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| 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.
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