NewSylum Brewing Company

 

A brewery established in an old refurbished building , that was once part of an old mental hospital complex.
Seating is available at the bar, at tables in the taproom, as well as outdoors. Live music entertainment is also scheduled, there was a band playing outdoors during our visit.
There is limited food available, mainly featuring pizza, hotdogs, charcuterie and German style baked pretzels.
The beer selection is fairly diverse, and well crafted. Guest beers were also available on tap and bottles.
Recommend.

‘merica! It being her birthday and all. Pregamed with special guest star, Ben, and worked our way further away, for me, anyway. We ran up 7, we did, and headed east to Newtown. Okay, so this whole place is a repurposed mental health facility, not that I’ve been here before as far as you know. Badass. It somewhat reminds me of the Drowned Lands facility in Warwick, NY, though they’re more, you know, prisony. It’s a complex complex, truth be known. Parked and came up around, it’s a magnificent space…

Ornate wood columns in rows with marbled archways atop to both sides down the center inner corridor, and large rounded panel windows on the outer marbled walls below blueish painted uppers. Vaulted domed ceiling above crown molding with a sunken blueness a-glow, and pebbled block tile floors. Pillar mounted lamps, band ball atom candle bulb chandeliers over the side seating, and a single giant spinny fan up high.

To the rear, a zig zag white marble topped bar, wood panel inlayed banister base with strung lighting, & a foot box proper. Phat beer tower with a dozen knob, wood, & metal handles on the bar, plus a few upright cylinders on one end & a pair of one-armed towers on the other end. Bar overhang tracing with baby spots inlayed, and the brewery tucked back behind the bar, a 15bbl system, shiny, shiny. There’s another section of the bar past the far end break with a pair of towers fronting logo’d double wide coolers full of cans & bottles. A ‘Watson Farmhouse Brewery’ sign above one cooler, and house bottles & cans over the other one. And then merch shelved past there on the end of the end. Glassware racked & stacked behind the bar everywhere.

4 long shared tables to both sides of the center aisle, staggered; and like a half dozen hightops to both sides along the windows. And then outside, a baker’s dozen tables under the pavilion and another baker’s dozen tables along the perimeter, round & rec.

8 house beers up at current (Counting the Days, Hazy IPA, 7%; Beautiful Consequences, DIPA, 8%; Wit’drawls, Wit, 5%; Cattle Call, Nitro Oatmeal Milk Stout, 6%; Therapy Session, Pale Ale, 5%; Hawley Helles, Helles Lager, 5.5%; The Goat, Maibock, 6.3%; Boom Bang, Blackberry Berliner Weisse, 4.5%) + a single guest tap (Watson Farmhouse Eyes of Lust, Belgian Blonde Spelt Ale, 4.5%) & guest bottle (Watson Farmhouse Sauer Kirsche Weizen, Sour Cherry Berliner Weisse, 4.6%).

Started with the Hawley Helles (yes, please, and thank you, solid), and then as The Goat Maibock had kicked (nooooooooooo!), I went with the Wit’drawls Wit (easy drinker, not spice heavy). And then Watson Farmhouse Eyes of Lust, Belgian Blonde Spelt Ale (crisp, hoppy, hoppy), and got a bit of a Czech Pils from the tank. Beers are on point. I mean, it’s Watson, duh.

Food menu is slight but tight. 6 pizzas, a giant ass pretzel, and charcuterie, cheese, & crudites boxed for the get. The foodings come from over there (me, pointing) where the kid is cranking out pies in that oven up front, uh huh. Ben had the Bianca (Gorgonzola, Motz, Romano, garlic & sesame seeds), and I went with the Margarita (fresh Motz, plum tomatoes, whole basil), or the Margarita went with me. My pie was the better of the two because I chose it and it was mine.

I looked up and Mark was coming down the aisle with his mum so I gave a shout out.

“Oh, hey man, funny seeing you here”.
“I own the place”.
“I. Did. Not. Know. That. It’s a beautiful space”.
“Thank you”.
“How long have you been open?”
“Like, a year. Is this your first time here?”
“Um, yep”.
“SHAME!! SHAME!! SHAME!!”

(Yeah, I have to own that).

They are playing a lot of Creedence, and I mean, a whole lotttttttttttt of Creedence. Great space, solid beer & food. Good mental health house.

 

Worthy spot to get some quality cans of the hazy/juicy NEIPA that everybody is looking for. Eat some pizza that they offer either outside under a tent or inside. Friendly staff, quality pizza and brews.

Nice room/building, high ceilings bench like communal tables, pizza and beer....great combinations....worthy, comfortable and inviting place....worth a visit

 

Pandemic review: located in a turn-of-the-century brick building on the campus of a former state asylum. While the building is open for to go beers, they've setup a platform at a window on the side of the building, so I can only say that it looked like a pretty spacious interior with a good sized bar. Only 5 beers available, I did not drink anything on the premise, but the 3 beers I got to go were solid. I look forward to returning when the world returns to normal.

Edit 6/3/21
This place is architecturally beautiful, domed ceiling, fluted columns, 24 over 18 wooden sashed windows, marble sills... Great space. Still no bar seating, but about 20 tables on the floor.