Editors’ Note: This week, CT Mirror is publishing our Best of 2024 series. This story, originally published on Aug. 16, 2024, was chosen because it is part of our “Crossing Connecticut” series. We experimented with venturing slightly beyond our public policy focus in 2023, publishing stories that capture different vignettes of life in Connecticut. Based on positive reader feedback to the first “Crossing Connecticut” stories last year, we doubled down on this concept in 2024, with everyone from our managing editor to our interns getting in on the feature fun.
This story is about how breweries have adapted after COVID in Connecticut.
Across Connecticut, visiting breweries and taprooms to taste a variety of local beers has become an increasingly popular pastime.
Since 2011, the number of operating craft breweries in the state increased nearly eight-fold, from 16 to 125. But since the pandemic, growth in the industry is slowing, and in some places — like Connecticut — there are signs of a decline.
“We’ve been here almost nine years, survived through the ups and downs of the pandemic and the mandates put on us by the state, which were highly restrictive, and we’ve been battling to come back ever since then,” Peter Cowles, founder of Aspetuck Brew Lab in Bridgeport, told The Connecticut Mirror.
Besides the obvious social distancing mandates during COVID-19, breweries like Cowles’ had to deal with other state requirements that hindered brewery business opportunities, many of which they are still feeling.
All Connecticut breweries, according to Cowles, could not operate once they were allowed to reopen in July 2020 unless they also provided food to customers. They had to operate at 50% capacity and were only able to be open during certain times of the day.
“That changed consumer behavior considerably. And that’s really held over through today,” he said.
The industry faced other challenges outside the tap room and its restrictions: licensing difficulties, permit revisions and distribution struggles also stood in the way of breweries’ success.
Armada Brewing in New Haven functioned solely as a maker and distributor of its own craft beer prior to the pandemic, according to founder John Kraszewski.
Armada was originally founded in 2017 after Kraszewski, who lived in Chicago at the time, came back to his home state of Connecticut. He saw that there were only a handful of breweries in the state, whereas Chicago had breweries “all over the place.”
Kraszewski made his own beers and sold them to restaurants and stores.
Armada ended up winning the Startup Brewery Challenge in 2017.
“I didn’t want to just make a beer called ‘Armada IPA’, ‘Armada lager.’ I wanted to create a storyline behind the beers, like a video game or a role playing game. We developed these characters, locations and places, items, and it’s up to the customer [to] try and create a story in their head.”
Armada took off, distributing products all across the state.
Then COVID hit.
“When the pandemic happened, we lost all of our draft sales, everything we had worked for to get product in the kegs, at all these restaurants and bars, it just went out the window,” he said.
Armada had to adapt, so Kraszweski decided they needed to open up a taproom to come back stronger once the pandemic eased. The process was no easy feat and only made surviving the economic pitfalls of the pandemic more difficult.
“We went through the process to get our licensing, our permits and everything,” he said. “And that took forever. That was probably our biggest delay and our biggest money loss.”
Now, according to Kraszweski, most of Armada’s revenue comes from its taproom, where they’ve “totally adapted.” They showcase their different brews, host events, bring in food trucks and rent out their spaces for private parties.
While they still distribute some of their most popular beers to stores and restaurants, they try to keep the selection on the market “minimal.”
“If you’ve ever been to an M&M store, well, when you go to a regular Stop & Shop, you can get your peanut M&Ms and your regular M&Ms. But when you go to the cool M&M factory, you get all these different flavors and colors and options of M&Ms to choose from. So that’s my best example of what the taproom experience can give to the customer.”
Credit: Tabius McCoy / CT Mirror
Beer sales are still down nationally since before the pandemic, around 5% in 2023, according to the Brewers Association.
On top of that, more breweries have popped up throughout the state in recent years, so cultivating a loyal customer base to visit their taprooms has been crucial for Cowles and Kraszweski, especially when the beverage landscape continues to change.
“We’ve got a younger generation that isn’t drinking beer or is not drinking at all, and the market is flooded with ready-to-drink cocktails and seltzers. So that’s been the shiny new toy in the marketplace,” Cowles explained. “It’s crowding shelf space and giving consumers more choice, which is great if you’re a consumer, but it’s almost overload … Information overload, product overload.”
Cowles said that despite the “seltzer craze,” Aspetuck is going to stick to what it does best: beer.
Although breweries around the state continue to close, including a 4% decrease in the last year alone, Kraszweski said that Armada is going to continue to adapt.
“You just stay true and stay fast. Just keep going forward and make a product you’re proud of.”