Fox Farm Brewery, CT (2018)

Based upon my discussion with the guys from Fox Farm last week at Birch Hill Tavern, I suspect the brewery will be opening relatively soon. They had four beers on tap and each was great. Burst, the DIPA they had pouring, was truly outstanding. Both Roam (Pale Ale) variants - Nelson and Citra/Mosaic were also fantastic. Looking forward to trying the pilsner that they will be pouring this week.

 

Seconded. I caught the tail end of the night at Birch, but was able to have Burst and Roam with Citra/Mosaic. I think these folks are going to be a great addition to the Connecticut Beer scene.

 

I've been looking forward to their opening for a while. My favorite beer from the Jon era at Steady Habit was the maple coffee milk stout collab with Fox Farm.

 

I really like their Freckled Fields saison...it's excellent.

 

This thing seems a long time coming. Can't we get a solid date from these guys yet?

 

In the next couple of weeks. But they're not going to announce it much in advance, similar to how Counter Weight and Lasting Brass opened. Not a lot of fanfare, a slow open.

 

That's what new park did and they ran out of beer. That might seem like a good thing, but your first day is when you start making impressions and two hour waits and not having enough beer could potentially lose your best shot at making regular customers.

 

There was a Fox Farm Tap Takeover at D&G Pizza and Pub in Canterbury on Friday.

 

Tried all 5 in a flight yesterday. Nothing really blew me away but they were all very good. The pilsner and the porter were the standouts for me.

 

New Park had to close for two weeks after their opening. No, they probably didn't lose any customers in the long run, but I know many people who went there over those 2 weeks only to find they weren't open.

Some breweries want to do a quiet open so they can work out the kinks.

 

Not losing customers is not the same thing as not making regulars. They're not about to go out of business, but once the new brewery smell is gone and the crowds start to slow down having regular customers who come every week is important. And the grand opening is a time when you make a lot of those regulars.

And yes, they did actually run out of beer after their third open day and had to close for two weeks.

 

My understanding is that no, they are not filling other's growlers. They posted a response to that question on Facebook saying they want full control for quality purposes. I know of several people, including myself, who have avoided going there because of that policy. Comes across purely as a play for more $.

 

I don't think it's a thread hijack regarding growlers. If a brewer comes to BA and wants to see what people are saying in 'their thread,' there ought to be mention of it. Maybe even in a sticky at the top that the place only wants you to use their glass.

Yep. I'm pretty much done with that shit. If I'm the kind of guy who hauls his ass to a brewery and already has growlers from other places, there's at least a decent chance that I should know better than to bring a dirty growler (or know what the consequences are). I literally keep growlers for the one time that I go to HF per year and fill like 13-15 growlers. One year I forgot to bring caps for my Wormtown/Treehouse growlers and had to get new glass, which just added to the mess. Other than that excursion, I would just put the things on Craigslist and leave them in the driveway...that's an idea actually.

 

The only reason it's a thread hijack is because this thread is about Fox Farm Brewery and the brewery that won't fill other's growlers is New Park.

I don't care about the thread hijack at all, but I talked to the owner of Fox Farm at one of their recent events and they will fill any growler when they open.

 

A properly cleansed "off brand" filled growler will taste better than an improperly cared for "branded" growler. As CT allows breweries to fill any growler, this seems like a money grab to me. I have heard they make good brew and I went to high school with one of the owners (great guy at that) but until they change their growler policy, I will not frequent. Besides that, I can fill their growler with a "crappy" CT beer, bring it to a picnic, tell nobody and they may think NP beers suck. It goes both ways.