Octoberfest in Style in Hartford
Everyone associates October with Halloween, scary movie marathons on AMC, and hordes of tiny goblins and ghouls shaking down the locals for candy.
But if you’re an aficionado of fermented barley and hops you probably think more along the lines of Oktoberfest and beer…or maybe bier.
Well, then it’s a good thing you live at Park Place Towers because you can find 20 awesome breweries in and around Hartford, and none of them is named Budweiser, Miller, or Coors.
History of suds
Brewing beer is nothing new to New England. It came over with the settlers from the Old World. This was particularly pumped up in the mid-1800s as a new wave of German settlers came to America, many settling in Connecticut. At the turn of the 20th century, Connecticut was home to 12 breweries.
Fast forward to today, and, whoa, things got much hoppier. According to the Connecticut Craft Beer Guild, there are now 120 operational breweries in Connecticut. The goal of the Guild is to promote these local Connecticut breweries.
The coolest thing about the Guild (beyond supporting all these local breweries) is a feature it has put together known as the CT Beer Trail. When you visit one of the breweries on the Trail, you get your “passport” stamped. That marks the beginning of your “year.” You then have one year from that first “check-in” to collect as many stamps as possible, which of course means drinking as many tasty local microbrews as possible! From there, you can cash in your points whenever you’d like.
The Guild says its prizes are “pretty dope,” ranging from hats, badge sticker packs, bottle oeners, branded coolers, t-shirts, limited edition posters, and a raffle for a craft beer dinner!
Here’s the link to the Connecticut Craft Beer Guild’s Connecticut Beer Trail page. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you’ll see a cool interactive map with every brewery on the Trail. The Craft Beer Guild has even created a Beer Trail app on both iOS and Android!
As for nearby breweries to Park Place Towers, the closest is surely Hog River Brewing, just to the west of I-84 on Park Street. It’s about a 10-minute walk, and most of it borders Pope Park to the south. Talk about a great little stroll.
To find all 20 of the local breweries, simply type into Google “Breweries in Hartford, CT,” and you will see them on Google Maps in all of their glory. Then you can plot how you can start with these 20 for your CT Beer Trail itinerary.
OK, so you already knew Park Place Towers was THE place to live in Hartford. Now you also know that you won’t have any trouble finding nearby local breweries to keep you from going thirsty! If you have any questions about Park Place or leasing or anything else, please call us at (860) 951-3400.
