Connecticut Craft: Five Hartford Area Breweries

I'm excited for a different type of "Five on Friday" today!  When we were in New England over Christmas, we met up with some of our best friends for some brewery hopping.  These are the same friends who we visited 11 breweries in 5 days with when they visited Charleston last summer, so you know we had to top that.  We each had a few we wanted to visit, so we ended up with five stops in one afternoon.  We were pretty impressed with the Hartford beer scene, as there wasn't much there when we left four years ago.  Here's where we visited:

1. Connecticut Valley Brewing Company: We started the afternoon in Windsor at one of the newest spots.  We loved how much space they had and that there were playing cards on every table.  Playing cards and drinking beer are our favorites!  They had a good selection of New England Style IPAs, and I liked the Farmhand Kolsch.  Plus, their adventure branding was so fun!

2. Thomas Hooker Brewery at Colt: Hooker has been a Connecticut beer staple for over 10 years and was one of the first breweries in the area in Bloomfield.  We went to their new Hartford location, at the Colt building, that just opened this summer.  It's a perfect spot downtown that still has plenty of parking.  As for beers, I was most excited to try the Chocolate Truffle Stout.  It's made with Munson's Chocolate (a Connecticut must-have) and absolutely lived up to expectation.  We liked the #nofilter IPA so much so that some came home, too!

3. Hanging Hills Brewery Company: Right down the road from Colt was Hanging Hills, and oh my goodness, they had a pup there!  It wasn't their official brewery dog, but Poppy was so sweet.  This was another spot with IPAs, and Hartbeat DIPA was definitely the best.  

4. New Park Brewing: This brewery was definitely most hyped by our friends who still lived in Connecticut, and it lived up to expectation for sure.  It was also the most packed!  They have one of the shortest tap lists of places we visited, but it was some of our favorites of the day.  You really can't go wrong with a beer; I loved their Blender-Cherry (a Berliner Weisse) as well as the Wavelength IPA, made with pineapple and orange. 

5. Hog River Brewing: By our last stop of the day, we were pretty tired, so I definitely want to go back to Hog River next time we're in the area to get the full feel of it.  We tried the From the Ashes IPA and Chocolate Milk Stout.  The Milk Stout was the perfect dessert for our day of drinking.  

We had a fantastic time brewery hopping, and if that wasn't enough, we made sure to stop at the Two Roads Tap Room at the airport the next day when we left.  We definitely need to take a trip to Two Roads next time we fly to CT!

Linking up for Oh hey, Friday, Five on Friday, High Five for Friday, and two doses of Friday Favorites