On the Friday of my birthday weekend I hopped a train out of Grand Central & headed up to Hartford, CT to meet up with my friends for CT microbrewery Thomas Hooker’s Friday night Open House! They do this the first and third Fridays of every month, and it’s a super fun event… I was really impressed that they were willing to open their doors up to 200 of us for some delish beer sampling!
They have some seriously great taglines...
Oh, and there was turkey bowling.
Yup.
My friend Clark was helping to run this little side show that particular Friday night to raise money for The Village for Family and Children, and given the fact that he’s a big bowler, I’m pretty sure the whole thing was his idea. Out behind the brewery, up against the loading dock, they had laid down a big ‘ol tarp and set up bowling pins in front of the loading dock. Your mission, should you choose to accept it (& fork over the $5 entrance fee), was to sling a 14 pound frozen turkey at the pins to knock ‘em down.
I dutifully paid my $5 & then spent 4 rounds watching the ‘competition’.
C’mon guys, really? That’s all ya got?
I will say that the gals definitely did have a bit of a tough go of it, what with the weight of the turkey and all… so I was pretty nervous when I got up there. (I should also mention that Clark is my ex, & so I had a little added incentive for wanting to make a good showing… especially knowing his own bowling prowess!)
My friend Matt ‘bowled’ a 15. The highest score when I got up to ‘bat’ was 26.
I got a 21!!! 
By the end of the night I was tied for 1st place among the gals. By all accounts, a rousing success!
Check ME out!
It's all about getting good momentum on the bird...
Heave ho.... & cross your fingers!
See the pins??? They're all down!!!
Ok, now on to the beer…
When you got to the brewery you paid $10 & were given a plastic cup that you could refill to your heart’s content at the two filling stations set up on opposite sides of the room. Then, at the end of the night you got to trade in your little plastic cup for an actual Thomas Hooker pint glass… not a shabby deal for $10! So, here are the 5 beers they were offering!
Irish Red Ale – great color but I swear, this reminded me at first sip of candy corn! As I sampled on, I began to think it might be a malty, nutmeg quality that I was noticing… but still, candy corn beer in the fall? Not bad!
Blonde Ale – this was a nice light ale with a somewhat starchy/wheaty taste to it. I think I’m coming around to this particular taste in beers (definitely didn’t like it before), even though it does have a tendency to make the back of my throat tingle & go a little numb… weird!
Munich Golden Lager – this was even more bread-like & maybe almost a little maple-syrupy?
IPA – this was very nice & pleasantly hoppy… not SUPER hoppy, but a nice even IPA
NorEaster – is it just me, or does this taste kinda like the Irish Red? Malty & candy-like… maybe it’s just a strong flavor of nutmeg again?
6 gals sampling beer... how hot is that?!?!
I met the head brewer, Jay Ramos, on the way out. He was super friendly & when I mentioned the blog he graciously told me that if I wanted to give him a call & ask any questions or interview him that he’d be more than happy to talk to me… think I’m gonna have to take him up on that! Check back later for Thomas Hooker, part 2!
Meanwhile, after we closed down Thomas Hooker, we headed on over to my friend’s house to sample some of his homebrews!!! A post on that will follow shortly, so come on back, y’all!
~HH~
very hot!