NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
Inside an ole red brick Industrial warehouse formerly housing Bigelow Boiler Company, ARMADA BREWING came to fruition in 2022. At the underdeveloped and previously abandoned Fair Haven section near the Quinnipiac River, the family-owned brewpub is led by head brewer, John Kraszewski.
Armada's brick-walled, concrete-floored, high ceilinged interior features multiple TV's, three elongated lacquered wood community tables, overhead doored barrel seating and a couched cove. The back bar's ghoulish black and blue wall design captures the eye alongside the colorful tomb-like chalkboard beer list while scattered back tanks service the dozen tap handles.
I made the journey to Armada March '25, quaffing three draughts before bringing home a few more Armada brews, including three expressive 8th anniversary barrel aged stouts, reviewed in Beer Index.
Crisp Confirmed Pils prickled musky husked graining and Saaz hop herbage with a spritzy lemon fizz.
Equally as crisp and clean, brisk lemony passionfruit bittering and mild guava-gooseberry tartness engaged Iron Gold Passionfruit Blonde.
Coffee-burnt dark chocolate spunk and dewy moss got draped by light Blackstrap molasses for Lord Chancellor Oatmeal Stout, leaving mild cola-walnut snips on the maple oats spine.
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
On the northern outskirts of town five miles from Yale Bowl or the inner city, New Haven's EAST ROCK BREWING COMPANY opened in July 2018 and quickly became a splendid cafeteria-like family friendly neighborhood beer hall specializing in traditional German-inspired beers. Inside a cavernous terra cotta-bricked light Industrial warehouse, East Rock's ample community-tabled 12-draught tap room features a rounded 20-seat bar on an epoxy cement floor with a right-walled "Rediscover Lager" wood emblem celebrating their time-honored Bavarian craft brews.
Co-founding head brewer, Tim Wilson (former quality controller for Jack's Abby), operates the enormous windowed brewing space at the rear. Serving all of Connecticut since before my initial August '21 visit, East Rock's upcoming Octoberfest's already sold out.
A wood-paneled front deck expands on both sides of the glass-enclosed front entrance. My wife and I grab a few seats outdoors to down four straightforward prospects. I'd already consumed Hopfen Lager and Black Lager two years back (see Beer Index).
Dry Helles-styled lightweight, Lager, a cumulous-headed yellow body, let herb-tinged lemon musk, celery-watered fennel seeding and doughy raw-honeyed malts coalesce.
Crisp dewy mossing sideswipes pasty Vienna malt pasting and musky fungi retreat for Vienna Lager, leaving orange-rotted tangerine tang upon its damp-grained truffle earthiness.
Sweet tea-leafed cereal grain crisping, toasted caramel malting and mild orange oiling paced Oktoberfest, an amiable amber lager.
Bright 'n lively India Pale Lager, Goat Herder, let sharply spiced lemon-peeled grapefruit bittering, zesty orange peel tang and distant passionfruit-pear-watermelon snips gain peaty compost-tinged resinous pining for pungently hop-dried, citrus-dominated medium body. 
