Thomas Hooker Brewery

Do you ever feel like you’ve seen everything your area has to offer? I have (wrongfully) felt that way a few times while living in Connecticut and each time mom comes to town, she’s got a new place to visit. She always seems to find the hidden gems that locals tend to overlook. Enter Thomas Hooker Brewery. This spot has been on our list to hit for a little while now and despite what you may think checking out all of my mixed drinks for happy hour each week, beer is pretty much my drink of choice.

Obviously my sister was a little bored at the brewery which resulted in about 100 selfies on my phone.

The Thomas Hooker Brewery is a micro brewery located just outside of Hartford in Bloomfield, CT. The weekends are busy for Hooker Brewery with Friday Open House on the 1^st and 3^rd Friday of every month and Saturday Tours and Tastings. We stopped in Saturday afternoon and $5 (yup, just 5 bucks) got us a tour and 10 tastings, which is enough to try every one of their 8 selections + the seasonal selection.  The best part? The amount of people hanging out for the afternoon –and for good reason. Thomas Hooker has 2 different bars, one located in the actual brewery, the other in a more relaxed lounge equipped with plenty of space to sit and even an Xbox Kinect where I tried my luck at virtual tennis. 

My intentions were to taste each beer down the line but once I tried the Munich Golden Lager, I’ll admit it was hard to keep going. That is until I had a taste of the seasonal offering which is a collaboration between Thomas Hooker and another Connecticut favorite, Munson’s Chocolates. The Chocolate Truffle Stout was a perfect end to our tasting and a nice spin on the traditional Valentine’s Day treat. I know RP would take the Chocolate Truffle Stout over a box of chocolates any day.

We will definitely be hitting Thomas Hooker Brewery again because Friday Open House also looks like a great time where a whopping $10 will buy your drinks, a guided tour and a pint glass! A portion of that is donated to The Village for Families and Children (as if happy hour didn’t make you feel good enough already).