
The problem with some products that donate to charity is that the term “a portion of proceeds” can mean anything from a significant donation to pennies, says Mike Lutz, operations manager of Salute American Vodka. That’s why with his company’s vodka, $1 is donated to veterans organizations f…
Craft Brew Races, New Haven, Aug. 5 This 5k run followed by a beer festival returns to New Haven. The race starts at noon with the beer festival beginning a half-hour later at Edgewood Park. Participants can run the 5k then enjoy the festival, or skip the run and just have beer. Tickets to t…
Jonathan Edwards Winery Spring Festival | June 3-4
It’s 10:30 on a February morning. We’re outside Treehouse Brewing Co., a small brewery in a residential farming area, just across the Connecticut border in Monson, Massachusetts. Even though the brewery is not scheduled to open for another half-hour, early arrivals have formed a line stretch…
Craft260 Cask Festival | May 7, Fairfield
Connecticut became the birthplace of American vodka after a Russian immigrant named Rudolph Kunett purchased the rights to the Smirnoff brand in the 1930s and set up shop in Bethel.
Sun Food & Wine Fest, Jan. 27-29 This year’s festivities will feature 20 celebrity chefs and winemakers, as well as 1,000 wines, craft beers, select spirits and signature dishes from some of New England’s best restaurants. The grand-tasting main event will be Jan. 28, but there are a var…
