Local Brewery Profile: Stubborn Beauty Brewing Company

Re-posted from my blog: Malted Musings.

An exciting new brewery is opening up just down the road for me, and central for most people in CT: Middletown’s Stubborn Beauty Brewing Company. They are currently in the prototype brewing stage, planning a full release in 3 months as they've just recently started the state licensing process. They are in their building already though, which is on North Main street in Middletown, right in the old Remington Rand building. Heading up this brewing endeavor are founders/proprietors Shane Lentini and Andrew Daigle, both of who I had the fortune of bumping into at the Eli Cannon's Beer Fest last week.

This brewery is heavily focused on beer, and brought four (admittedly stellar) beers to the fest: “How Rye I Am” (a rye saison at around 8%), “Tainted Justice” (another 8% Imperial Porter), “Kommandant Lassard” ( a dunkelweizen that comes in at around 5.5% abv), and “Get Turnt On IPA” (a 8.1% experimental IPA). Their brewery vision is to make beer that they like: big, full flavored, and acutely balanced. Indeed, as I sampled each beer, I was blown away at the careful balanced taste of the huge beers: there was no sourness or sharp stab of alcohol in any of the 8%+ behemoths!

Right now (as the beer is in the proto/nano stage), they’re focusing on tastings and brewery tours, moving into growlers eventually. They aren't focusing on growlers immediately as they want to make sure that their beer lines are fully established and ready to go into production. Though they claim that they need to sort out recipies, I find that hard to belive due to the reasons I mentioned above. This was the one table that I found myself coming back to at least 2 or 3 times during the fest, just because I couldn't believe how even the beer pull was.

Both Shane and Andrew have full-time jobs, so Stubborn Beauty is a dream and as well as a hobby for them. They want to make their beer in a more non-traditional manner, focusing on beer styles that they think are interesting, branching off of the American East Coast beer tradition of innovating and fortifying beer in a large, unique fashion. Though they focus on innovation and large style beer, they joked that they’re no Dogfish Head but they’re still going to be out there. They say that, all cliche aside, they brew from the heart. They love beer, they love new beer styles, and they want to focus on brewing beer that they like.

Middletown is their base of operation because Middletown is both a central location, and a lively cultural center in the making. After trying the beer and talking to the guys (and gals) at the pouring, I believe that Stubborn Beauty will make a great addition to the Middletown cityscape. And I'm not just saying that because I love the beer I've tried so far and they're right up the road from me! Be sure to follow me on on Blogger, Twitter, and Facebook for more information on Stubborn Beauty and other new CT breweries. Then be sure to check out Stubborn Beauty's website and try to get your hands on some of their brew as soon as possible!