Off The Rails Brewing Company

Something’s Off About the Name
Off The Rails Brewing Company, Stafford
September 2023

I was excited to visit what was, at the time, Connecticut’s newest brewery: Off The Rails Brewing Company. From the pictures online it looked beautiful: Large, open, clean, and had an especially attractive outdoor area among the hip downtown streets of Stafford Springs:

Then I read a bit about this place:

The brewhouse… reintroduced the venue for the community to come together and share in an authentic dining experience at this brewery & restaurant. It’s one of a kind venue serving the communities of Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, San Jose, Mountain View and all the way up to Palo Alto.

Huh? California? Was this like Surfridge Brewing Company in Essex which is an eastern offshoot of the mothership in El Segundo, CA?

No. That is not what this is. It is a tiny brewery tucked into a tiny space in Stafford Springs that somehow, inexplicably, chose a name that is already the name of another, more tenured, much larger brewery in Sunnyvale, California. That’s… odd. And several months after opening, if you went looking for information on our Off The Rails, you were greeted with this doozy of a website landing page:

Who knows. Maybe that’s still what you get whenever you’re reading this. Good luck trying to contact them California OTR Brewing… suckers.

Despite the confusion, I was able to find Connecticut’s OTR. After all, there’s really only two blocks on one street in all of Stafford where it could be… and that’s where it is. It’s nice to see businesses getting business here. Crazy Cock Cidery is just a few doors away, but there are also some artisan shops and even a cool little record store across the street.

This place is small. There’s seating for maybe eight at the bar and tables for another 16 more maybe? The owners are already talking of expansion, just a few months into the venture. Cool. Good for them. One of the owners was chatting up a very chatty woman for the duration of my stay. This was kind of perfect, because I got answers to a bunch of questions without having to speak with anyone.

I did what I do and chose to order a flight of different styles: Stafford Springs 1719 American Lager, Fade to Black black IPA, Blackbeard Stout, and Sunny Daze Haze IPA. As I waited for my pours, I checked the place out.

There was not much to check out. There was a projector set up airing an NFL game on a wall. This was not an ideal situation for watching the game. Giant TV’s are now like 800 bucks. If you’re going to air football games, I suggest buying an actual TV. (I’m writing about certain things here in the past tense because I’m guessing… hoping… that by the time you read this, some of these things have been handled.)

The bar is pretty awesome. Almost everything here was a DIY project for the owners, and yeah, the bar itself is cool. They’ve encased some industrial parts and beer components under a thick layer of resin. Stafford Springs has a fairly robust industrial history thanks to its proximity to water power and trains. OTR Brewing has incorporated this into their whole thing.

The beers were served and I got down to business. I must mention that for whatever reason, my taster glasses had a strong odor of… I’m not sure. It was like marijuana mixed with disinfectant. It was off-putting to say the least. No one else seemed to be scrunching up their noses, but I was the only one with the taster glasses. I forged ahead.

The lager was not so good. The characteristics were present; bready, dry, thin, but it wasn’t crisp or all that enjoyable. Then again, its name contains the year 1719 and beer in 1719 was assuredly awful, so maybe that’s the point.

I’m always curious about black IPAs. This was one of those craft beer fads that lasted about three months. I’ve had some I’ve really loved, but then I found that small breweries were just slapping that label on anything, and often they were essentially mistake beers. I’m happy to report that OTR’s version was a legit “black IPA” and tasted like what a black IPA should taste like, if black IPA was an actual thing.

The stout was good and the “hazy IPA” was as well. All the beers here were pretty low on ABV which I very much appreciated. You see, stouts and “hazy IPAs” can be normal beers after all! Thank you Off The Rails Brewing Company (v.CT).

Of course, this place does have non-normal beers. There’s another coconut dessert stout. The owner was talking up a carrot cake stout. Something about apple pie beer. And that’s all fine. People still love that stuff and when its done right, it can be very good. I’m going to believe in OTR and that these beers will be properly balanced and not over the top. I just get that feeling here.

The owner guy seemed earnest and eager to grow his business. They have a good relationship with Crazy Cock Cidery and support each other. Stafford Springs is a tiny downtown area, but I’ve seen its mild rebirth over the last decade or so. It’s another “local bar that makes its own beer” type of brewery, and that works in locations like this. Granted, I expect a name change at some point, but that shouldn’t be too big of a deal.

Free advice: Just rename it On The Rails Brewing Company. This place is huge on “merch,” and even had a t-shirt rack out front. All that “OTR” branded stuff still works and it would just make sense for a few reasons. You’re welcome.

Off The Rails Brewing Company (v.Connecticut)
CTMQ’s page on CT Breweries and Brewpubs