HADDAM, CONNECTICUT
Another superfine warehouse-styled brewery popped up in the Nutmeg State during January, 2015. Within six weeks upon my visit, the raging nano STEADY HABIT BREWING was really going strong with its diminutive four 2.5 barrel fermenters already kicking out ten different (mostly pale ale styled) elixirs.
Head brewer Jonathan Peterson began as an apprentice home brewer and serves as beer manager for Tony’s Package Store, the awesome generically-named beer and wine haven fronting Steady Habit’s spare cement-floored backspace (where the only current paraphernalia is the cool limited edition beer bottles on three plain wood shelves near the tap station).
“Steady Habit’s an homage to beer history, built on the principals of wise decisions and good values,” Peterson claims. “And our (flagship) India Pale Ale, Our Daily Bread, honors the discovery of beer as a natural beverage – fermented bread.”
Tropical grapefruit-peeled orange rind, pineapple, mango, guava and passionfruit illusions surround the sedately bark-dried pine needling of the majestic Daily Bread. And its crisply well-watered minerality provides a clean bed.
Besides the brisk juicy-fruited IPA, robust In Robust We Trust Porter plied dark-roasted chocolate and caramel malting to bitter tar-like hop char. Prevalent black chocolate, dark cocoa and roasted coffee overtones as well as subsidiary tobacco chaw, Brazil nut and licorice illusions rise above the delicate oats-flaked bottom. Specialty German malts get utilized well.
It’ll be fun to see how quickly this place grows. There’s already a steady stream of locals and travelers sojourning to Steady Habit. Cheers!