Iron Brewing Company
136 Washington Street,
Norwalk CT 06854
203-354-4010
Visited: Dec 15, 2018
Up until now, the Tri-State-Brew Tour had only been in two states. I was hoping to get to a brewery in Pennsylvania when I went to Allentown Fiber Festival, but it didn’t work out. However, searching through Groupon to find deals on beer, I found a Groupon for this brewery. There was an option to get it for one person. Bonus! The offer was I can’t remember exactly and Groupon will show you past Groupons but not what the Groupon was for. I think it was a flight, a sticker, a pint glass and a growler. Except they didn’t have any growlers.
The brewery feels more like a brew-pup than a brewery, the food was good, I was going to say they also have cocktails, but I am not sure about that. Reviews on Google mention only beer and beer cocktails.
Some interesting decoration on the way to Iron Brewing.
Some brewery swag.
I decided that I needed to spend less money at the breweries I was going to since I was having to pay to get there. With this in mind I went on Groupon and started searching. I found 2 brewery Groupons, one for Oyster Bay and one for Climax Brewery. The only problem was they both were for two people. I put the request out on Facebook and Em immediately said she would like to go to Oyster Bay. Part of me thinks she wanted to go since this is the birthplace of Billy Joel. Anyway, she came to the city and we boarded the train to Long Island. This was her first time. 
They have a nice set up for their menu. The taproom is spacious with tables and artwork on the wall that you can purchase. Also nice tank tops if you are into that. Some snacks if you want to nosh and drink. I honestly can’t remember if they are family friendly or serve food, so I went on Google to check the reviews someone mentioned there were children and dogs there, so the chips are the only food they have. If they have a kitchen they can’t allow dogs in. Also, in the pictures in Google there are no paintings on the walls. That must have been a promotion while we were there. Some of their beer names are a play on the titles and lyrics to Billy Joel songs, such as Alexa IIPA, Simcoe State of Mind, Baymens Oyster Stout and Sagamore Dark Lager. Those last two could be references to Long Island, but I know them from listening to Billy Joel.
The groupon was for 2 flights, the beer in them was not up to our choice, but they were willing to substitute for health reasons. Em can’t have pumpkin or yams. Two pint glasses and one growler. The growler was 64 oz. I asked to get the 32 oz instead and they were agreeable. The tank top Em bought for me. Yay for Groupon and yay for best friends and yay for Brewery Swag. Check out the slideshow below for the rest of my pictures, also there are pictures on Google Maps you can check out along with reviews.
Now is the time for all good bloggers to put down the beer and type some profound shit. Like how you got here at 8:10 and it was so fucking packed you only stayed for 15 minutes before you booked the hell out of there.
If you have been reading this blog for awhile, (that’s a joke, I know no one is reading this) you know that I am not very knowledgeable about beer, I mainly write about the experience at the brewery. What I can tell you about this beer is I like it. If it is on the tap list at a bar I will generally order it. Nice selection of styles and like most craft beer places are willing to pour you a half glass. Which is what happened the second time I went there. Of course I had to go back, going there opening night was just for bragging rights. The owners were there, so I had to go up and thank them for responding to my Instagram and show them that yes, I came back. Not sure if they cared.
Yes it’s this close to the subway. Convenient right?
It was supposed to be a “Happy Hour Knitting on the Roof” meetup. I should have guessed since it was pissing down rain, the roof would be closed. I was a little peeved that I kept posting and the organizer wasn’t answering me. Turns out, she was in Singapore because her grandmother died. She did refund our money. I think, I got an e-mail but never checked to see if the money actually came through. Back to my problem, I was in Brooklyn, it was raining, and after all this effort I didn’t want to just go back home, you know? The meetup was at Berry Park, located at 4 Berry Park in Brooklyn. On the way there I saw, painted on the side of a building, the Brooklyn Brewery Logo, so I checked Google maps, Brooklyn Brewery is around the corner.
Last summer when I made up the list for my ‘Summer Brewery Tour’, Brooklyn Brewery was on it. Not very high on it since I had been to it before and I was focusing on breweries that were new to me. The inevitable result was I never made it to Brooklyn Brewery. My coming here this was was, as noted above, kind of an accident. But I was here and determined to make the best of it. So I started tasting the sours. First was Rose de Ville, then London Gose, as I was chatting with the bartender, he (without me asking) then gave me Sour Cloud and Bel Air Sour. I wasn’t really sold on any of the sours, maybe cause it was a cold rainy night and had decided to get the Oktoberfest. Before I could order it, the man next to me ordered a Lager and a Pilsner, the bartender poured a Lager and an Oktoberfest. Before he could pour out the Oktoberfest I yelled, “I’ll take it!” Everyone was happy.
From the cellar: Brooklyn Brewery’s “High End” beers. The bartender gave me a taste (moral of the story, ALWAYS chat up your bartender, and BE NICE), Better Angels, Sour – Flanders Oud Bruin, Tart, vinuous & divine cuvée barrel vintage oud bruin, then, K Is For Kriek, American Wild Ale, “Kriek” means “cherry” in Belgian Flanders, aged in Bourbon barrels, unfortunately, I can’t read my notes so the rest of what I tasted is lost to history. And no, these aren’t my descriptions, I copied them from Beer Advocate.
When the group left 
Once a year my knitting club takes a trip to Pearl River in Rockland county to go to a little craft store there. Included in the trip is a visit to 
From the picture you can tell they have a fairly large taproom with plenty of tables for eating and drinking and socializing with your mates. The day we went they were decorating for a wedding reception and were closing at 3:00 pm. If you are wondering, who has a wedding reception at a brewery? I think I would for one. This is where I tell you this picture to the right is only the front half of the brewery, in fact the tanks in the slide show below were behind me when I took this shot. The fact that they were closing early turned out to be fortuitous since on the way to 
And my growler bag was a hit, everybody loved it.
city girl drinking craft beer 