Just got home from an outing to Connecticut to visit OEC Brewing, a small craft brewery specializing in sour beers. They also have a tiny bakery where they bake breads using wild yeast, various ancient grains and byproducts from their brewing.
In addition to their own products, they also have a handful of “guest” beers on tap available for tasting. We did a flight of their house brews, which was quite reasonably priced IMO (six 4oz. pours for around $15), then tried a couple of their other beers that weren’t available in the tasting size (both $5 for 8 oz) and a sample of mead from a guest brewery. All of their beers are sour, which was right up my alley - the only one I didn’t care for was a dry-hopped saison that tasted a bit too much like an IPA for my taste. Unfortunately, my favorite one was nearly sold out for the season - they tapped their last keg of it today, and there were no bottles to bring home!
The breads were quite rustic, with thick, crisp crusts. My favorite was an earthy loaf made with one of their sour ales, which had quite a tang. We ordered a bread/cheese/meat platter which included one slice of each of three breads, some delicious cultured butter, about an ounce of cheese and maybe a half ounce of coppa - all good, but VERY small portions even for the seemingly reasonable $7.50 price tag.
Anyway, the weather was terrible today so we sat inside, where they have a bunch of long communal tables where they encourage you to hang out and play cards or board games. They also have an outdoor seating area that looked nice, as well as some outdoor games (cornhole, bocce). It’s a bit of a haul for us and in the middle of nowhere, but well worth the drive if you like sour beers!
