It is human to rank. Whether it’s a debate about a player’s all-time credentials, where to purchase a home when that Powerball ticket finally comes good, or which celebrity hottie you’d punch that hall pass on, we enjoy the sport of organizing our interests. And it is no different with beer. As such, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time in the past few months researching and ranking every single brewery across the state.
These rankings — at least the ones I am releasing today — are objective, using data to organize each brewer’s place on the list. In the coming weeks I will be publishing rankings about specific beers in Connecticut, and in the future some subjective lists of my own, but for now we are beginning with the most basic of ranking —which brewery is the state’s most popular?
There is no public data on brewery sales, nor is there an objective way to poll this stuff. Everybody’s bias comes to play. Further, it’s unlikely that most people voting in an open poll will have visited every single brewery in the state, let alone spent significant time in each. In other words, for the initial ranking that I’m releasing, I’m trying to stick to the numbers as tightly as possible.
The numbers I’m utilizing are reviews from two beer rating sites — Beer Advocate and Untappd and the followers from three social media sites — Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. There are flaws in this. The number of reviews from Untapped dwarf those of Beer Advocate and are significantly larger than any of the social media sites I drew from. Twitter too was far less popular than both Facebook and Instagram. In fact, you can see the waxing and waning of Instagram and Twitter’s relevance in CT beer circles through the data. Older breweries tended to have solid followings on Twitter, but lagged on Instagram and vice versa. For example, two popular breweries — Fat Orange Cat (2016) and New Park Brewing (2017) — don’t even have active Twitter accounts.
With all of this said, I’m sticking to the idea that one vote is one vote, no matter the platform’s popularity. If an individual took the time to review a beer or like a brewery — it counts. Data was taken from the Beer Review sites in December 2018, while the data from the Social Media sites was pulled this month — January of 2019. No 2019 breweries were included. The rankings will be updated every six month. 2019 brewers will be included then.
The charts are as follow: Most Popular Overall and Most Popular By Class
CT Beer Rankings January 2019:
MOST POPULAR BREWERY OVERALL
| Brewery | Town | Est. | Total Reviews | Overall Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Two Roads Brewing Company | Stratford, CT | 2012 | 827361 | #1 |
| New England Brewing Co. | Woodbridge, CT | 2002 | 327204 | #2 |
| Stony Creek Brewing Company | Branford, CT | 2015 | 185058 | #3 |
| Kent Falls Brewing Company | Kent, CT | 2015 | 183062 | #4 |
| Black Hog Brewing Company | Oxford, CT | 2014 | 158049 | #5 |
| Thomas Hooker Brewing Company | Bloomfield, CT | 2006 | 156730 | #6 |
| Beer'd Brewing Company | Stonington, CT | 2012 | 140298 | #7 |
| Relic Brewing Company | Bloomfield, CT | 2012 | 139506 | #8 |
| Thimble Island Brewing Company | Branford, CT | 2010 | 103990 | #9 |
| OEC Brewing | Oxford, CT | 2014 | 96121 | #10 |
| Back East Brewing Company | South Windsor, CT | 2012 | 95992 | #11 |
| Fat Orange Cat Brewing Company | East Hampton, CT | 2016 | 85914 | #12 |
| Connecticut Valley Brewing Company | South Windsor, CT | 2016 | 82292 | #13 |
| City Steam | Hartford, CT | 1997 | 80659 | #14 |
| Counter Weight Brewing Company | Hamden CT | 2017 | 80294 | #15 |
| Firefly Hollow Brewing Co. | Bristol, CT | 2013 | 78736 | #16 |
| Fox Farm Brewery | Salem, CT | 2016 | 67243 | #17 |
| Half Full Brewery | Stamford, CT | 2012 | 66750 | #18 |
| Shebeen Brewing Company | Branford, CT | 2013 | 62752 | #19 |
| Outer Light Brewing Company | Groton, CT | 2015 | 62423 | #20 |
| New Park Brewing Company | West Hartford, CT | 2017 | 62337 | #21 |
| Broad Brook Brewing Company | East Windsor, CT | 2012 | 51894 | #22 |
| Willimantic Brewing Co. | Willimantic, CT | 2010 | 49928 | #23 |
| Hanging Hill Brewing Company | Hartford, CT | 2016 | 47989 | #24 |
| Kinsmen Brewing Company | Southington, CT | 2016 | 41198 | #25 |
| Stubborn Beauty Brewing Company | Middletown, CT | 2014 | 36212 | #26 |
| Bad SONS Beer Company | Derby, CT | 2017 | 34781 | #27 |
| Alavarium Beer Company | New Britain, CT | 2017 | 33527 | #28 |
| Olde Burnside Brewing Company | East Hartford, CT | 2000 | 32239 | #29 |
| Powder Hollow Brewery | Enfield, CT | 2014 | 31587 | #30 |
| Cold Creek Brewery | Ellington, CT | 2015 | 31057 | #31 |
| Cottrell Brewing Company | Pawcatuck, CT | 1997 | 30696 | #32 |
| Steady Habit Brewing Company | Haddam, CT | 2014 | 30567 | #33 |
| No Worries Brewing Company | Hamden, CT | 2016 | 26566 | #34 |
| Hog River Brewing Company | Hartford, CT | 2016 | 24913 | #35 |
| Armada Brewing Company | East Haven, CT | 2017 | 23567 | #36 |
| Five Churches Brewing | New Britain, CT | 2017 | 23551 | #37 |
| Veracious Brewing Company | Monroe, CT | 2015 | 20122 | #38 |
| Still Hill Brewery | Rocky Hill, CT | 2016 | 19425 | #39 |
| These Guys Brewing | Norwich, CT | 2015 | 18248 | #40 |
| DuVig Brewing Co. | Branford, CT | 2014 | 18187 | #41 |
| Overshores Brewing Company | East Haven, CT | 2015 | 16785 | #42 |
| Brewery Legitmus | New Hartford, CT | 2016 | 15716 | #43 |
| Labyrinth Brewing Company | Manchester, CT | 2018 | 15335 | #44 |
| Lasting Brass Brewery Company | Waterbury, CT | 2016 | 15238 | #45 |
| Lock City Brewing Co. | Stamford, CT | 2017 | 15,155 | #46 |
| 30 Mile Brewing Company | Old Saybrook, CT | 2015 | 15088 | #47 |
| Charter Oak Brewing Company | Danbury, CT | 2012 | 14761 | #48 |
| Witchdoctor Brewing Company | Southington, CT | 2016 | 14535 | #49 |
| Brass Works Brewing Company | Waterbury, CT | 2015 | 14251 | #50 |
| Nod Hill Brewery | Ridgefield, CT | 2017 | 14236 | #51 |
| Aspetuck Brew Lab | Bridgeport, CT | 2015 | 14204 | #52 |
| Tribus Beer Company | Milford, CT | 2018 | 13302 | #53 |
| Forest City Brewing | Middletown, CT | 2016 | 12689 | #54 |
| Epicure Brewing | Norwich, CT | 2017 | 11573 | #55 |
| Cambridge House | Granby, CT | 2011 | 11421 | #56 |
| Black Pond Brews | Danielson, CT | 2012 | 11352 | #57 |
| Front Porch Brewing | Wallingford, CT | 2014 | 10760 | #58 |
| Fairfield Craft Ales | Stratford, CT | 2016 | 9529 | #59 |
| Housatonic River Brewing | New Milford, CT | 2018 | 8097 | #60 |
| Broken Symmetry | Bethel, CT | 2018 | 7536 | #61 |
| Woodbury Brewing Company | Woodbury, CT | 2018 | 7301 | #62 |
| Parable Brewing Company | Manchester, CT | 2018 | 6,951 | #63 |
| Little House Brewing Company | Chester, CT | 2018 | 6,483 | #64 |
| Norbrook Farm Brewery | Colebrook, CT | 2018 | 6424 | #65 |
| Barley Head Brewery | Mystic, CT | 2017 | 6,386 | #66 |
| Noble Jay Brewing Company | Niantic, CT | 2018 | 5796 | #67 |
| East Rock Brewing Company | New Haven, CT | 2018 | 5741 | #68 |
| The Crossings Restaurant & Brew Pub | Putnam, CT | 2013 | 5188 | #69 |
| Bad Dream Brewing | New Milford, CT | 2018 | 4736 | #70 |
| Soundview Brewing Company | East Haven, CT (Beeracks) | 2017 | 4701 | #71 |
| Problem Solved | East Windsor, CT | 2018 | 4567 | #72 |
| Athletic Brewing | Stratford, CT | 2018 | 4301 | #73 |
| Cliffside Brewing Company | Wallingford, CT | 2017 | 4063 | #74 |
| Hoax | East Haven, CT (Beeracks) | 2017 | 3992 | #75 |
| Great Falls | Canaan, CT | 2018 | 3795 | #76 |
| 2nd Bridge Brewing Company | Manchester, CT | 2018 | 3748 | #77 |
| Hull's Brewing Company | East Haven, CT (Beeracks) | 2018 | 3525 | #78 |
| Milford Point Brewing | Milford, CT | 2018 | 3454 | #79 |
| Redding Beer Company | Redding, CT | 2017 | 2987 | #80 |
| Erector Brewing Collective | New Haven, CT | 2015 | 2733 | #81 |
| Iron Brewing Company | South Norwalk, CT | 2017 | 2564 | #82 |
| Niantic Public House | Niantic, CT | 2018 | 2234 | #83 |
| Breakaway Brew Haus | Bolton, CT | 2017 | 1698 | #84 |
| Metronome Brewing | East Haven, CT (Beeracks) | 2018 | 292 | #85 |
CT Beer Rankings January 2019:
MOST POPULAR BREWERY BY CLASS
| Phase 1: The Early Years | 1997-2011 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Reviews | Mean | Median | Ranking | |
| City Steam Brewery | Hartford, CT | 80,659 | 55677 | 55677 | #14 |
| Cottrell Brewing Company | Pawcatuck, CT | 30,696 | #24 | ||
| 2000 | |||||
| Olde Burnside Brewing Company | East Hartford, CT | 32,239 | 32,239 | 32,239 | #25 |
| 2002 | |||||
| New England Brewing Co. | Woodbridge, CT | 327,204 | 327,204 | 327,204 | #2 |
| 2006 | |||||
| Thomas Hooker Brewing Company | Bloomfield, CT | 156,730 | 156,730 | 156,730 | #5 |
| 2010 | |||||
| Willimantic Brewing Co. | Willimantic, CT | 49,928 | 49,928 | 49,928 | #26 |
| 2011 | |||||
| Cambridge House | Granby, CT | 11,421 | 11,421 | 11,421 | #55 |
Thomas Hooker and New England Brewing Company remain goliaths in the space and did quite well with that first mover advantage. NEBCO especially is in the running for best brewery in the state, not just in popularity, but in quality too. City Steam and Cottrell, two regional stalwarts, continue to march forward from this class. Neither are huge names in 2019, but maintain relevancy nonetheless…
| Phase 2: CT Breweries ASSEEMMBBLLEE | 2012-2014 | Median | Median | Overall Ranking | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | |||||
| Two Roads Brewing Company | Stratford, CT | 827361 | 161,323 | 95,992 | #1 |
| Beer'd Brewing Company | Stonington, CT | 140298 | #7 | ||
| Relic Brewing Company | Plainville, CT | 139506 | #8 | ||
| Thimble Island Brewing Company | Branford, CT | 103990 | #9 | ||
| Back East Brewing Company | Bloomfield, CT | 95992 | #11 | ||
| Half Full Brewery | Stamford, CT | 66750 | #18 | ||
| Broad Brook Brewing Company | East Windsor, CT | 51894 | #22 | ||
| Charter Oak Brewing Company | Danbury, CT | 14761 | #47 | ||
| Black Pond Brews | Danielson, CT | 11352 | #56 | ||
| 2013 | |||||
| Firefly Hollow Brewing Co. | Bristol, CT | 78736 | 48,892 | 62,752 | #16 |
| Shebeen Brewing Company | Wolcott, CT | 62752 | #19 | ||
| The Crossings Restaurant & Brew Pub | Putnam, CT | 5188 | #68 | ||
| 2014 | |||||
| Black Hog Brewing Company | Oxford, CT | 158049 | 54,498 | 30,567 | #5 |
| OEC Brewing | Oxford, CT | 96121 | #10 | ||
| Stubborn Beauty Brewing Company | Middletown, CT | 36212 | #26 | ||
| Powder Hollow Brewery | Enfield, CT | 31587 | #30 | ||
| Steady Habit Brewing Company | Haddam, CT | 30567 | #33 | ||
| DuVig Brewing Co. | Branford, CT | 18187 | #40 | ||
| Front Porch Brewing | Wallingford, CT | 10760 | #57 |
2012 is the breakout class for craft beer in Connecticut. Two Roads has 2.5X “Total Reviews” than NEBCO (2nd Overall), and 4X than everyone else in the top 10. It would be a massive undertaking for anyone to displace them at the top. Back East, Thimble Island, Beer’d, Relic, and Half Full are all very well distributed breweries throughout the state and have dedicated followings too. Dogs & Boats and Ice Cream Man are among the most iconic beers in Connecticut, with Thimble Island’s American Ale being a favorite “base beer” for many. Black Hog breaks the Top 5, with OEC continuing to be one of the state’s most critically acclaimed ventures…
| Phase 3: Expansion | 2015 & 2016 | Median | Median | Overall Ranking | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | |||||
| Stony Creek Brewing Company | Branford, CT | 185058 | 51,185 | 18248 | #3 |
| Kent Falls Brewing Company | Kent, CT | 183062 | #4 | ||
| Outer Light Brewing Company | Groton, CT | 62423 | #20 | ||
| Cold Creek Brewery | Ellington, CT | 31057 | #31 | ||
| Veracious Brewing Company | Monroe, CT | 20122 | #37 | ||
| These Guys Brewing | Norwich, CT | 18248 | #39 | ||
| Overshores Brewing Company | East Haven, CT | 16785 | #41 | ||
| 30 Mile Brewing Company | Old Saybrook, CT | 15088 | #46 | ||
| Brass Works Brewing Company | Waterbury, CT | 14251 | #49 | ||
| Aspetuck Brew Lab | Bridgeport, CT | 14204 | #51 | ||
| Erector Brewing Collective | New Haven, CT | 2733 | #80 | ||
| 2016 | |||||
| Fat Orange Cat Brewing Company | East Hampton, CT | 85914 | 35,634 | 24913 | #12 |
| Connecticut Valley Brewing Company | South Windsor, CT | 82292 | #13 | ||
| Fox Farm Brewery | Salem, CT | 67243 | #17 | ||
| Hanging Hill Brewing Company | Hartford, CT | 47989 | #24 | ||
| Kinsmen Brewing Company | Southington, CT | 41198 | #25 | ||
| No Worries Brewing Company | Hamden, CT | 26566 | #33 | ||
| Hog River Brewing Company | Hartford, CT | 24913 | #34 | ||
| Still Hill Brewery | Rocky Hill, CT | 19425 | #38 | ||
| Brewery Legitmus | New Hartford, CT | 15716 | #42 | ||
| Lasting Brass Brewery Company | Waterbury, CT | 15238 | #44 | ||
| Witchdoctor Brewing Company | Southington, CT | 14535 | #48 | ||
| Forest City Brewing | Middletown, CT | 12689 | #53 | ||
| Fairfield Craft Ales | Stratford, CT | 9529 | #58 |
2015 and 2016 nearly doubled the number of breweries in the state and introduced some of Connecticut’s most sought after beer. Kent Falls Brewing is fourth in our rankings, but has the chops to eventually move higher. Fat Orange Cat, Fox Farm, and Brewery Legitimus all have sterling reputations for cranking out magnificent beer too. Outer Light, Kinsmens, CT Valley, and Hanging Hill have also stamped their footprints on the state’s beer scene with committed followings. Lastly, Stony Creek — arguably Connecticut’s most controversial brewery. Clocking it at third, nobody ever said it wasn’t a pretty place to throw one back…
| Phase 4: Explosion | 2017 & 2018 | Median | Median | Overall Ranking | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | |||||
| Counter Weight Brewing Company | Hamden CT | 80294 | 20,338 | 12,904 | #15 |
| New Park Brewing Company | West Hartford, CT | 62337 | #21 | ||
| Bad SONS Beer Company | Derby, CT | 34781 | #27 | ||
| Alavarium Beer Company | New Britain, CT | 33527 | #28 | ||
| Armada Brewing Company | East Haven, CT | 23567 | #35 | ||
| Five Churches Brewing | New Britain, CT | 23551 | #36 | ||
| Lock City Brewing Co. | Stamford, CT | 15,155 | #45 | ||
| Nod Hill Brewery | Ridgefield, CT | 14236 | #50 | ||
| Epicure Brewing | Norwich, CT | 11573 | #54 | ||
| Barley Head Brewery | Mystic, CT | 6,386 | #65 | ||
| Soundview Brewing Company | East Haven, CT (Beeracks) | 4701 | #70 | ||
| Cliffside Brewing Company | Wallingford, CT | 4063 | #73 | ||
| Hoax | East Haven, CT (Beeracks) | 3992 | #74 | ||
| Redding Beer Company | Redding, CT | 2987 | #79 | ||
| Iron Brewing Company | South Norwalk, CT | 2564 | #81 | ||
| Breakaway Brew Haus | Bolton, CT | 1698 | #83 | ||
| 2018 | |||||
| Labyrinth Brewing Company | Manchester, CT | 15335 | 5980 | 5741 | #43 |
| Tribus Beer Company | Milford, CT | 13302 | #52 | ||
| Housatonic River Brewing | New Milford, CT | 8,097 | #59 | ||
| Broken Symmetry | Bethel, CT | 7,536 | #60 | ||
| Woodbury Brewing Company | Woodbury, CT | 7301 | #61 | ||
| Parable Brewing Company | Manchester, CT | 6,951 | #62 | ||
| Little House Brewing Company | Chester, CT | 6,483 | #63 | ||
| Norbrook Farm Brewery | Colebrook, CT | 6,424 | #64 | ||
| Noble Jay Brewing Company | Niantic, CT | 5796 | #66 | ||
| East Rock Brewing Company | New Haven, CT | 5,741 | #67 | ||
| Bad Dream Brewing | New Milford, CT | 4,736 | #69 | ||
| Problem Solved | East Windsor, CT | 4567 | #71 | ||
| Athletic Brewing | Stratford, CT | 4301 | #72 | ||
| Great Falls | Canaan, CT | 3795 | #75 | ||
| 2nd Bridge Brewing Company | Manchester, CT | 3748 | #76 | ||
| Hull's Brewing Company | East Haven, CT (Beeracks) | 3525 | #77 | ||
| Milford Point Brewing | Milford, CT | 3454 | #78 | ||
| Niantic Public House | Niantic, CT | 2234 | #82 | ||
| Metronome Brewing | East Haven, CT | 292 | #84 |
Over one third of the breweries that exist in Connecticut today, opened within the last two years. I titled this phase explosion for good reason. Counterweight is the biggest name in the lot, but don’t count out New Park, who sits quietly just outside the top twenty. Both breweries have made a legitimate impact in less than two years of operation. New Britain got two excellent breweries in this era in Alvarium and Five Churches, with Armada and BAD SONS establishing themselves too. There was a boom in Fairfield County as well, with eleven of the thirty-three breweries in this class hailing from that region. Tribus and Labyrinth are crushing it in their first years of existence, with smaller shops such as Little House and Bad Dream already producing wonderful beer…
Post Script
I have 85 breweries on this list, but I’m quite positive that I’ve missed some. If so, reach out and I’ll place them in the rankings. Further, I’ve probably screwed up placing some breweries in the wrong class. I did my best, but correct me if I’m wrong — I want to be as accurate as possible in all of this.
What does everyone think? Which rankings were you surprised at? Which brewery is ranked criminally low or maybe way too high? Reach out in the comments below! Would love to hear CT’s thoughts and feedback.
Can’t wait to see how these change going forward! More rankings to come…
I really appreciate the time and energy that went into this objective ranking of popularity. It has very interesting results. It might be interesting to add data from ratebeer.com, google reviews, and even yelp. Also, Willibrew was founded in 1997 not 2010. Thanks again for this great post!