New Brewery... NewSylum -- My Brewery Review !!!

Travel doesn't necessarily need to be on a plane... it can be traveling within your own state or even just the next town over! And that's exactly what I did this weekend... I tried out the NEW brewery in Newtown, Connecticut, called: NewSylum.

I may make a lot of homemade cocktails and I do drink a lot of wine, but I love beer too and I especially like TRYING new beer. Light beer, dark beer, IPA, sour beers. I've been to beer festivals, I put fruit in beer (think limes or orange slices) and if I see a new beer in the supermarket, I'll reach for it and try anything once. So I was super excited to see a brewery, called NewSylum, open in the town next to me.

Opened in June, 2020 and located at 36 Keating Farms Avenue in Newtown, CT, NewSylum was dreamed up and created by this amazing team -- Mark Tambascio, David Kingsley, Mark "Sharky" Lemon and John Watson, click here to learn more about them -- because of their love of beer and they wanted to bring it to their local community... and what a welcome addition to the town it is!

But it's not just beer, there's another compelling fact about this brewery -- its location! NewSylum is on the grounds of the now defunct Fairfield Hills Hospital Campus which was a psychiatric hospital from 1934-1995. So, there's definitely some interesting history there. As a kid, we were always a little creeped out by the campus and strangely enough -- they even filmed a Kevin Bacon movie there, Sleepers -- but the rumors still swirled, was this place haunted?

Haunted or not, I still like a good beer so I decided to be brave and over the weekend, I ventured out in the rain to check it out. Once inside, I had forgotten about the creepy history and enjoyed the decor, the sights, the sounds, and, of course, THE BEER.

The staff was super friendly, the wood-fired pizza in the open kitchen was extremely good (next time I MUST try the ranch/chicken/bacon pizza) and the Bavarian pretzels were bigger than my head!

I told our server to pick out a flight for me based on the preferences I told her and boy, she didn't miss the mark. I loved them all -- light to dark, and now I have a fondness for the dark stout. I can't remember the names of the beer, but it didn't matter, they were all delicious!

There are local artist painting of hops on the wall for purchase and even the restroom (very clean!) was reminiscent of the bathrooms from the days it was a hospital. Outdoor seating is available, weather permitting, and they have live music on some nights.

I really enjoyed the beer and I know I'll be back soon to hang out again.

So if you are in the Newtown, Connecticut area, you must stop by NewSylum, they are open Wednesdays through Sundays and check their website for hours.

I'll see you at the tap!!!