Bike and Brew: Barley Head Brewery

I knew I was taking a few risks with this particular Bike and Brew.

The main concern was that my back tire had been having persistent flats, with each repair revealing a new puncture in the tube. There were three patches on it for this particular journey, but the tire had held air for a few days before I set out. Nevertheless, I was crossing my fingers that I wouldn't find myself marooned far from home in a touristy town that somehow doesn't have a bike shop.

I was also taking a new route into Mystic, and realized that Google Maps could potentially be sending me on an inaccessible route. The app's warning that bike routes are still in beta did little to assuage my worries. But more on that later.

My destination was the Barley Head Brewery, and once again that meant a trip across the horrid Gold Star Bridge. But instead of retracing the recommended route I took to get to Beer'd Brewing Company, I opted to do a bit more of a coastal route. So I've been over the bridge plenty of times, but this might be the first time I rode under it as well.

The bridge has a narrow bike route, but the token friendliness to cyclists ends pretty quickly. The sidewalk brings you to a neighborhood near Outer Light Brewing Company and rather unceremoniously dumps you into an off-ramp from I-95.

The streets are a little kinder after that point, at least until you get to Route 1. There's an option to avoid this road, by taking a longer route that swings past the Groton-New London Airport, but I decided to grit my teeth and hope for the best.

Route 1 has a ridiculously narrow shoulder, at least two lanes of traffic at any time, and far too many curb cuts for smoke shops and shopping plazas and all manner of consumerism. In short, plenty of opportunities to get sideswiped by an inattentive driver or cut off by a some jerk pulling halfway into the road before even looking while leaving McDonald's. It's not a nice road at all for bikers, but thankfully I managed to get to the quieter end of it unharmed.

One odd direction given to bicyclists heading south in this area is to take the Poquonnock Bridge boardwalk. I'm guessing there's been at least one hapless rider who has done so and been chewed out by some angry person who tells them it's a boardwalk, not a boardride.

I was not to be that rider. In fact, I was the only person on this rather lovely route. I slowed down to enjoy the views of the Poquonnock River and the odd rumble of my tires rolling over the boards.

After leaving the boardwalk, one option involved taking the G&S Trolley Trail toward my destination. This is a short rail trail, following a former Groton to Stonington trolley line and ending up near Haley Farm State Park. Instead, I continued to follow the outlined route to Bluff Point State Park.

Bluff Point is an absolutely beautiful state park. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection describes it as "the last remaining significant piece of undeveloped land along the Connecticut coastline." I guess that means the state has at least some insignificant undeveloped lands on the shore.

Coastal real estate has always been in high demand in Connecticut, and Bluff Point wasn't always undeveloped. There was a collection of shorefront cottages there until the Hurricane of 1938 obliterated them, and the peninsula was eventually given over to conservation. Bluff Point is nestled in between two other promontories: Groton Long Point, where million dollar houses are crammed together like sardines, and Mumford Cove, which I'll get to shortly.

It seems like there's always a pretty good crowd at Bluff Point. The state park has good boat access for canoes and kayaks, is popular with mountain bikers, and is a vigorous but not overwhelming walk to the namesake cliffs and a sweeping of Long Island Sound.

This is another place where the Google Maps instructions got a little wonky. Instead of sticking to the roads, it sent me along the unimproved trail that runs along the railroad track and connects Bluff Point with Haley Farm State Park. It was manageable for most of the way, but it does get a little rough. Once it hit a particularly rocky section, I decided it was better to walk the bike to avoid chancing yet another puncture.

And then it came time to see whether the first risk was going to pay off.

Hey, it did!

That's the newly installed security measure at Mumford Cove to separate the subdivision from us dirty plebs who want to quietly walk, run, or bike there. Granted, it's a private neighborhood, and they apparently had to scold people every now and then for parking at the cul-de-sac near this area to access the state parks. Some of the comments on this critical editorial suggest that the barrier was mainly an effort to deter the gangs of idiots who recklessly ride dirt bikes and ATVs. Not that there's anything to stop said idiot gangs from coming into Mumford Cove from its main road, easily bypassing this monstrosity of "No Trespassing" signs and warnings about security cameras.

Thankfully, I'd recently learned that some people in Mumford Cove are just as likely to be opposed to the gate. One even posted the passcode on a Facebook page for Haley Farm State Park, and some residents leave the gate open whenever they walk out to the trails.

The exit from Mumford Cove passes the road into Groton Long Point and crosses an inlet near Esker Point Beach, offering a nice view from a small bridge. From there, it was just a short ride to my first destination: the village of Noank.

Groton is sometimes criticized for its bureaucracy. The city is carved up into a number of distinct communities, some with their own governments and police departments. Noank occupies yet another Groton peninsula, although its services are all part of Groton proper. The area has a rich maritime history, having hosted shipbuilding enterprises and fishermen on the hunt for the village's namesake oyster. It's still a popular place for boaters, with plenty of marinas on the coast.

Today, Noank is a pleasant seaside retreat. It's not as well-known as Mystic, but the village has plenty of historic churches, a few shops, and some popular lobster shacks.

If you head down to the beach off Main Street, you'll spot this modest marker on a former store maintained by the Noank Historical Society. This commemorates the quick, secret wedding ceremony that married famous aviatrix Amelia Earhart to the publisher George P. Putnam. The marker is correct in that they got married in Noank, although not in this exact spot; the ceremony actually took place in Putnam's mother's house, which still stands as a private residence.

And then on into the soft underbelly of Mystic via Route 215, a different approach from what I took during the swing through the town on the way to the Beer'd Brewing Company. Although located a bit outside the main downtown area, the southern part of Mystic is packed with several popular restaurants. Barley Head Brewery is located here as well. But before I stopped in there, I locked up my bike and wandered off to visit the Mystic Sidewalk Art Festival.

The festival is billed as the "oldest of its kind in the Northeast," celebrating 70 years in 2017. Artists reserve booths throughout Mystic, offering paintings, sculptures, artisan's goods, and so on. Main Street gets a little crowded, since vendors are limited to the sidewalks, but a few side roads are completely shut off from traffic.

I'd been meaning to get to the Sidewalk Art Festival for several years, but for one reason or another hadn't been able to do so. I was happy to see that Carrie Jacobson was still coming to this event each year. We were co-workers at the hyperlocal news site Patch, back before it was bought out by one of those "efficiency expert" type of firms whose efficiency expertise boils down to, "Duh, people cost money, let's fire people and save money." Carrie is now a full-time artist, and you can follow her artwork, travels, and dog sightings at her blog "The Accidental Artist."

Before getting to the brewery, I wound up browsing the works of several artists, buying an amusing collection of watercolor Star Wars themed comics from Rhode Island artist Greg Stones and a copy of a Mystic postcard pictorial history co-authored by a friend of mine, and getting some lunch. The Barley Head Brewery wasn't too hard to find, although it was a bit tucked away. You access it by going down a short set of stairs off Water Street, making it seem like a bit of a Cheers-like venue.

The Barley Head Brewery had to get past a few hurdles before it opened up. The owner, Drew Rodgers, tried to open a brewery in Mystic way back in 2015 but was rejected by zoning officials. He also found that his preferred name had a copyright on it, and had to push back the opening day a little further due to the birth of his son.

The venue still seemed a little sparse, although there was comfortable bench seating along one wall. And my past experience with a hangout spot opening with accommodations that were a little sparse was Washington Street Coffee House, which debuted when its tables still smelled like sawdust but has become one of the most popular places in New London, so a modest start isn't really a disadvantage.

Although there are flights available, the brewery was unfortunately down to only one option for pours. I went with it, making my first introduction to Barley Head Brewery their "Saison Du Maison." It's a combination saison and IPA, and it manages to balance the two styles fairly well.

My bike was parked not too far away, and I was happy to find that the back tire still seemed firm. I then headed out for the return journey.

I headed out on Route 1, intending to eventually take a side road to link up with Route 184 and hop back on the Gold Star Bridge. I was soon defeated by this rather persistent hill, having to get off and walk for awhile.

But even after the road flattened out, the journey seemed a little more taxing than expected. I initially chalked it up to the effect of having a beer and meal before this ride, but eventually began to suspect the bike. By the time I got back onto the Gold Star Bridge, I was feeling the bumps in the road far more than I should have. I still managed to complete the journey home, at which point I checked to see just how much air the tire had lost.

Oh that's not good.

Yeah, that's not good at all.

I scheduled a trip to Wayfarer Bicycle, one of New London's bike shops, not too long after this. They informed me that three pieces of glass had managed to worm their way inside the tire at some point, and these were no doubt to blame for the recurring flats. They set me up with a new tube as well as a portable pump for emergencies, so hopefully I won't run into any problems on my next Bike and Brew.

Mileage total: 22.8 miles

Previous Bike and Brew outings:
Outer Light Brewing Company
Beer'd Brewing Company
Fox Farm Brewery
Shelter Island Craft Brewery and Greenport Harbor Brewing Company