In the time since our last blog post, another brewery opened in Hackettstown, NJ. I guess thats the place to be! This one is Czig Meister and conveniently located about a block away from Man Skirt Brewing. The brewer and owner is a former head brewer from Kane so we had high hopes going in that the beer would be delicious. The brewery itself is a beautiful huge space with the bar to accomodate growler fills, pints and flights. We particularly enjoyed Czig Meister’s interpretation of a tour of the brewhouse drawn out on a whiteboard. There’s a lovely outdoor space for relaxing. There was a lot of thought and money put into this brewery and it definitely paid off! But what good is a beautiful brewery without the beer you ask? We ordered a small flight for us of just four but can report that the beer is delicious! We got the Spring IPA, Saison, Hefeweizen, and Forge 7.1 Strawberry Kiwi Kolsch. There were a lot of options and we were disappointed that the Forge Batch 6.1 Coffee Stout had already kicked and the Blacksmith on Nitro was not available for flights. But what we did try was overall good with a great variety of styles.
Its also great to see a sense of community between all the breweries in Hackettstown. On social media, each one supports the other. One of the reasons we love visiting so many different breweries is because we meet great people all the time and the beer world is a happy family. If you’re ever in northern Jersey, Hackettstown is your newest beer destination!
Back in good old CT, new breweries keep popping up every couple weeks. Before our annual labor day camping weekend, we decided to check out some of the new breweries. After a stop to Two Roads in Stratford, we headed down the road to Fairfield Craft Ales.
Contrasted from its neighbor, FCA a small intimate brewery. The theme of the brewery is rhythm and brews which is apparent stepping in with the decor and attitude. We ordered a flight to split consisting of a saison Turn! Turn! Turn! (with lime), a pale ale Dixie Chicken, Revolution IPA and Quadrophenia Belgian Quad. I wish I had more classic rock music knowledge so I could get all the beer names but I appreciate it nonetheless. The saison and the quad both had some unusual smokey characteristics that confused me a little. Andrew enjoyed the IPA and pale ale. There was also live music which is a fun treat! Overall, I’m excited to see this little brewery grow. With Two Roads, Aspetuck, Fairfield Craft Ales and Brewport, this little area of the state makes for a fun beer outing!
Speaking of Brewport, I was intrigued to see this spot. Bridgeport, CT is not known as one of nicer spots of the state (or country). See this Family Guy clip for reference.
Despite its sad abandoned buildings, giant smokestacks, and questionable characters, I have hopes that Bridgeport can be a nice city one day! Brewport is located right of 95 in a giant building (old newspaper factory I believe). It has been open for a preview for about a month but just started introducing some of its own house beers to the menu. We arrived and were shocked to see how packed it was. The first parking lot was full, so we were sent to the overflow lot which was also full, and finally we found a spot in the second overflow lot. We put our name in for a table and ordered drinks while we waited. Interesting to note that many of the patio decorations were from Two Roads including barrels and umbrellas. When we were finally seated we ordered more beer and decided on pizzas. Our table got a meat lovers, veggie and Korean BBQ. The atmosphere kind of reminded me of Bar. Pizza was delicious (although the koran bbq was a little spicy for me) the house beers were average and guest tap list was decent.
We also made a stop to Stony Creek, a gorgeous & spacious brewery in Branford for quick 11am breakfast beers. I had pictures so I thought I would include them even if they aren’t new kids at all!
Our final new brewery to report on is 30 Mile Brewing Co. located in Old Saybrook CT. We were heading up to East Lyme for a camping weekend at Rocky Neck State Park and decided to take a slight detour before we arrived. 30 Mile is another small brewery but an open space with two large tables and bar with enough room for everyone. Being a coastal town, an interesting strategy is using all plasticware including growlers as glass isn’t looked favorably on boats and beaches. Once again we split a flight and enjoyed all the offerings. My personal fav was the Blueberry Belgian Quad while Andrew enjoyed his Baby Fight Club IPA. Being the only group in the brewery sometimes has its perks as we were treated to extra samples of some unfinished beers including a very potent Bourbon and a S’mores stout. The atmosphere was very friendly and welcoming and we enjoyed playing Cards Against Humanity without much judgement. When we were kicked out of our campsite due to Hermine the tropical storm that never came, we returned the next day with more friends and snacks to play some more CAH before heading home.
Our last stop of the weekend was not a brewery but a cidery. We are equal opportunity drinkers here after all! And I love cider, so we made a detour to Wallingford to visit New England Cider Company. They have been making cider for a while I believe but just opened their taproom this summer so I was excited to check them out. We ordered flights and took them to the back where there were two picnic tables set up so we could have a little more space. There was a good variety of cider from Wild, Fresh, Golden Russet, Lemon Tea, Pink Lady and English. We enjoyed sipping a little of each first to not ruin our palettes but the clear favorite amongst the group was the Fresh Blend. Seriously, it was like drinking apples. We were surprised to see the ABVs all over 6%. Delicious and dangerous! But we had a great time and although we didn’t get any cheese and they didn’t appreciate Kait’s desire for doughnuts, I would definitely make a return trip!
