The Red Brewster Brewery

Shama Llama Beer Pong
Enfield
November 2023

Do you ever wake up and say, “I want to go chill by a firepit in my buddy’s big, muddy backyard and drink some beer out of plastic cups all day long? And it would be cool to have a llama stare at me. And also to pay for the experience.”

Well, then The Red Brewster in Enfield is for you.

And I don’t write the above to be insulting, as that’s the whole vibe of this place. It’s their thing. (At least I assume it is… at least in their first year when they are still a very small operation.)

Remember when Fat Orange Cat Brewing in East Hampton first opened? And they had a tiny little parking lot and some roaming animals and a little barn where they made and poured beers? Cool. Now shink that memory down like 80 percent and you have Red Brewster.

It’s not on a residential road like FOC was, but it does have a very similar feel. It was too cold for the outdoor area to be in use, so I entered the tiny barn/taproom and took one of the five seats at the bar. This is a cozy little space. Adding to the coziness, the chatty bartender offered me snacks.

Snacks he had made apparently. A meat and cheese spread that he put together. Some chocolate chip cookies that he had baked. He explained this thusly: “I like to bring stuff for the bar.” Well, sir, I like to eat stuff people offer me at the bar – especially after I’d been hiking for a few hours beforehand.

He was Jimmy. Jimmy is a friend of the owner and brewer. Jimmy is a people person (and a Buffalo Bills fan). He is otherwise employed, but serves here on the weekends for fun and comradery. It’s impossible to not talk to Jimmy.

Red Brewster’s owner, Charles Mastroberti, was at the opposite end of the bar. I did not know this until I was leaving, but I did expect him to have red hair. He has black hair. I do not know why they settled on “Red Brewster” for any reason beyond the fact that there are roosters on the premises. This hypothesis is bolstered by their interior decorating and what is, quite frankly, one of the more impressive brewery brandings in the state:

I know nothing about that, but it looks like a nice watercolor. God, I hope it’s not AI. Ugh. I hate the new world of not knowing.

There were four beers on tap. This was the case in at least Brewster’s first year or so. They were already planning expansions and increased brewing capacity when I was there a few months after opening. Having seen the brewing system, it’s amazing they had more than one beer on offer.

As you can imagine, the styles were limited as well. A brown ale, and IPA, a pilsner, and a NEIPA. Three-quarters of that line-up is bog standard “2005 extract brewery” menu. But that’s fine. I went with the brown ale. Speaking of 2005… or even 1995… longtime CTMQ-Brewery Review fans would be all over me if I didn’t bring attention to Red Brewster’s bog standard 1995 GeoCities lookin’ website.

The above sentence and link applies in 2023-24. I can’t pretend to know the future.

The brown ale is a perfectly fine brown ale. No complaints, especially as I nibbled on cheese and crackers, gratis. Actually, wait. I do have a complaint. Their brown ale is named Farmhouse Ale… which I think is a perfectly dumb name for a brown ale. This is a case of IYKYK, IK, but IK and therefore it bothers me. Anyway, while I was enjoying it, I was listening to Jimmy talking to other customers. Red Brewster has plan. Fairly big plans. An expanded brewing system for starters, and an enlarged tap room as well. Also, they were hoping to get Enfield to allow them to offer more than just beer brewed onsite.

Update: the town has granted them the allowance to serve wine and hard cider since I visited.

With the expanded brewing rig, I’m sure Red Brewster plans on brewing a wider variety of beers. They don’t really seem like the type of people that will go for ridiculous pastry styles or diabetes beers, but who knows. Hopefully those fads are played out and this place never has to go through it.

Me? I followed my non-farmhouse Farmhouse brown ale with a Red Brewster Pilsner. It was… alright. I mean, I guess it was made the way a pils is supposed to be made but… with such an infinitesimally tiny system, how? I guess Noble hops were used and it’s thin and yellowish and slightly dry and slightly sweet and slightly bready and therefore slightly pilsnery. I won’t accuse this of being an extract beer, but… it was a thought.

It wasn’t bad at all, but it wasn’t a “craft farm brewery pilsner that was lagered properly on the farm during the cold days and nights.” Which… I totally understand! This is a tiny and new operation! I want them to succeed and expand and offer a wider variety of beer styles. And I think they will. Or at least they’ll be able to provide what rural Enfield is looking for, which very well may not be what cranky old man me is looking for.

Oh, that reminds me… I tried a sample of their Citra NEIPA and, yeah, it’s one of those absurdly Citra-forward slimy syrupy beers that I guess some people still enjoy. I’ll stick to the brown ale here for now, thanks.

Upon leaving, I said hello to the animals. I have no idea why they have a llama, but they have a llama. And some goats to hang out with their chickens.

I did not see a red rooster however.

Black rooster at Red Brester where the Farmhouse Ale is a brown. Enfield is a magical town.