DERBY, CONNECTICUT
Residing at an old red brick warehouse in the Lower Naugatuck River Valley, BAD SONS BEER CO. opened in the summer of ’17. Taking its independent spirited ‘true grit’ motto as its commanding slogan, Bad Sons specializes in varied India Pale Ales but aren’t afraid to dabble in lagers, porters, etcetera.
A green-framed wood door with yellow greened hop design welcomes visitors to the raw, pipe exposed, high ceilinged industrial pub. The red brick-walled floor-to-ceiling windows and die-cast iron wheel ornament contribute to Bad Sons’ archaic rusticity.
A dozen cool ghoulish hop-handled draught taps, sidled TV’s and brewery stickers crowd the 30-seat bar. Wood-metal chaired tables fill out the cement-floored front end while brew tanks are staged in the rear where a black and white Bad Sons insignia lines a side wall . A small kitchen serves fine pizza. A green aluminum-sided picnic area with blue-chaired firepit and benches offers further seating.
At noon in early March ’23, I grabbed a seat at the wraparound wood top bar with decorative bolted Edison light panels to down a few suds.
A lemony Chardonnay effervescence gave Light Rider Lager its spritzy phenolic entry as Noble-hopped herbage, pale malt pasting and delicate spiciness emerged.
Dry pinkish amber blueberry gose, Violet’s Demise, caressed its candied blueberry tartness with salty lemon-soured pomegranate bittering.
Lemony passionfruit, pineapple and guava tartness and mild blood orange tanginess imbued Spring Trainer Fruited IPA, a mild springtime potion.
“Crushable” East Coast-styled Roller Coaster IPA let crayon-waxed lemony orange peel zesting pick up moderated floral herbage and slim pine tones in a grassy Comet-Galaxy hop whirlpool.
Sticky cannabis resin snuck into the perfumed pineapple, orange and grapefruit tang of Hypnotic Dank IPA, retaining a mild dry hop bittering.
Intensely Citra/Mosaic hop-forward NEIPA, Doobious, stayed juicy as lemon zesting perked up pineapple, orange, tangerine, clementine and cherry fruitiness over dry pale malts.
English dark malts and earthen hops frontloaded Bad Billy Brown Ale, scurrying nut-roasted burnt caramel treacle.
Mild coffee-roasted dark chocolate consumed Storm Born Baltic Porter, leaving molasses and toffee sweetness to defend the astringent hop phenols grazing its ice cold lagering.