NORWALK — In the lunch hour at the corner of Washington and Water streets in South Norwalk, Rob Allen cracked open a “New England-style” IPA beer from Thomas Hooker Brewery, among Connecticut’s oldest in an early wave of regional craft brewers to emerge in the 1990s.
Also on the table was a can of Water Street double IPA from the state’s newest brewery, which Allen promised will be a recognizable logo on the Connecticut beer landscape before long.
Having scrapped their initial idea of taking over a brewpub space on Washington Street, SoNo Brew founders Don Trooien and Allen are thinking bigger, planning to begin wholesale distribution to package stores and restaurants in advance of opening a taproom next year.
Trooien, who lives in Wilton, has explored launching a brewery in New York’s Catskills region through a startup called 212 Brewing, having purchased a 250-acre farm there to grow hops and grains.
“Culturally, (SoNo) its diverse and cool and interesting and artsy,” Trooien said. “The trademark was available; our distributor said, ‘You got SoNo, you got something.’ But in the beer world, it starts with great product — and our beers are great.”
Connecticut breweries have been allowed to operate since mid-May under Gov. Ned Lamont’s executive order allowing for limited capacity and spaced seating. But with relatively few having the distribution heft of Hooker, Two Roads Brewing in Stratford or Stony Creek Brewery and Thimble Islands Brewing in Branford, many are in the same straits as the state’s restaurants as cooler weather forces diners and drinkers back indoors.
‘The first order is easy’
The Connecticut Brewers Guild lists 125 members today, with more than a dozen on tap statewide including Berlinetta Brewing in Bridgeport, Shallow Seas Brewing in New Haven and Bad Dog Brewing in Torrington.
But a few did not survive the pandemic, including Bad Dream Brewing in New Milford and Iron Brewing in South Norwalk, which never reopened its doors after posting “We’ll drink together again soon!” on March 17 on its Facebook page. Iron Brewing was the third brewpub to fall flat at the same location on Washington Street, on the heels of Hell or High Water and Guvnor’s Brewery.
Norwalk is the largest city in the state without a brewpub or brewery, despite a heritage that has included the former North American headquarters of Guinness brewer Diageo and the hard seltzer pioneer SpikedSeltzer prior to its 2016 sale to AB-InBev.
Trooien and Allen indicated they considered the Iron Brewing location on Washington Street for SoNo Brew, but elected to continue the hunt for a larger facility within the city limits, and possibly within one of Norwalk’s Opportunity Zone districts that offer better returns for investors under the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act of 2017.
They have brought on former Hell or High Water brewmaster Anderson Sant’anna Delima to develop SoNo Brew varieties, which like the Water Street IPA, take the name of district landmarks to include Switch Tower Pale Ale and Swing Bridge Stout.
SoNo Brew would not be the first to attempt widespread distribution in advance of a taproom — Connecticut startups that have done so include Charter Oak Brewing in Danbury. Charter Oak owner Scott Vallely said he also considered Norwalk as a taproom location after launching his company in 2012, ultimately choosing a commercial property on Shelter Rock Road in Danbury.
Vallely said having existing shelf space in grocery and package stores was a major boost in the early days of the pandemic, with bigger receipts in that channel helping offset declines in restaurant and event sales, and the two-month closure under Lamont’s pandemic order.
He noted that establishing distribution was not a major challenge in the early days of Charter Oak — particularly for entrepreneurs like him hitting the streets to drum up interest — but that there are far more local labels in beer aisles now competing for attention. Still, he said the pandemic economy would not have deterred him from making a go of it.
“(Distributors) were very interested picking me up, but back then there weren’t a whole lot of craft brewers,” Vallely said. “What I find with any new brewery, getting the first order is easy — it’s new (and) people are curious.”
Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman
October 30, 2020 at 08:00PM
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