New England Brewing Company

This particular iteration of New England Brewing opened in 2002 in Woodbridge, CT. New England brewing is an icon of the greater New Haven craft beer scene, and their beer is found all over the region. Their Sea Hag IPA seems to be at almost every bar and restaurant across Connecticut. Another one of their well known beers is the G-bot which was previously called the Gandhi bot. This beer managed to turn into a story unrelated to its flavor, but you can read about it here. If you like IPA’s you would probably like this place and already know about it. The location has a good amount of outdoor seating and lots of parking, and if you are so inclined, it is also very close to a bus line.

Nick: I went with a friend who raved about this place and I was eager to go. They told me all about the history of the place and how great their beer is. However none of the beers I tried impressed me. Of the five I tried, I liked Kewl Beans and Elm City the best, but none of them were ones I would get again if I went back. Unfortunately for me, IPA’s are really popular here, and I rarely enjoy an IPA.

Chris: I was able to go to New England Brewing company a few times, most recently in October with a friend. The brewery seems to concentrate on IPAs, and those are all the beer I see of theirs at bars and liquor stores. But as an Stout and Sour fan, I had to try those. My favorite beer was the Weiss Trash Berry which was nice and fruity with tart raspberry taste, and it was low in alcohol level. A close second was the Wonktoberfest Bier, a dark lager, which was a light beer with a great malty flavor.

Other cool things:

  • Food trucks
  • Open mics
  • Charity events
  • Homebrew competitions
  • Lots of merch

What we drank:

Nick: Kewl Beans (Oatmeal Stout) 6%- 3 of 5

Nick: Red Wine Barrel Aged Wududator (Bock) 8%- 3 of 5

Chris: Wonktoberfest Bier (Schwarzbier) 5.4% – 4 out of 5

Chris: Weiss Trash Berry (Sour) 3.4% – 4 out of 5

Brewing Persuasion:

Location: 4 out of 5

Lots of parking and conveniently located next to route 15, but the outside looks like a warehouse.

Atmosphere: 4 out of 5

Plenty of indoor and outdoor seats with a nice clean inside and decorated with cool chalk art.

Alcohol: 3 out of 5

We weren’t super impressed with the beers we had and the beers on tap were very IPA focused.

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