I've made some pretty lengthy trips on these Bike and Brew outings. By my count they've taken me to breweries in half a dozen Connecticut towns so far, plus a few others in two different states. Sometimes that requires a ride that takes the better part of the day. In this latest trip, I made the grueling, arduous journey to a destination...a little more than a mile from my home.
Creature Brewing Company has been part of the New London community for just over a year now. They took over the former location of Tox Brewing Company, which has moved to a larger space downtown. When I previously covered Tox at this location, I opted to bulk up this route a bit by following a route along several coastal roads in New London and Waterford; this time around, I just decided to do a quick there-and-back-again jaunt.
The big change this time around: going tubeless! For some reason Connecticut roads seem predisposed to dealing out flat tires, and I've had to put on patches or swap out tubes thanks to everything from nails to sharp bits of gravel. My local bike shop, Wayfarer Bicycle, completed a conversion which will hopefully allow me to enjoy more time riding and less time attempting repairs.
The route from my home to Creature Brewing Company is, well, not exactly scenic. It's your standard neighborhood houses and a commercial strip. Then you reach this place where the road splits off right at the intersection of another road and the entryway to a shopping plaza. No one ever has any idea who the hell has the right of way here, but at least there are plans to replace it with a rotary.
And then I'm there!
Creature Brewing Company has a familiar background story -- a couple of home brewers who got interested in pursuing the craft as a business -- although they started out by running a home brew supply shop in downtown New London. They were also interested in selling their own brand of beer, though, and they couldn't pass up the opportunity to move into a turn-key brewing space in the former Tox space once that brewery moved into its new digs.
New brewery openings are getting rather rare in Connecticut, following an explosion of them in the 2010s. At its height, more than 100 unique breweries were in operation across the state. That number has started to taper off, with the closings at first mostly affecting some legacy brands that failed to adapt, a few hyper-specialized places that focused on individual types of beer, and the venues that failed to impress with their offerings.
More recently, unfortunately, we've seen shutdowns affecting a wider swath of craft breweries, seemingly a result of several factors including the higher costs of doing business, tighter household budgets, and younger populations showing less interest in alcohol. Of the 17 places I've previously been as part of this venture, five have closed: Cottrell Brewing Company, Noble Jay Brewing Company, Epicure Brewing, Barley Head Brewery, and Bank & Bridge Brewing (it also seems that Mohegan Cafe and Brewery on Block Island has downplayed any beermaking it still does, as it's now known as the Mohegan Restaurant and Bar).
That means that Creature is coming into a tougher market, but they've managed to hold on and there seems to be a growing awareness of them. It helps that the beers they have on tap really are quite good.
This wasn't my first time stopping at Creature, and I've found their beers to be consistently well-balanced, crisp, and delicious. They maintain a fairly tight menu of brews that work rather than experimenting with a variety of flavors, and the results are terrific. I opted to try out the Wraith, an American pale ale, and the Red Dwarf Crimson Ale, a red. I was particularly impressed by the latter.
The brewery has some quiet neighbors, as it's located just across the street from Cedar Grove Cemetery. Dating back to 1851, it's a peaceful, site that has preserved a lot of the forest and natural features nearby, making it a nice oasis in the city. So I suppose there's at least one scenic sight along this route.
The short ride back home is less bucolic. The most direct route takes me through the intersection of Broad Street and Colman Street, which has been nicknamed as "Car Dealership Corner" because it's home to every single dealership in the city. Well, some of them spill farther up Broad Street. Altogether there's something like nine of them, ranging from Ford to Lotus.
One last stop before wrapping up: this cute little community garden. It's maintained by FRESH New London, which helps encourage healthy eating and has set up a variety of gardens throughout the city, giving people a chance to rent beds and grow their own food and establishing "snack gardens" for people to grab some vegetables as they pass.
And so concludes the most unremarkable Bike and Brew distance-wise, but one that I hope brings some much deserved attention to Creature.
Total mileage: 2.6 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
- Barley Head Brewery
- These Guys Brewing Company and Epicure Brewing
- Mohegan Cafe and Brewery
- Noble Jay Brewing Company
- Tox Brewing Company
- Niantic Public House and Brewery Grey Sail Brewing and Cottrell Brewing Company
- Beer'd Brewing Company - The Silo
- Shunock River Brewing Company and Bank & Bridge Brewing
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment