When: September 9th, 2022
Where: 75 Main Street, Suite 1, Putnam, CT 06260
Bear Hands Brewing Company is located in downtown Putnam, in the quiet corner of Connecticut. Nick and I visited this brewery as well as Taylor Brook brewing on our way to a Rammstein concert at Gillette stadium. The taproom sits at the end of a plaza with a decent amount of parking. The interior feels pretty small, but there is a downstairs seating area with couches and tables that acts as overflow on busy nights. There is also some outdoor seating that helps make up for the smaller space. I always appreciate a place with a good variety of beer styles, and Bear Hands also does liquor and martini flights. Food is available to order at Brick Wall eatery inside the taproom. The décor of Bear Hands Brewing is half-barn and half-local book store, but with paintings of a man and a bear arm wrestling. They also have what appears to be a private speakeasy in the basement which definitely adds to the vibe.
Chris: I definitely want to return to Bear Hands because I couldn’t try everything in one day with the wide variety of options they offer. On this visit, of course I gravitated to the stouts and and sours. For sours, I had the guava berries and the key lime pie. Both were more sour than sweet but had some decent fruit flavor to them. I was a bigger fan of the darks I had. The Quoted Knowledge was a typical porter with a hint of chocolate. My favorite of the bunch was the Everything But Your Name On the Cup, a pumpkin spice stout. It was fall, so of course every brewery needed something with pumpkin, but this beer did an especially good job of making the pumpkin not overpowering. I’d like to see what new beers that have come up with since we visited them.
Nick: I liked the Compound Curve, a nice light wheat beer. I tend to find that I only really drink wheat beers at a brewery when I am looking to complete a beer flight, but I usually end up enjoying them. The Compound Curve was easy to drink and had a nice flavor. When I go back to visit, I will likely choose all new beers, rather than go with any of the options I tried during this visit. I am looking forward to trying the Proton Pack Punch and Blueberry Cheesecake sours. I enjoyed the small bookstore-esque vibe of the brewery and will definitely stop in again when I am in Putnam.
Other cool thing:
- Bar Trivia
- Unique events
- Food always available
What we drank:
Chris: Everything But Your Name on the Cup (Stout) 7.6% – 4 out of 5
Chris: Key Lime Pie (Sour) 4.2% – 3.5 out of 5
Chris: Quoted Knowledge (Porter) 6.1% – 4 out of 5
Nick: Compound Curve (Wheat Beer) 6% – 4 out of 5
Nick: Key Lime Pie (Sour) 4.2% – 4 out of 5
Brewing Persuasion: 3.5 out of 5
Brewing Persuasions 