Glass Half Full: CT Brewery Serving Positivity In A Can As It Strives To Innovate

STAMFORD, CT - Conor Horrigan remembers the day he came up with the name for his brewery. The rat race of Wall Street behind him, Horrigan sat on a train and jotted down notes about his new idea: a brewery that could deliver complex beers that can be accessible to everyone.

Contemplating a title for this passion project, Horrigan wrote down the names Right Light and Delight Light, then wrote in the margins of the page “too cheesey.”

Then it hit him. Half Full.

“I realized your glass can always be half full," Horrigan said in an interview with Patch, "both figuratively and literally, and I liked that as a mindset.”

Half Full Brewery is now a thriving local Connecticut craft beer brewery tucked away on Homestead Avenue in Stamford. Made up of people who are super passionate about beer with a zest for life, the facility has been brewing a wide selection of beers since August 2012. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

As the brewery's founder and "Chief Optimist," Horrigan and his team are constantly working to spread the Half Full mindset throughout Connecticut, one little can of positivity at a time.

“We’re really focused on tons of innovation with our beer," Horrigan said, "tons of collaboration with our beer, tons of community collaboration and just trying to be different and a force for good.”

Getting Started

At the age of 25, Horrigan developed the idea for Half Full after growing disillusioned while working at a finance job in Manhattan.

“I was working this Wall Street job, and I just felt like I wasn’t doing anything to benefit people," Horrigan said. "I was surrounded by people who were working to benefit the world, and here I am on Wall Street. It just didn’t feel right.”

It was then Horrigan began to wonder if there was more to life than simply chasing down a paycheck.

"I never really cared about just working to make money," Horrigan said. "It was more about what I could do that would make me interested and excited for the day ahead.”

Feeling fed up with the whole rat race scene, Horrigan began to think about what other career paths might be available to him. He wondered if there was something he could do for the rest of his life that would be more than a job; a passion that would drive him and get him genuinely excited to come to work every day.

The idea for what would become Half Full hit him one day during a brainstorming session over some beers with his buddies. They conceived a brewery that was less about the place itself and more about the experience.

He then did what any sensible person would do and quit his well-paying job in the city to go back to school and learn all he could about both business and beer, volunteering at New England Brewing on the side to scrape up any experience he could.

“I was a finance guy so I knew nothing about business or beer," Horrigan said. “I knew I didn’t want to open a brewery run by a businessman; I wanted to open a brewery run by a brewer.”

Using all he had learned thus far, Horrigan brewed his first batch of Bright Ale right from his kitchen stove. Though the Bright Ale currently being sold has changed a bit from that initial batch, the concept got across exactly the kind of beer he wanted for Half Full; a blonde/pale ale hybrid that was light and crisp but had a little more complexity to it.

Horrigan described it as a gateway beer to get people into that Half Full mindset.

“Beer is the perfect vessel for that feeling," Horrigan said. "You get together with people, you have a beer, catch up and tell stories, think about business ideas and traveling. So beer just became the perfect vessel for that mindset.”

The Facility

Horrigan recalled a study he had read that showed most millennials will often prefer when they are at a restaurant to eat at a communal table.

"What’s fascinating is the way that people work and eat and play nowadays has changed. They’re looking for new and different things. They don’t want to go to the same kind of atmosphere everywhere they go, because their palate changes every two weeks. They want to be super social and sit at a communal table instead of their own.”

With their brewery's tasting room, the Half Full team hoped to evoke a similar idea.

“We kind of want this place to feel like a communal gathering place," Horrigan said. "This is a good vibe here.We try to create a vibe where it’s just fun to be immersed in the environment, and it’s fun to come so close to the source of what you're drinking."

Though smaller in size than some other tasting rooms, the brewery has worked to keep the vibe as friendly and relaxed as possible. Card games and a giant Connect Four set can be found amongst the communal benches and high tables, while strings of white Christmas lights hang from the ceiling.

"It can be crowded in there, but the whole space is cozy," Horrigan said. "We have been able to pack an amazing amount of stuff into a small space.”

Horrigan said all brewing and canning is done right at the brewery in Stamford.

While Half Full's Bright Ale and a few other brews can be found in stores, the tasting room features selections that can only be found at the facility, such as the Toasted Amber. Their brews can also be found on draft in a number of bars and restaurants.

“We’re in yacht clubs, country clubs, hotel bars," Horrigan said. "We think it’s important to have our beer in the super craft beer places, as well as the local burger bar, pizza joint, Irish bar; we don’t feel entitled to anything. We want everyone to enjoy Half Full as an experience, and we never planned on being a brewery that only a select few can drink.”

Together We Can

“One of the things we’ve really been focused on is that Half Full was never about just beer," Horrigan said. "Beer was the central focus, but how can we use beer for the better?"

The Half Full team found that answer through an initiative they started called Together We Can, a volunteering mission with a name that is both a pun on canning beer as well as a philosophy on the changes we can make working together.

"Basically once a month we pop up at events and volunteer for the whole day," Horrigan said. "We’ve done everything from a beach cleanup to even a dog adoption day.”

Horrigan said these events typically end with all involved coming back to the brewery for a free beer. The idea stems back to that itch he had when he was starting out, to create a business that strives to be different and act as a force for good.

Horrigan also promises big things on the horizon for Half Full, as he is currently working on what he describes as "big “Willy Wonka-esque stuff” that he is putting 75 percent of his time into.

While he was not able to provide any details this early, he did reveal this idea could be a whole new business of sorts and he is currently working to flesh it out.

Positivity In A Can

As he looks upon the brewing facility he has worked for more than seven years building up, Horrigan offers advice to those who may be weary about following their passions as confidently as he did.

“The things that you want to happen, you need to speak about them like they have already happened," Horrigan said. "You speak with that assumption and you almost will it to happen. Instead of saying you have an idea for a brewery, it’s better to say 'I'm starting a brewery, it’s going to be exciting' and they can invest and come along on this ride with you."

When asked if he ever thought he was in over his head when he was starting out on the road to Half Full, Horrigan said he was so blinded by excitement that the thought of possible failure never fully sunk in.

“It never really occurred to me that all this couldn’t happen," Horrigan said, gesturing towards the facility. "Half Full is a huge extension of my personality, which is basically believing things can work out. Every small business is super tough to run, but you just have to keep moving forward. Whenever I face headwind in anything, I just keep more busy.”

Horrigan also finds that surrounding yourself with positivity is key to doing what you want in life.

“There’s two types of people in this world," Horrigan said, "radiators and drains. The key in life is to keep yourself around radiators who can get you pumped up, and get rid of people who are drains. Find somebody who is a believer and talk with them. Somebody who can build you up is important because it’s so easy to get to discouraged by something.”

Acting as a radiator for his brewery, Horrigan is very optimistic about what the future holds for Half Full on a whole as he continues to forge ahead with his labor of love, conceived many years ago while having some beers with his buddies and looking for a way to benefit the world.

“I think the future of Half Full is doing more collaborative things," Horrigan said. "It’s making lots of different beers and constantly experimenting, and more events where people come to do something different and have fun with it.”

Find out more about Half Full at the brewery's website.

Images via Jordan Giles