On tap at Growler & Gill, crisp light-bodied German-styled pils connects musky floral-bound lemon briskness to sour-meshed biscuity white breading. Simple, sessionable, politely rewarding.
All posts by John Fortunato
QUIRK WORKS BREWING & BLENDERY
DANBURY, CONNECTICUT
In a heavy industrial section of Danbury, Connecticut, QUIRK WORKS BREWING & BLENDERY opened its side doored entrance April 29, 2022. A half-mile from Charter Oak, Quirk Works is Danbury’s second brewery.
Occupying a sleek overhead doored silver aluminum warehouse, Quirk Works’ manufacturing fixtures anchor the pub as the butcher blocked serving station provides spring-handled pipe fitted trays of beer for people at the olden lacquered wood community tables (with antique copper pendant lighting). Paved alley way seating’s also available.
Brewer Rick Cipriani ‘formulates ideas’ and skirts some traditional brewing techniques tinkering with hybrid styles. Former owner of nearby Brewster, New York’s Bull & Barrel, Cipriani brought his experienced hands-on approach to Quirk Works, where exotic infused beers and a rainwater-derived Belgian-influenced IPA are the new normal.
On my early March ’23 stopover, I grabbed a few inventive beers for the road reviewed below.
Sessionable clear golden helles lager/ light pilsner blend, Impractical Logic, a heartier cellared zwickelbier, utilized whole grain oated Cheerios cereal to promote its baked breaded base as presumable Noble hop herbage outdoes New Zealand hop gooseberry-guava souring and muskily floral lemon licks.
Mild apple, pear and tangerine tanginess picked up laidback earthen hop astringency for lightly caramel creamed Interchangeable Fate Irish Red Ale, picking up latent chestnut-pecan sliver.
Buttery oats-flaked red wheat anchored the raw-honeyed sourdough base of double dry-hopped NEIPA, Spontaneous Rhythm, undercutting its spicy orange-tangerine tang and tannic green grape esters.
A better NEIPA choice, partly sunny Cracker Perfection shines lemony yellow grapefruit zestiness on mild evergreen pining as salty pineapple-mango-guava tropicalia and light spicing beckon atop dry pale malts.
Musty oaken barrel aging gave Aged Beauty Imperial Old Ale its dry bourbon, whiskey and rye edge as peat-smoked barleymalts guard ancillary caraway seeded pumpernickel breading and pine nut buttering against rustic brown leaf astringency.
Rummy whiskey sweetness absorbed the candi-sugared dried fruiting of Golden Ingot Belgium Tripel (Barrel Aged Rye), leaving oaken vanilla, dry bourbon, butterscotch candy and Chardonnay illusions on the busy fusel backend.
Boozy butane-like Golden Ingot Tripel (Barrel Aged Single Malt) let its single malt Scotch whiskey entry receive sedate caramel, vanilla and varnished wood tones, but its burnt rubber sulfites will preclude all but the heartiest liquor lovers.
CHARTER OAK BREWING COMPANY
DANBURY, CONNECTICUT
Entrepreneurial couple Scott and Michele Vallely originally introduced a few gypsy brews crafted at other local brewers’ facilities under the CHARTER OAK BREWING COMPANY banner way back in 2012 before occupying the present 10,000 square-foot Danbury space they’ve now operated since June 2018.
Given a light industrial post-modish setting, Charter Oak crafts a rotating lineup of beers that usually stick to specific stylistic parameters but sometimes tweak details. Thier 1687 Brown Ale and Wadsworth IPA remain year-round flagship offerings.
Inside the spacious brewhouse, an enormous beige-walled brewing area includes a few small round tables for patrons playing indoor frisbee while the much smaller gray-walled main barroom presents a ten-seat cement-topped serving station (with decorative wood kiosk) and metal-wood chaired tables. Picture-framed stencil drawings of animals (and one of Scott) line the front wall.
I enjoyed ten rounded beers on my March ’23 Friday evening journey.
Lemony mandarin orange spritz and dry grassy herbage picked up sparkling champagne surge for Easy Riding Kolsch, a Hallertau-hopped moderation.
Toasted amber graining anchored Pale Mild Amber, gaining slick orange oiling and dry lemon spicing.
Brown-leafed hop astringency contrasted light caramelized fruiting and pine nut buttering of Steam Lager, a hybridized California Common lager.
Dried orange, tangerine and clementine gained dewy moss for Wadsworth IPA, a West Coast-styled medium body with crisp tobacco and mild wood tones.
Zestful orange-peeled grapefruit and pineapple tanginess spruced up Juice God NEIPA, dropping moderate piney bittering and grassy herbage above buttery oated wheat malts.
Salty cherry tartness and lightly acidic lime-soured grape tannins sported Gose – Tart Cherry, an acidulated malt-backed sour ale.
Dry cellared fungi and apprehensive fruiting connected for Saaz/Hallertau-hopped Biere De Garde.
Nutty chocolate-spiced maple molasses seeped thru 1687 Brown Ale, leaving pecan, almond and chestnut upon its lightly pined Cascade-Centennial-Columbus hop earthiness.
Dry bourbon and oaken vanilla tannins prodded Bourbon Barrel Aged Brown Ale, relegating burgundy-port wining and sugared nuttiness.
Rummy molasses-sweetened cocoa engaged Midnight Rider Porter, a creamily mocha-bound barley-roasted full body.
BAD SONS BEER CO.
DERBY, CONNECTICUT
Residing at an old red brick warehouse in the Lower Naugatuck River Valley, BAD SONS BEER CO. opened in the summer of ’17. Taking its independent spirited ‘true grit’ motto as its commanding slogan, Bad Sons specializes in varied India Pale Ales but aren’t afraid to dabble in lagers, porters, etcetera.
A green-framed wood door with yellow greened hop design welcomes visitors to the raw, pipe exposed, high ceilinged industrial pub. The red brick-walled floor-to-ceiling windows and die-cast iron wheel ornament contribute to Bad Sons’ archaic rusticity.
A dozen cool ghoulish hop-handled draught taps, sidled TV’s and brewery stickers crowd the 30-seat bar. Wood-metal chaired tables fill out the cement-floored front end while brew tanks are staged in the rear where a black and white Bad Sons insignia lines a side wall . A small kitchen serves fine pizza. A green aluminum-sided picnic area with blue-chaired firepit and benches offers further seating.
At noon in early March ’23, I grabbed a seat at the wraparound wood top bar with decorative bolted Edison light panels to down a few suds.
A lemony Chardonnay effervescence gave Light Rider Lager its spritzy phenolic entry as Noble-hopped herbage, pale malt pasting and delicate spiciness emerged.
Dry pinkish amber blueberry gose, Violet’s Demise, caressed its candied blueberry tartness with salty lemon-soured pomegranate bittering.
Lemony passionfruit, pineapple and guava tartness and mild blood orange tanginess imbued Spring Trainer Fruited IPA, a mild springtime potion.
“Crushable” East Coast-styled Roller Coaster IPA let crayon-waxed lemony orange peel zesting pick up moderated floral herbage and slim pine tones in a grassy Comet-Galaxy hop whirlpool.
Sticky cannabis resin snuck into the perfumed pineapple, orange and grapefruit tang of Hypnotic Dank IPA, retaining a mild dry hop bittering.
Intensely Citra/Mosaic hop-forward NEIPA, Doobious, stayed juicy as lemon zesting perked up pineapple, orange, tangerine, clementine and cherry fruitiness over dry pale malts.
English dark malts and earthen hops frontloaded Bad Billy Brown Ale, scurrying nut-roasted burnt caramel treacle.
Mild coffee-roasted dark chocolate consumed Storm Born Baltic Porter, leaving molasses and toffee sweetness to defend the astringent hop phenols grazing its ice cold lagering.
REVERIE BREWING COMPANY
NEWTOWN, CONNECTICUT
Inside a blue brick warehouse behind a storage center in Newtown, Connecticut, REVERIE BREWING COMPANY came into existence March 25, 2019. Ably crafting several beers on the stylistic outskirts and others well within range, the expanding neo-mod pub recently put in a new event area, Coopers Hall, for its fourth anniversary.
Several stooled wood benches and five stooled tables get served by the pristine wood lacquered serving station. An orange crossbar above the right side brew tanks includes a black lettered Reverie signpost and exposed pipes line the black ceiling. The parking lot’s filled with benches and stringed Edison lights. Hard ciders are also available.
I settled in on a Friday afternoon in March ’23 to try four rangy suds going from carrot-infused sour ale to soured saison to New England IPA to nutty brown ale. In the Beer Index, there are several Reverie’s I bought for the road reviewed.
Murkily yellow-hazed Garrett Carrot, plied sour lemon acidity to carrot-juiced cara cara orange tang and light ginger, fennel and cinnamon daubs for a novel root vegetable-backed eccentricity.
Spritzy lemon-limed grapefruit, mango and pineapple juicing picked up dank pining for Waterfall IPA, leaving mild guava, peach and tangerine tanginess in the lightly creamed oated wheat distance.
Sour yellow fruiting embossed Futz Saison, contrasting its musty fungi herbage and barnyard acridity with laidback honeyed red fruit spicing.
Chalky chocolate and oily coffee guarded the charred nuttiness of Chock Full O Nut’in, a dewier brown ale.
REVERIE PICK ME UP BARREL AGED IMPERIAL STOUT
Richly creamed Tiramisu-inspired stout burrows coffee-roasted bourbon vanilla sequence inside sweet burgundy-sherry-whiskey boozing above chewy cookie dough base. Espresso-soaked ladyfinger with whipped cream topping perfect for dessert.
REVERIE FLEXURAL STRENGTH BARREL AGED WEE HEAVY WITH PEANUT BUTTER
Dry Litchfield rye barrel aging sports whiskey-bent burgundy wining but only slight peanut buttering as oaken vanilla, sherry and port illusions dip thru chocolate pudding-skinned Graham Cracker base. A somewhat peculiar, but never uneven, Scotch-finishing wee heavy.
REVERIE WATERFALL NEW ENGLAND IPA
Less dimensional than most NEIPA’s, lacking some of the creamy oats richness and most of the raspy yogurt-milked fruitiness stylistically implied. Mild grapefruit, tangerine, mango and guava tanginess stays subtle as honeyed crystal malts sweetness the backend.
REVERIE BANANA STAND HEFEWEIZEN
Far-off hefe variant promotes guava-soured pineapple salting, lemon-rotted herbage and tannic green grape esters over stylish banana-spiced sweetness and mucky raw-honeyed wheat base.
REVERIE SOAK UP THE BERRIES ALE
Lemony strawberry adjunct (with acidulated pale malting) gains mild blood orange tartness for sour blonde ale variant. Lightly salted kaffir-limed raspberry, boysenberry and cranberry souring reclines near strawberry rhubarb finish.
REVERIE WASHINGTON SOUR CHERRY
Glowing engine reddish magenta-headed sour ale with tart cherry pucker and candied lemon Pez powdering gains subtle red raspberry, white grape and cranberry illusions for salty bottomed Jolly Rancher or cherry Icee knockoff.
REVERIE FRUIT OF THE ZOOM LIME & RASPBERRY KOLSCH
Somewhat peculiar stylistic variant, part of Reverie’s rotating fruited kolsch series, lets zestful limey raspberry spritz take on questionable botanical cologne musk, clean celery crisping and cucumber-watered watermelon rind snip over thicker than expected honeyed malt bottom.
