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

WeHa Brewing & Roasting Company

When we went: August 24th, 2022

Where: 141 Shield St, West Hartford, CT 06110

WeHa Brewing & Roasting Company is located in the Elmwood neighborhood of West Hartford and opened in October 2021. The name of WeHa brewery comes from the nickname of West Hartford. Walking into the brewery you will immediately notice that it is half brewery half coffee shop. I’ve seen breweries that offer coffee but WeHa is just as dedicated to coffee as they are to beer. The space gives off a college hipster vibe with a decent amount of indoor and outdoor seating. They had a decent variety with sours, lagers, IPAs, and a stouts on tap. WeHa brewery also offers food through Lucky 13 Kitchen which just opened up so we unfortunately didn’t get to try it out. The Brewery had a lot of natural light with nice large windows, it had a very college hipster vibe which seemed to fit the neighborhood that it was in.

Chris: Anytime I try a new place out I want to get a flight so I can get a feel of their overall beer quality. My favorite beer was The Breakup, a mango and blood orange sour with vanilla and lactose. This was a great beer if you like the fruity sours like me. Of course I had to try the stout, First Crack #1, especially since it was a coffee stout and WeHa is half coffee roaster. It had a really nice coffee taste and it didn’t let the 10.3% ABV overpower that flavor.

Nick: I also liked the Breakup the best, its the beer that we started with and unfortunately nothing else quite measured up. The Breakup had a nice strong mango flavor, a good sweet but sour flavor, and it was really refreshing. For a brewery with a relatively small selection I was happy with the fact that it wasn’t just a wall of IPA’s. The Freudian Sip was pretty good, but I had it right after the Breakup and that was a difficult beer to follow. I thought I would like the Resting Beach Face but the lime flavor was overpowering which is probably great for some people but I didn’t care for it.

Other cool stuff:

  • Cans to go
  • Merch available
  • Trivia nights
  • Coffee beans for purchase

What we drank:

Chris: The Breakup (Sour) 5.9% – 4.5 out of 5

Chris: First Crack #1 (Stout) 10.3% – 4 out of 5

Chris: Resting Beach Face (Sour) 6.5% – 3.5 out of 5

Nick: Freudian Sip (Lager) 5.4%- 3.5 out of 5

Nick: Brevity (Wheat Beer) 5.2%- 3 out of 5

Nick: Resting Beach Face (Sour) 6.5% – 3 out of 5

Brewing persuasion: 3.5 out of 5

Feeling persuaded yet?