Paddle Creek Beer Company

Paddle Creek is a small brewery located on Main Street in East Hartford, Connecticut. The owners have been brewing since 2015, but they officially opened Paddle Creek in August 2020. The taproom is small, but the cozy confines make it feel like a comfortable place to enjoy a craft beer. They feature a small outdoor seating area, as well as food trucks and live music on certain nights. There are plenty of IPA’s and a variety of other other beers. When we went, they didn’t have any stouts or porters available, but the bartender told us that they were out of stock of a few beers. Their website does list a coffee stout and a pretzel porter as in stock. All of their beers were available as to go cans.

Chris: Paddle Creek brewing is a small brick building that gave me the vibe of an old fire station that was decorated with…paddles and canoes. Nick and I each got flights that were also served on paddles. I wanted to try some of their dark beers, but they were sold out at the time, so I will try not to hold that against them. Of the beers I had, my favorite was the James, a peach flavored sour. I had high hopes for their Silence of the Pumpkins but felt it was kind of bland. Obviously, I will have to go back when some of their delicious sounding dark beers haven’t been sold out.

Nick: The beer that stood out to me the most was James. James is a light sour with a giant peach flavor (get it?), its tart but refreshing. Another two beers that I liked were the Silence of the Pumpkin and Lawn Racer. Silence of the Pumpkin is a pumpkin beer with a smooth body and a slight caramel flavor. Lawn Racer is a Kolsh that had a refreshingly fruity taste and was very easy to drink.

Other Cool Stuff:

  • Membership club
  • Live music
  • Food trucks
  • Cans to-go

What we drank:

Chris: Silence of the Pumpkin(Pumpkin Beer) 7% – 3 out of 5

Chris: James (Sour) 3.5% – 4 out of 5

Nick: James (Sour) 3.5% – 4 out of 5

Nick: Silence of the Pumpkin(Pumpkin Beer) 7% – 3 out of 5

Brewing Persuasion: 3 out of 5

Bear Hands Brewing Company

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

Taylor Brooke Brewing

When we went: September 9th, 2022

Where: 818 CT-171, Woodstock, CT 06281

Taylor Brooke Brewery opened its taproom in 2019 right next door to its already operating winery. A lot of breweries can be found in urban or downtown areas, but Taylor Brooke is one of a few breweries that have a much more rural setting. They are a part of pollinator pathways, which means that in addition to their honey bees, they also have a setup for native pollinating insects. This rural setting allows them to grow their own grapes and hops and to produce their own honey. The facility is basically a large warehouse, with the brewing taking place right behind the bar. There is plenty of parking, as well as indoor and outdoor seating.

Chris: It’s always seems like a challenge for me to venture out to the quiet corner of CT, and before Taylor Brooke, the only brewery I had been to in the area was Willy Brew. Taylor Brooke has a decent variety of beers, including IPAs, lagers, sours and stouts. With so much variety, Nick and I chose to do flights. I didn’t hate any of the beers I had, but I wasn’t in love with any of them either. That isn’t to say I didn’t like any of their beer – I enjoyed their Shantay You Stay, a Peach sour, and their Harvest Berliner Weisse Corot Noir which had a wine-like taste.

Nick: With the winery next door, Taylor Brooke brewery is definitely aiming for a certain clientele. I imagine they offer a diverse choice of beer in order to appeal to some of their wine crowd. Chris and I stopped in at Taylor Brooke on our way up to see Rammstein at Gillette Stadium, and the place was pretty empty as it was a weekday afternoon. I really appreciate that Taylor Brooke is trying to make an impression. It would be really easy for them to just put out generic beer as they would still get some traffic because of the winery. But they use the winery setting to enhance their beer offerings and elevate the feel of the brewery. I love sour beer, and the Harvest Berliner Weisse Corot Noir was my favorite of the beer that we tried at Taylor Brooke. As Chris said, it definitely has a red wine feel to it. The Woodstock Veraison was my other favorite, and it is a farmhouse ale that also had a wine feel to it.

Other Cool Stuff:

  • Live music
  • Food trucks
  • Host private events
  • Beer and wine to-go

What we drank:

Chris: Shantay You Stay (Sour) 5.9% – 4 out of 5

Chris: Rip Rap (Stout) 8% – 3.5 out of 5

Nick: Harvest Berliner Weisse Corot Noir (Sour) 4.7% – 4 out of 5

Nick: Woodstock Veraison (Farmhouse Ale) 8% – 4 out of 5

Brewing Persuasion: 3.5