MONROE — Area beer lovers can add one more microbrewery to the list of Connecticut breweries to visit, just in time for hot summer days.

Veracious Brewing Company, 246 Main Street in Monroe, opened its tasting room Saturday, June 20, featuring craft beers, cold brew coffee on tap, and beer drinks geared toward people who appreciate a fine beer.

Veracious is a natural offshoot of the brewing supply company, Maltose Express, located adjacent to the brewery, said Tess and Mark Szamatulski, owners of both businesses.

“We’ve been in business for 24 years, selling wine and beer brewing supplies,” in various Monroe and Newtown sites, Mr Szamatulski said. For the past seven years, the business has settled in an industrial building set back from busy Route 25. They have also been home bewers for at least that length of time, Ms Szamatulski said, and have wanted to share their recipes with others for quite some time. As the authors of two books, Beer Captured and Clone Brews, they knew they had ample recipes that would work on a larger scale.

A tasting room was their dream, but it was not until a 2012 change in Connecticut laws made it viable to open a tasting room that they felt able to follow that path.

“You can now manufacture and sell in the same facility, and can sell growlers [32- or 64-ounce jugs] ‘to go’ from a tasting room,” she said. The new laws no longer require tasting rooms to sell and serve food, which was an additional burden for brewers, she said.

The name of the company was suggested by their son-in-law. Not to be confused with voracious (“ravenous”) or vivacious (“animated”), veracious is a less commonly used word, meaning “characterized by truthfulness; true, accurate, or honest in content.” It is a word, he told them, that describes not only the product they promote, but personality traits they convey in their personal and business dealings. “The Truth Is In The Beer” has become their motto, Ms Szamatulski said.

Creating A Particular Look

With Mr Szamatulski retired from his engineering career in 2011, everything seemed to dovetail for the couple and they began refurbishing the space next to Maltose Express.

As particular as they are about brewing, the Szamatulskis were equally particular about the look that Veracious would present.

The tasting room is 1,250 square feet of soaring space, with high ceilings and no exterior windows. To create the English pub atmosphere they wanted, the couple knew they would have to be selective in how the space was finished. Most striking to any visitor that enters the tasting room (aside from the large moose head affixed above the entryway, a gift of friend and landlord Bernie Sippin) are the two long communal tables of polished wood in the center of the room. They are a focal point that draws the eye to the back wall, where six tall windows set into a wall of horizontal wooden paneling offer a view into the facility’s brewing room.

The tables have an interesting history that is shared by much of the other wood used in building the Veracious tasting room. The communal tables and the wall paneling, as well as the paneling that surrounds the serving bar, are crafted from church pews.

When a Methodist church in New Canaan advertised that it had pews for sale, the Szamatulskis decided to take a look. Made of red oak and hard maple, they realized they had come upon a great find. Added to that, the price was right: “They said if we took them all, we could have them for free,” Ms Szamatulski said.

Working with their son-in-law, a builder and architect, they took the pews apart, turning the red oak pew seats into wall panels, and the maple backs of the pews into the table tops and bar surround. The natural wood exudes a warmth to the space, along with soft lighting around the perimeter of the room provided by several gooseneck barn-style lights. Originally outdoor lighting that had been removed from a Monroe business, the Szamatulskis’ landlord, Sippen Energy Products, had the lights in storage and offered them for use in the tasting room.

“We had to cut some down in size, and refinished them,” Ms Szamatulski said, but the repurposed lights were just the touch they needed.

Additional seating at tables for two and four — including one constructed from a baptismal font with a marble top — brings the total to 80 that can be accommodated in the tasting room.

A careful consideration was given to the pale ochre color of paint on the unpaneled walls, Mr Szamatulski said, again to hint at the sense of being in an English pub. Sepia-tinted historic photographs of Monroe and their own family ancestors dot the wall above a narrow bar that runs along one wall.

“We wanted a very comfortable place for people to come and relax with a beer, and I think we’ve created that,” he said.

It is also the kind of place a woman can come into alone, Ms Szamatulski said, and not feel uncomfortable. “It’s not at all like walking into a bar,” she emphasized.

Inviting For All 

The surroundings are inviting, but it is the brews they craft that the couple hopes will draw customers.

Veracious is a seven-barrel brewery, with ten 310-gallon, stainless steel fermenting tanks, from which the Szamatulskis turn out a variety of brews.

“We always have at least eight on tap,” Mr Szamatulski said, including seasonal specialties. Currently, a blueberry wheat ale, Bloobs, is on tap, and coming up before the end of July will be another summer special, Suga’ Baby, a watermelon wheat ale.

Veracious also brews various pale ales, India pale ales, English ales, sweet stouts, porters, and a Belgian Saison flavored with kefir lime leaves, honey (from hives kept in an area hops field) and a touch of Belgian candi sugar. A low-alcohol beer, Grady’s Better Bitter, is just 3.5 percent alcohol, and come fall, they will be making an Oktoberfest lager.

“We try to have a lot of different brews for people to try,” Mr Szamatulski said. Because the business is so new, they are still looking to see what beers customers like best. “The people’s choice will determine the flagship beers we will have available year around, eventually,” he said.

What sets Veracious apart from many tasting rooms, they said, is that it is family friendly.

“People come to get supplies at Maltose Express, and have their kids with them. It would be a shame if you couldn’t stop in and see the tasting room, too,” said Mr Szamatulski. Sodas are available for the young visitors, and watermelon juice is a healthy option for visitors young and old.

The Szamatulskis are as enthusiastic about another nonalcoholic offering they have, as they are about any of their beers. Cold brew coffee on tap is perfect on its own for those not interested in beer; or sample a Naughty Coffee, of cold brew topped off with Udderly Delicious milk stout.

Veracious also serves wine by the glass, said Ms Szamatulski, recognizing that not everyone in a group is a beer aficionado.

Veracious brews are all natural, unfiltered, and made of just four components: grain, local water, hops, and yeast. A few have added spices, honey, or the Belgian candi sugar. Grain left over from brewing is returned to a local farm for animal feed.

Customers to the tasting room can choose a flight paddle, consisting of a choice of four 4-ounce brews; an eight-ounce half pint; or a 16-ounce pint. Beers that are more than 6 percent alcohol are served as an eight-ounce pour in a goblet. “We won’t serve a larger size of the high-alcohol brews,” Ms Szamatulski said. “The last thing we want is anyone getting intoxicated. We cater to people who appreciate a good beer, who drink because they love the taste of the beer, not to get drunk,” she said. All servers have taken the Training for Intervention Procedures (TIPS) course on how to serve alcohol, card customers, and to recognize when people have had enough to drink.

Tasters are encouraged to look at the color of the brew, then smell it, before taking that first sip. “When [the glass] is still half full, we want you to feel a little sad, and with that last sip, very sad. We want you to have a myriad of emotions out of having a beer,” said Ms Szamatulski.

The Szamatulskis said they are grateful for the support of their staff. “Jeff Jansko, our tasting room manager, is our ‘Jeff of all trades’,” Mr Szamatulski said, assisting with brewing, serving, and tending bar. Jay Crumb is not only an employee, but a singer who will be offering occasional live performances in the tasting room, later this year. “And Amy and Jillian are our main servers, right now. They’re all great,” he said.

Veracious does not serve food, but has menus from local restaurants available and encourages customers to have food delivered, or to bring in their own snacks or meals. By the end of 2015, they would like to see Veracious beers in some of the area restaurants.

“We hope people will taste one or two pints here, then go to a local restaurant that carries Veracious beers. We try to promote local businesses; it’s a community here, and we like to think it all has a cascading effect,” said Ms Szamatulski.

Hours, Other Details

The Veracious Brewing Company tasting room is open Thursday from 3 to 8 pm; Friday from noon to 8 pm; and Saturday from 10 am to 8 pm. Saturday morning is turning out to be a popular time for customers to try the nitrogenated cold brew coffee on tap.

“It pours like a Guinness stout,” Mr Szamatulski said, with a creamy head topping the low-acid cup of joe. Bring in a bagel, a paper, and settle in with the cold brew, the Szamatulskis invite morning customers.

Customers are welcome to join the “Mug Club” at Veracious Brewing Company. An annual fee of $75 entitles members to a 20-ounce Veracious mug, a T-shirt, and a preview tasting invitation each time a new beer is launched. An end-of-summer barbeque, hosted by the Szamatulskis, is also part of belonging to the Mug Club. They value their customers’ opinions, and always welcome feedback as to how they can do better, Ms Szamatulski said.

Veracious brews can only be purchased in half or full growlers to go, or sampled at the tasting room, currently. In addition to providing kegs to some area restaurants later this year, they may also distribute to “a few select” liquor stores by December.

The Veracious tasting room can be rented for private parties, on days that the tasting room is not open to the public. For information or to book the space, call 203-880-5670 or 203-880-5671.

 “We run Veracious with passion. We would never serve a beer that we don’t think is good,” Ms Szamatulski said.

Veracious Brewing Company is at 246 Main Street (Route 25), in Monroe. The building is set back from the road, just past Stepney Plaza.