When: December 17th, 2025
Where: 45 Northwest Drive, Unit A, Plainville, CT 06062
Transcend Beer Crafters is Plainville’s newest brewery, opened in 2025. While the outside of the taproom makes it look like another garage style brewery, the inside shows how modern it actually is. The taproom is open and spacious with an event space attached next door. Visitors can enjoy games like shuffleboard and classic arcade machines, a wide selection of beer and merchandise, and a full kitchen. Its interesting to see how breweries have come full circle in the last decade, from restaurant breweries, to hole-in-the-wall garages with exclusive beers, and now to full destination stops for games, food, and beer. Transcend is the model of the new/old style brewery that needs to bring people in with more than just what’s on tap.
Chris: Speaking of the beer at Transcend, its been a long time since I went to a brewery and was blown away by the variety, quality, and uniqueness of their brews. Its hard for me to tell you what was the best because there were so many great beers and more than I could drink in one visit, so I’ve already planned my return. My favorite so far was their Blackout, a smoothie sour with a strong berry flavor and lactose to make it nice and creamy. A close second was their Trouble Stuff milk stout that tasted exactly like Oreos and came in at a whopping 10%. There were plenty of hopping and light beers to go along with their sweet sours and stouts, but with so many selections, I kept to my favorites.
Nick: Chris and I both loved the sours, and they were fantastic. My favorite was the Cranberry Creamlada, which was the first one I tried and really set a high bar for everything else. I love sours, and I can’t remember ever going to a place that had so many sours that I could not try all of them in one sitting. The Legnog and Blackout were also delicious sours and such unique and rich flavors that a palate cleanser in between them was a must, which is about the only thing I can compliment the Kolsch on. The only real negative for me was that all of the sours and, in fact, the majority of their beers were lactose-based; me being lactose intolerant did not stop me from enjoying them, as I always travel with Lactaid, but it definitely prevented me from taking any cans home, as I do not trust myself to remember to take it beforehand. I definitely plan to come back, especially with its flexible hours and a kitchen that’s always open.
Other cool things:
- Multi leveled membership (kind of like a mug club)
- Event space
- Lots of merch
- To-go beer
What we drank:
Chris: Trouble stuff (Stout) 10% – 4.25 out of 5
Chris: Blackout (Sour) 6% – 4.5 out of 5
Chris: Get cozy (Winter Warmer) 4.8% – 3.5 out of 5
Nick: Cranberry Pina Creamlada (Sour) 6% –4.5 out of 5
Nick: Legnog (Sour) 6% –4 out of 5
Nick: Blackout (Sour) 6% – 4 out of 5
Brewing Persuasion:
Beer: 4.5 out of 5
Location: 3 out of 5
Atmosphere: 4 out of 5
Brewing Persuasions 