Field Trip: Thimble Island Brewing Co. [Branford, CT]

Last year, the Connecticut State Society of Washington, DC hosted an event called "Discover Connecticut." With the support of Connecticut's Congressional delegation, it was held in the Russell Senate Office Building's Kennedy Caucus Room and served to highlight Connecticut businesses and products. Mystic Seaport was there; so was the Mark Twain House; Firefly Farms made Beef Wellington from happy Connecticut cows; and almost a dozen restaurants, distilleries, and brewing companies were there. One of the attendees was Thimble Island Brewing Co., based in Branford, CT. I enjoyed the beer they had to offer, got to talking with founder and president Justin Gargano, and made plans to visit when I was back in Connecticut. Fast forward about a year - and here I am! Along with my aunt Jayne and friend Terry, we headed down to the shoreline to check out the brewery and see what makes them unique.

A view of the Thimble Islands. It's hard to see, but some small islands have little cottages on them

The Thimble Islands, for which the brewery is named, is a series of over 100 small islands located near Stony Creek Harbor in Branford, CT, right near New Haven. Originally "discovered" by Adrian Block in 1614, the islands are now home to many small cottages, nature preserves, and open space.

The brewery, currently in its seventh year, is located a couple of miles from the above-pictured shoreline in an office park. The brewery space is coupled with a taproom, totalling around 30,000 square feet of space, at which location they've resided since 2015.

They had an extensive outdoor seating area, with a hightop table area to the left of the entrance, and a series of picnic tables (complete with umbrellas and lawn games) off on the lawn. I really liked the colorful flowers and well-kept lawn - we ended up sitting on the picnic tables since it wasn't too hot. There's no table service outside, but you can take your beer outdoors if you like.

We got two flights, which we all shared. We chose :

• "Thimble Lager", a 4.30% ABV lager made with Cascade and Northern Brewer hops
• "American Ale", a 5.0% ABV ale made with Mt. Hood and Northern Brewer hops
• "Session Forty-Five", a 4.50% ABV session IPA made with Amarillo and Citra hops
• "Ghost Island", an 8.0% ABV  double IPA dry-hopped with Citra hops. (Notice the cute ghost drawing on the flight)
• "Coffee Stout", a smooth and soft 6.00% ABV stout made with coffee beans from Connecticut's own Willoughby Coffee Roasters. 
• "Black and Tan", a mixture of the "Coffee Stout" and "American Ale".
• "Cask-Aged Session Forty-Five", a special dry-hopped, cask-poured variant of the "Session Forty-Five"

My favorites were the "Coffee Stout", the "Cask-Aged Session Forty-Five", and the "Ghost Island." The "Coffee Stout" was super smooth, very clean, and a bit light with no oily flavors or heaviness. The "Ghost Island" had a nice kick of bitterness, kind of expected given that it's over 100 IBUs, but wasn't harsh at all. I think the "Cask-Aged Session Forty-Five" was the star of the show, though.

I love the orange juice, Tree House Brewing-esque color. Hops came out in full force, but not super bitter. Texture is much softer than the original variant on draft. The cask version had strong flavors of flaked wheat and a lingering finish of juicy Galaxy hops and a little bit of salt. Really quite nice and drinkable, perfect for the weather, and it's no surprise I ended up drinking two pints later in the afternoon!

Aside from these draft offerings, they had a few bottles for sale: two 16.9oz, red wine-barrel aged beers (a farmhouse ale, "The Maiden", and a strong ale called "The Mutiny) and a vanilla version of their Coffee Porter; although this wasn't for sale on draft, they popped in the back and grabbed a cold bottle for us. Score!

The "Vanilla Coffee Stout" was just as smooth as the normal stout, this time accompanied by a pleasing vanilla extract taste. It didn't taste artificial or overly sweet; and just like the original, there was no heaviness or sweetness - just easy-drinking, dark beer. I grabbed a four-pack on my way out.

Now it was time to check out their operation. Marketing guru Gina kindly took the three of us on a private tour of the brewery space including the storage area, complete with barrels full of goodness:

Maybe they have "Mutually Assured Destruction", their Russian Imperial Stout, in there! Next we come to the brewing space. Thimble Island has a 30-barrel system, which means they can brew 30 barrels of beer at a time. Each barrel is 31 gallons, so the brewery can make 930 gallons of beer at a clip. According to Gina, annual output for this year is projected between 12,000 and 14,000 barrels of beer. This is not a lot, in the scheme of things - New Belgium Brewing Co., for example, makes about 900,000 barrels a year. That's about 2.3 million gallons a month, as opposed to Thimble Island's projected 31,000 gallons per month.

They've got a couple of 90-barrel fermenters where the beer is being stored. You'll notice the orange bucket with a hose in the lower lefthand corner...this is the point for natural Co2 extraction. There's a hose, coming from the tanks, that's looped down into that bucket which is filled with iodine. This serves as a way for gasses to escape and the pressure in the tanks to equalize (otherwise, the rising pressure from the fermentation process would make the tanks explode.) The iodine is there so that no germs can go up the tube into the beer. One of the buckets was bubbling so fast, it looked like it was boiling! Lots of happy yeast in there.

They can and bottle their beer in-house, of course, using two systems. The below photo is of the 6-valve canning line. Behind me, not pictured, is the 12-valve bottling line. At full speed, they can churn out 3,000 bottles an hour and 1,400 cans per hour. Not bad! Thimble Island is the largest self-distributing brewery in Connecticut, shipping beer to about 2,200 bars, package stores, and supermarkets in the state, so cans go right from the bottling line to the next room where it's packaged and picked up by the drivers.

As the tour concluded, we passed through a big room that serves as an event space to rent. They offer a variety of packages including open bar and cash bar, and allow patrons to bring their own food or have food trucks come in. At the time, the room was being set up for a wedding rehearsal dinner.

Beyond that, we return back to the bar space. We sat at a table - carved with a map of the Thimble Islands - and had a few more pints (that cask-pour session ale is great!) and made out way outside. I should also note they have food trucks out back; Jayne and Terry grabbed a fresh lobster roll and we headed out. Before I conclude, I have to give a short review of the "Maiden", which I tried the following day. It's a 6.50% ABV farmhouse ale aged in oak cabernet sauvignon barrels, costing $11 for a 16.9oz bottle.

Pouring swiftly and generating a fizzy white foam. Look at that beautiful orange juice coloring!

While the oak character of the beer is rather pronounced, this beer is showing some red wine flavors as well, which are interestingly distinct. It's hard to explain, but in some beers, the flavors are all mashed together...while in others, such as this one, it's easy to pick out the individual elements. I kind of like that, because you can appreciate each element without struggling to figure out what the brewers did.

Overall, it's got a tasty farmhouse flavor, a nice showing of tangy oak, and a long lip-smacking finish. This is a must-drink if you're into lighter, oak-aged beers.

If you're ever down on the Connecticut shoreline, please give Thimble Island a try. It's got everything I'd want in a brewery - good beer, nice indoor / outdoor spaces, casual and welcoming atmosphere, and a friendly, generous staff. One thing I would like to see more of is special, perhaps bottle-aged beer (like the "Mutiny" and the "Maiden".) The "Vanilla Coffee Stout" is part of their "Uncharted" series of beers, which may fit this bill. They've also made a series of smaller, experimental brews in 15-barrel batches, as well, so look for those.

I'd like to extend the sincerest of thanks to Justin, Aimie, Gina, and the bar staff for rolling out the red carpet for us. These guys are awesome, and although I never accept free stuff in exchange for good reviews, they did give us some of the beer we drank for free. So thanks for that, big time, and rest assured, I'll be back to Thimble Island as often as I can.

Union Wine Co. - "Underwood" pinot noir [Oregon]

Well, it's sunk to this. Wine in a can.

Just kidding. Actually, I'm surprised we don't see more wine in cans. Cans provide the same benefits to wine as they do to beer - opaque aluminum blocks harmful light, cans are not prone to shattering like glass, the pop top seals in freshness better than corks or caps, and they are of course more portable than glass bottles and work great for camping or sporting events. So it makes sense that this is a viable option, and it's a trend we may see more of down the line.

And I admit, like the beer drinkers of old who equated canned beer with cheap beer, I have wondered to myself just how good wine-in-a-can could be. I've seen this numerous times in stores, and for science purposes, I figured I'd give it a try. It's Union Wine Co.'s "Underwood" pinot noir from the Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Aiming to produce affordable, easy-drinking wines, Union eschews the overly-fancy and fussy tendencies of some wineries. According to founder and CEO Ryan Harms, the winery was founded to "successfully [create] the marriage of craft and small-scale manufacturing" while also emphasizing decent wine over complex convention. This wine, along with a half-dozen others in the Underwood line, are rather affordable at $5.99 for a 375mL can. The winery also sells them for $25 for a four-pack, which equates to about $12 per traditional-sized 750mL bottle.

OK, let's try this out. The can emits a really strong carbonated "pop!" when opened, which is generally unusual for red wine and an interesting development.

Very light strawberry red in the glass, throwing a bright soft nose of berry. There's also lots of bubbles, I mean, way more than any other wine aside from a sparking white. So this suggests to me some sort of additive carbonation.

Initially, there's a burst of soft, sugary notes and flavors of fruit (like cherry). The carbonation I detected earlier is there, but isn't very pronounced - just a tiny bit of effervescence, which is cool. Cherry is the dominant flavor throughout the wine, and there's a slightly cassis flavor on the finish. Quite tasty, and also rather easy-drinking. I like it!

If you see this on the shelf, don't expect some scummy "Two Buck Chuck"-style swill. While it isn't as elegant as a fancy bottle with a pretty label, it's really about having a decent Oregon pinot in a super convenient can. The brightness and fruit flavor of the wine goes well with hot beach weather, or with trail grub after a hike in the woods. My brother Dan and I should have grabbed a few of these when were were hiking in the Olympic Range a few years back!

Block 15 Brewing Co. - "Sticky Hands" ale

You'll notice that a lot of the reviews I do are of aged beer. Certain types of beer, just like wine, have the potential to get better with age. Some are high in alcohol, which is helpful for aging, and some types have wild yeast which naturally preserve the ingredients and cause the beer to evolve over time both in flavor and texture.

But not all beer can be aged; in fact, some are meant not to. Here's one such ale that's comes to me all the way from the West Coast - it's "Sticky Hands", a 8.1% ABV ale by Block 15 Brewing Co. in Corvallis, Oregon.

Advertised as "The Hop Experience Ale", I was able to obtain this from an undisclosed source, and since apparently the Block 15 guys are so passionate about fresh beer that they aren't at all happy when their beer gets resold, my source chooses to remain anonymous. The brewers would slap that beer out of my hands of they knew I hadn't drank it already.

It comes in a pint can - the hop mixture is a secret. It pours golden yellow, and generates a pleasant, fruity aroma. Kinda par for the course for this kind of beer.

Initially, the hops come through with a tangy, slightly metallic flavor. As the beer develops, I'm tasting some honey flavors coupled with tropical and resinous hops - notes of grapefruit? Thick texture, too. I like that the hops provide great flavor and some bitterness (but not TOO much, despite the beer's generous 110 IBUs.) Overall, finish is quite fresh with strong floral, bitter notes.

There's definitely an attractiveness to a bright, syrupy, and fresh beer, and I feel this entry provide interesting flavor without becoming sweet. I feel like this is a better version of Bell's vaunted "Hopslam", and without the price tag.  I also like how it's got a bit more citrus character than Hopslam, too. Regarding the aging - while this beer was much older than recommended by the time I had it, it was still tasty. So if you can get your (sticky) hands on this beer, give it a go! It's worth a try.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., et al - "Beer Camp Across The World" Part 1

Well, looky here! This year's "Beer Camp Across The World" box has been released. For those of you not in the loop, each year Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. pairs with a dozen other breweries to release a special, one-off collaboration box. These are one-time-only, super special, creative releases are usually sold as one 12-pack together. I've examined these offerings in the past, including an intense look at the 2015 Beer Camp Across America box.

The box is actually split into two sections: six "Stateside Collaborators" and six "Overseas Collaborators." Half of the beers are made in concert with US-based breweries, and the other half are sourced from international breweries. I'm going to review the Stateside half in this post, and the Overseas offerings in a future post.

I kinda had to go for this first - a 9.40% ABV dry-hopped barleywine from Avery Brewing Co. 

As you all know, I love barleywine so I was very excited to see this in the box. The founder of Avery Brewing Co., Adam Avery, claims that Sierra Nevada's "Bigfoot" is what got him interested in the style of barleywine, and this offering is a blend of the Bigfoot recipe and Avery's "Hog Heaven", an imperial red IPA.

It pours red from the bottle, generates a super puffy white foam, much like its "Hog Heaven" heritage. Quite a nice aroma - strong and a very reminiscent of the archetype. At 90 IBUs, the taste matches my expectations - very strong and bitter, with lots of crisp, metallic hops and an overpowering texture. I like the potency of the beer, and if you're into very brassy, bitter hops, this is for you. I wonder how this would age!

Next up is Tree House Brewing's "East Meets West IPA", a 7.0% ABV hybrid IPA.

Now, as you may recall from my visit to Monson, MA, last year, Tree House stuff is very sought-after (the line was over 150 people long when I went) due to the brewery-only distribution. That's why I'm so surprised to see this in the box - this may be their first distributed beer. According to the source materials, the name refers to the blending of IPA recipes and styles - Sierra Nevada's, and Tree House's - to create a hybrid IPA.

Pours a hazy orange from a 16oz can. Aroma is bright, tart, and fresh. There's minimal bitterness, surprisingly, with juicy hops and little bit of fruitiness towards the end of the beer. Texture-wise, it's quite soft with a little bit of fizz. In the end, nothing terribly inventive, but nice and fresh and tasty. Good hop flavor, but not a lot of attendant bitterness.

I guess I'm in an IPA mood, next up is the "West Coast-style DIPA" from Boneyard Beer, based in Bend, OR.

The 8.30% ABV double IPA pours a clear golden from the pint can, throws a soft, basic IPA aroma. There's not a ton of character in the beer, and although it's soft and smooth, it definitely has that lingering bitterness from hops. I'm not finding a lot to write home about, but it's a drinkable IPA that hides the alcohol well.

This was interesting - Saint Arnold Brewing Co.'s "Dry-Hopped Berliner-Style Weisse", a 4.20% ABV weissbier.

Since this is the third beer in this series that's dry-hopped, a word about that: "Dry-hopping" is a brewing process that adds unboiled hops (i.e. "dry") to a beer to increase hop flavor but not bitterness. These hops can be added, using a variety of mechanisms, at different times to increase aroma, flavors, etc. Some brewers, like Port City, have created devices to directly infuse hops into the beer (theirs is called the "Hopzooka"). So when I hear that beer is dry-hopped, I don't always expect bitterness, but I do expect hop flavors.

The beer throws a slight lemon aroma, but not much else. The taste is really quite dry, with hints of dark spice, developing into flat cereal flavors that lingering long after swallowing. This beer uses Sierra Nevada's Kellerweis yeast, which may contribute to the spice flavors. While I can appreciate the craft, it's not my cup of tea per se (but a nice example of a Sahara-dry Berlinerweiss!)

Whoa, here we go - next one is Minnesota's own Surly Brewing Co.'s "Ginger Lager", a 6.20% ABV lager brewed with ginger, cayenne pepper, and fermented in oak barrels. Sounds good already!

Pours a honey orange, with lots of tiny bubbles and a thin white foam. Aroma is thin but has an interesting piquant bite - and delivers in taste a crisp ginger flavor that gives way to a long lingering finish of cayenne. It's not as gingery as the ginger root atom bomb that was Sierra Nevada's "Walk in The Woods" but if you like ginger beer, this is the perfect beer for you. The added cayenne reminds me a lot of Hosmer Mountain Beverages' cane sugar ginger beer, which is excellent for dark n' stormies I'll have you know.

Finally, we come to The Bruery's "Raspberry Sundae", an 8.0% ABV blonde ale made with lactose, cocoa, vanilla, and raspberry.

Chock-full of flaked oats, pilsner, and chocolate malts, this beer throws little aroma and presents strong raspberry flavors, like the raspberry syrup you'd put on ice cream. Not super sugary, I'm having a hard time detecting the vanilla or cocoa flavors. There's a nice creaminess, undoubtedly from the lactose, which makes this (texture-wise) quite true to its name.