MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT

In the same random red brick Industrial complex as Stubborn Beauty, Middletown’s FOREST CITY BREWING began operations in springtime 2016. A white cement-walled, gray epoxy-floored nanobrewery with a large windowed frontage, Forest City’s raw warehouse space features a small serving station with silver brew tanks and beer list, five round barreled tables and one back-walled TV.

Crafting mostly one-off elixirs, entrepreneurial brewmaster Chris Coughlin developed a love for brewing during his tenure at Northeastern University. My wife and I try six fine offerings on our one-hour September ’19 stopover.

Mild pale-yellowed Daybreak Pilsner linked light maize musk and dried oats to herbal-citric Saaz hop pleasantry.

Dewy autumnal foliage propelled Forest fest Oktoberfest Lager, leaving sweet amber-grained malt residue upon daintily spiced red, orange and yellow fruiting.

A lemony sour streak struck the subtle banana-clove sweetness of stylishly expansive Bavarian Breakfast Hefeweizen, a hybridized moderation given herbal ginger licks and earthen melon rind snips.

Arguably the best bet: resilient Galaxy-hopped Stargazer IPA attached tangy citrus spicing to dank wood, dewy moss, fennel and onion tones above sugary caramel malting.

Dry champagne-sparkled moderate-medium body, Champ Brut IPA, provided lightly vinous green grape esters and lemony grapefruit bittering to its relegated pale malting.

Fudgy chocolate sweetness contrasted leftover coffee souring for Brown Cow Chocolate Milk Stout, leaving dewy composted soil and maple molasses oats in its wake.