Distinctly Connecticut beer destinations

Morgan Goldberg | Special to USA TODAY

Connecticut, a small state nestled between New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, isn’t particularly known for anything. Its nickname is the Constitution State, but the Constitution wasn’t even signed here.

“Connecticut has always had a little bit of an identity crisis,” says Two Roads Brewing Company's master brewer and co-founder Phil Markowski. “Some parts of the state identify with New York City, while other parts identify with New England. It’s kind of an in between state, but it’s finally embracing its own with craft brewing and it’s fantastic.”

In 2010, at the beginning of the country’s craft beer boom, there were fewer than 10 craft breweries in Connecticut. Now, the state boasts more than 60 operational breweries.

From Kent in the northeast to Branford right on the river, innovative craft breweries are peppered throughout Connecticut with new players popping up all the time.

“You’d think we’d be fighting against each other for shelf space or for tap space, but it’s really not like that,” says Stony Creek Brewery's tasting room manager Matthew Cookson. “What we’re doing is fighting against the big guys. Anything that helps out any craft brewery in Connecticut helps out every craft brewery in Connecticut.”

That sentiment is shared among many of the state’s brewers and fostered further by a group called the Connecticut Brewers Guild, whose goal is to promote local breweries and advocate for legislative actions that favor the craft beer community in the state.

The camaraderie-over-competition attitude and common goal of putting Connecticut on the craft beer map is part of what has made these breweries successful statewide, nationally and internationally. One brewery even lets visitors pick the hops at an annual festival.

From the state's largest self-distributing brewery, Thimble Island, which made all of its equipment in house with its own staff, to the brewery in a repurposed abandoned factory that's planting its own hop yard and sour cherry trees, Connecticut's brewers are dedicated to keeping production and operations local.

“I don’t see it slowing down anytime soon,” says Markowski, “Craft brewing is alive and well and we want to continue to do what we can to make a name for Connecticut in the industry.”

Click through the photos above to get a taste of what’s brewing in the little beer state that could, from facilities on sprawling farms to patios on the water.

Plus, see more Connecticut flavor below.