When we went: January 23th, 2020
Location: 635 Broad St, New London, CT 06320
What does toxicology and beer have in common? If you ask the three co-founders of Tox Brewing Company, they’ll say they’re the perfect theme combination for New London’s first brewery and taproom, which they opened in 2019. Tox gets its name from one of the owners interest in poisonous mushrooms, poisonous plants, and poisonous drugs. I mean, come on, how cool is that? These guys name all their beers after poisonous plants and animals, like “Belladonna,” a chocolate coconut stout, “Deadly Nightshade,” a coffee milk stout, and “Placebo Effect,” a cream ale. They’ve leaned so far into the toxicology theme that their tap handles look like mushrooms, the bathroom walls have sketches of molecular poisons, and their logo is a poison dart frog.
Disclaimer: If you’re reading this and starting to worry that you might get poisoned by Tox beer, don’t worry! They don’t actually brew with any poisonous plants or fungus. There are no actual toxins in their beer…..ya know, besides the alcohol.
Shannon- Tox is a suave little spot with friendly and helpful staff. I love the branded beaker-style tasters glasses they use for flights (which you get to keep!) and I love their dedication to the toxicology theme. These guys are brewing a good variety of popular styles and doing some pretty intriguing things with each of them. I’ve been impressed with almost every beer I’ve tried. I’m a big fan of their IPA’s and DIPA’s, but even their stouts are stupid good. The only beer I can think of that didn’t do it for me (but was still good but only in small amounts) was the “Wisteria,” a maple coffee stout. I love sweet things as much as the next person, but this one was H.E.A.V.Y sweet.
Chris- Tox had a small but cozy taproom and I like the theme of the place. As Shannon said, their place is covered in mushrooms and frogs; just how Alvarium is covered in bees. For such a small place they had a pretty good selection and variety of beers. I had a few beers but my favorite was Buckeye which was sweet but light and milky, with hints of chocolate and peanut butter. They do flights here but with a token system, they give you one glass and four tokens and once you finish one of the tasters you trade in another token for another sample. On the plus side you get to keep the glass, on the downside it makes it awkward to share if you are a germophobe and you only get to try one at a time. Overall its a nice cozy place with decent craft beer, if you are in the area, give it a try.
Other cool stuff:
- Food trucks during the warmer months
- Dog friendly outdoor patio
- Get four 5 oz pours of your choice and keep the beaker-style taster glass when you’re all done!
- Toxicology themed-merchandise
- For their checkout system, they stuck an iPad into the frame of an early-1990s Macintosh Classic II computer!
- Survived the 1781 burning of New London by Benedict Arnold
Our Persuasion:
What we drank:
Shannon: Placebo Effect (Cream Ale) 3.5 out of 5
Shannon: Animalcule (New England Pale Ale) 3.5 out of 5
Chris: Buckeye (Milk Stout) 4 out of 5
Chris: Wisteria (Maple Stout) 2.5 out of 5
Brewing Persuasion: 3.5 out of 5
Brewing Persuasions 