Fairfield Craft Ales brews up Kickstarter campaign – Stratford, CT

Starting soon, there won’t be just one brewery in Stratford. Nope, Fairfield Craft Ales is a nanobrewery with music at its core (brews are named after songs) that will start brewing at 724 Honeyspot Road. 

Aspetuck Brew Lab Beer Preview: Expect Great Things for Their November Opening in Black Rock

Before and after. The first shot is from our visit in July, while the second shot is from Peter this past Friday.

It’s fun to make friends in the beer world . . . because the beer world employs some of the coolest, down-to-earth, nicest peeps we’ve ever met. Case in point: Peter Cowles and Tara Kasaks Cowles from Aspetuck Brew Lab (see all the background details in our February post).

It all started with a casual conversation at Harbor Brew Fest 2014 where they were sampling some of their brews. After a little bit of talk about the CT beer scene, we learned about their plans to open up in Fairfield (plans would change when they found a Black Rock spot).

A Tsunami of Support for Tidal River Brewing: Kickstarter Close to Its Goal

Let’s be honest, there are lots of businesses, breweries, and restaurants who are looking for you to contribute to a new addition or new equipment through donations . . . so many, in fact, that it can get overwhelming. Do I contribute to that hipster who wants to start a brand new mustache oil company, a business who wants to be the brand new app for selfie-taking, or a distillery that promises to shake things up? But, what gets us is how so many of them want you to contribute freely (well, not free for you) without anything in return.

That’s why we love Kickstarter. Businesses like the soon to open Tidal River Brewing in Canton set up a page and create various tiers of giving with escalatinglay awesome rewards. The only catch is that the money goal ($10,000 in Tidal River’s case) needs to be raised before any donations are counted. So, if headbrewer and owner Geoffrey Mattheis was only able to raise the $7,025 that they have now, the fundraiser would not happen and no one would be charged.

Aspetuck Brew Lab Brewery + Taproom Coming to Black Rock, CT

One of the best things to do during the summer in Connecticut is check out Harbor Brew Fest in Bridgeport. There are always a ton of beers that we’ve never tried before and sometimes you get tastes of local CT brews that are in the development stages. One such place that we discovered this summer was Aspetuck Brew Lab run by the husband and wife team of Peter Cowles and Tara Kasaks Cowles, at the time planning to open in Fairfield. Tara is the co-founder and COO, so she’ll be handling the sales, management, and some of the marketing for the brewery, while Peter (the other co-founder) is the CEO and Chief Beer Scientist. In terms of making beer, he’s no n00b, having taken in many awards and medals in national beer competitions and even seeing his Black IPA (Sir Blackheart) being chosen by Heartland Brewery as Best-in-Show with the honor of having his beer being poured out for an entire month at their NYC spots.

Black Hog Brewing in Oxford Premieres 4 Brews + We Taste Em!

Black Hog Brewing, based out of Oxford, announced last Saturday that their brews would soon be on tap at bars and restaurants throughout CT.  We know people probably wet themselves with excitement…and we were part of the wetters.  Our curiosity with Black Hog was stoked back in April when we had the chance to talk with Jason Sobocinski who along with brother Tom (both of Caseus in New Haven) and Head Brewer Tyler Jones (formerly of Portsmouth Brewpub) would open up Black Hog in the former Cavalry Brewing building in Oxford.  They got everybody excited and, if your favorite spot didn’t have it, people were urged to ask.  So, we did what most people here in the Stamford area would do:  we got in touch with Gerard Robertson, owner of Coalhouse Pizza.  Turns out he already had them on tap and had all four Black Hog brews that they are launching their brewery with.

So, after we judged the Fairway Firefighter Cook-Off, you best believe we hit up Coalhouse with fellow judge, beer savant, and Stamford Advocater, Scott Gargan.  Our mission:  try all 4 brews and report back to you.

Well, here we go: