New Park Brewing

Home Depot, Home Brewery
New Park Brewing, West Hartford
Multiple Visits

This is one of the more difficult pages I’ve had to write. And the reason is probably a little bit odd: I have so many pictures over so many years and so many visits – with friends, with family, alone, for food, for music, for meetings with owners to discuss fundraising, for other fundraisers having nothing to do with me personally…

So what do I focus on? Especially since every visit has been a positive visit?

Yes, I always focus on the beer, first and foremost. So I’ll try to stick to that. Right out of the gate, New Park is a little bit unique in that it is my hometown brewery and I’ve had the benefit of maturing with them. So it’s not like a far-flung (to me) brewery that I visit once early in its life and write up that one, perhaps unfair, experience.

Eh. That’s just the way it is. (And in truth, even though I’m a West Hartford resident, Hooker Brewing and Dead Language Beer Project are both closer to my house than New Park. And it’s a happy coincidence that both Hooker and New Park are neighbors with Home Depots… since I need a beer after dealing with those massive soulless husks.

New Park has grown a ton since it first opened. Their range of styles, their physical space, their entertainment options… the only thing that hasn’t grown is their crappy parking lot. There’s really nothing they can do about that, but just know that if you’re going on a Friday night, you’re kind of doomed – but don’t let that deter you from going.

New Park opened in March of 2017, at a time when a new brewery was opening every month it seemed. And they hit the ground running, opening up with a fantastic line-up. Then they hit the ground face first. That is, they sold out of every drop and literally couldn’t re-open for two weeks. The response to their opening was overwhelming and I guess it caught them by surprise. Their formula is simple: Hire a great brewer in Alex Dee. Focus on the styles that the market demanded at the time, and make those styles as good if not better than the competition. Be cool. Have a nice enough space. Expand offerings and options in an intelligent and measured way.

As I write this over a decade since owners John Doyle, Tom Atkins, and Dee founded the brewery on paper, they seem to have it figured out pretty well. We’ll get to what this place looks like in 2026, but I’d be skipping over some steps – and missteps – along the way.

As I’m no historian, of any sort, I’ll split this page into two phases – the early years and the more recent years.

The Early Years

The building New Park is in has hosted so many different businesses just since New Park opened in 2017, you wouldn’t believe a full listing if such a thing existed. Quirky comic book shops, a doomed-from-the-start Vintage Hi-Fi Museum for some reason, florists, pie bakers, cupcake makers, hair places, lawyers, and who knows what else.

But New Park has been the anchor, so to speak, since 2017. When they first opened, they had a nice little bar with some stools, several indoor picnic-type tables, and a windowed view into the brewing operation. It was never unattractive, but it was also pretty bare bones at the beginning. 2017 was right around the time where some breweries with a few extra bucks started realizing that a crappy taproom in a crappy location with nothing else going on wasn’t going to cut it for the long haul.

New Park is in the Elmwood section of West Hartford, just a few minutes off of I-84. But being in this busy area proximal to a lot of younger drinkers does not guarantee success at all. Another brewery, WeHa Brewing, opened, reimagined themselves, reimagined themselves again, and closed in the middle of New Park’s run so far. It was a mile away, also in the Elmwood section of town. Location isn’t everything.

New Park opened with a darling of the time: Cloudscape, a creamy New England IPA. (It was first named “Cloudbreak” but that name was already taken by another local brewery and it was a whole thing for about a day. New Park was like, “whatever,” and changed the name to Cloudscape which is what it is today. This was, and is, brewed with flaked and malted wheat, lots of citrussy hops and it drinks with notes of grapefruit and melon with a fluffy wheat finish.

I’m not sure they even had a “normal” IPA out of the gate, but they had a stout and a saison that were both pretty good. But in 2017 and the ensuing few years after, they really leaned into the NEIPA phenomenon. And it worked. New Park quickly rose through the ranks to a top tier destination brewery. I must mention that just a year after they opened, when they could barely keep up with demand on their small system, New Park agreed to pour at the charity brewfest I helped organize to raise money for research on my son’s rare genetic syndrome.

This was a big deal at the time, as New Park didn’t do festivals. (Note: beer fests were still a big thing back then. Package stores were not overflowing with good craft beer.) We were pretty much the only one New Park did for years, so I’ll always remember that.

I’ll also always remember that when I’d pop in, I’d go nuts for their schwarzbier. My god, it was so good and so much better than the NEIPA family of beers. I discovered their lagers were all pretty good and getting better all the time.

Then the fruited sour craze hit.

And it hit New Park hard.

The Stupid Time

New Park wasn’t stupid. The consumers were stupid. New Park was just giving the people want they wanted: Gloopy, fruity, lactose drenched alcopops. Which tended to explode on occasion.

Now, New Park still makes and sells these beers in their Blender series. There are dozens of varieties and clearly people like them. People like this person, who hates beer:

I’ve met Alex Dee and many other talented brewers in Connecticut and beyond. They do not like these things. But they do like paying their bills. It’s a tough spot to be in and while I don’t begrudge the New Parks of the world for leaning into this trend, there was a period of time when they were straight up dangerous. These beer-things were undergoing secondary fermentation in the cans and if not kept very cold, they were literally exploding.

In people’s cars, in their dining rooms, in their basements. I was disappointed in New Park at the time. They’d issue warnings to the best of their ability, but Blenders brought crowds. People were lining up for them at releases(!) At this time I sort of stayed away from New Park.

(Breweries can do things to stop secondary fermentation -like dump in the fruit during initial fermentation or to pasteurize it later. I have no clue what or if New Park changed anything, but I’ve not heard about an exploding can in years.

I hope never to again.

More Recent Years

As things have calmed in the craft beer world, New Park’s devotion to darling styles has also calmed. Since the pandemic, or shortly thereafter, a visit to the taproom will give you a good array of styles to choose from. Looking at their draft list as I write this, there are 11 beers on tap: with pilsners, a hefe, a normal IPA, an Oktober… and more. They also make their own hard cider here (new to me), and have 3 “specialties” available, including a barleywine and a crazy high alcohol stout. Note: they still have Cloudscape and Carbon, that very first oatmeal stout I had back in 2017. I love that through-note here at the brewery.

Additionally, there’s a full kitchen here now. They serve wine and cocktails. There’s an outdoor space (albeit in the parking lot, but that’s almost normal for breweries now). They have gobbled up some of the space vacated by those fly-by-night vendors I mentioned previously and now have private rooms and expanded seating. On top of all that, New Park now has a concert space called The Green Room, wholly separate from everything I’ve mentioned so far. These are almost always ticketed acts and they get decent crowds in here for the shows.

None of these expansions “just happened.” They were incremental and often necessary. As far as the taplist (and other available drinks), there’s literally something for everyone here now. The vibe is back to being chill after those few years of crazy. They on their website their mission is, “to carry on New Park as an institution that values integrity, inclusivity, and innovation.” Sure, you’re going to get some of the West Hartford bro crowd in here, but the whole vibe is the opposite of what their puffer vests bring. The vibe wins out.

Skateboards hang on the walls and the art and decor trend towards California chill. I enjoy coming here while over on this side of town while my son referees soccer games or something.

Don’t let the pop-ups and crass commercialism of their website (in 2026) or their history of being a trend-chasing brewery scare you away. They’ve always quietly made really good, traditional beers underneath some of the craziness. And truth be told, their IPA, DIPA, and NEIPA line-up is as good as it gets too, they’re just not my preferred style these days.

With the event space(s), the bands, the expanded brewspace, and the kitchen, New Park now employs over 20 people. Their branding has always been solid and while they do love pushing their merch, I can’t get mad at that. New Park still seems to struggle a bit with their behind-the-bar taps and the bathroom situation has always been subpar, but these issues are easily overlooked.

I’m very happy to have New Park in my hometown and to know that anytime I have to go to a Home Depot for some reason, there’s a brewery literally next door – be it Hooker or New Park.

New Park Brewing
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