Wine and Beer Art

FatSean

Connecticut

3.5/5  rDev +8.4%
quality: 3.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 2.5 | $$

I'd been ordering supplies online or driving south to Maltose Express for eight months before I found out that this store was five minutes from home. It is on the north side of East Main Street in Torrington and shares a parking lot with a car dealer's show room. Look for a stand-up sign outside that says "Wine and Beer Art Open".

The store itself is fairly small. There is a good selection of equipment but not too many perishable ingredients. The prices were reasonable given sales tax and lack of shipping when compared to Northern Brewer where I usually shop.

They have everything a beginner might need and a decent selection of odds and ends. The lady who helped me was friendly and seemed to have a good understanding of the brewing process. I will find out soon how fresh the beer kits are, but I do plan on returning here to buy more carboys and other items that are expensive to ship.

08-06-2010 04:56:32 | More by FatSean

jeffthecheff

Connecticut

2.95/5  rDev -8.7%
quality: 2.5 | service: 4 | selection: 2.5 | $$

I didn't know this place existed so close to my house until it was pointed out by another BA. I finally stopped in to quickly to buy some bottlecaps, and checked out the rest of the store.

It's located within a furniture store, and has a bit of a messy layout, which seems to be a common theme for homebrew shops. The floor space is decently sized, and they certainly have enough room to expand a bit.

I found this place to be somewhere to pick up some emergency ingredients, but I don't know if I'd make a recipe from what they have. They don't offer liquid yeast due to low turnover, and only had a couple dry yeast packets on hand. They have a small selection of hop leafs and pellets on the wall, as well as some specialty grains. They also had some Brewer's Best kits, but even that selection was limited.

The equipment selection was pretty solid. They had a good selection of carboys from one gallon all the way up to twelve, as well as just about every little brewing knick-knack you can think of. Pricing was pretty good as well. You could get by from what they offer, but I'd prefer to travel to East Hartford for a brew-day.

07-22-2010 17:12:56 | More by jeffthecheff