Sure, the Big E is a wonderful place to blow off your diet and eat fried candy bars, cream puffs and funnel cake, but it’s also a perfect spot to kick back with an adult beverage.
This is a good year for beer fans, who will find a wide selection of Nutmeg State brews in the Connecticut building’s new craft beer garden, an interactive tasting experience presented by the Spencer Trappist Brewery — and the Wurst Haus’ 28-ounce beer served in a souvenir boot glass.
V-One Vodka Cocktails
V-One Vodka is back with its deep-fried martini bites ($12), craft cocktails ($10) and a sample flight of its spirits ($12) in berry, hazelnut, vanilla, lime and grapefruit flavors. We tasted the Hadley Cucumber Cooler, with V-One, Sprite and local cucumber slices, and the Poland’s Special, with V-One vanilla, black currant with blueberry juice and lemon.
Connecticut Craft Beer Garden
New to the Connecticut State Building: A Connecticut craft beer garden, featuring a variety of Nutmeg State breweries. Select brews from Back East, Black Hog, Broad Brook, City Steam, Stony Creek, Thomas Hooker and Two Roads are priced at $7 to $9 for 16- and 20-ounce pours. Breweries will be featured daily. The booth also serves two wines from North Stonington’s Jonathan Edwards Winery, on tap, for $7 apiece.
Spencer Trappist Beer
The Spencer Brewery, America’s first Trappist brewery at St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Mass., offers five of its beers (Trappist Ale, IPA, pils, lager and stout) on draft for $8 and $9. There’s also an interactive beer experience for $15, featuring a presentation and guided tasting in a recreated “refectory,” or Abbey dining hall, in the Young Building.
Deep South Company
The new Deep South Company restaurant on the fairgrounds pairs its Southern-themed food (chicken and waffles, hush puppies, fried oysters, po’boys) with sweet libations that pack plenty of booze. Among them: an Alabama rum punch, Mississippi mudslide, blueberry mint julep and Swamp Water (pictured) with white tequila, Midori, sour mix, Blue Curacao and lemon-lime soda. All drinks are $12.
Wurst Haus Beer Boot
Student Prince’s Wurst Haus, a new addition to the fair this year, offers this 28-ounce plastic “beer boot” — with a convenient lanyard so you can wear it proudly around your neck once you finish. It’s $15, and refills are just $12.
More alcoholic beverage options at ctnow.com/bigedrinks.
![NORTH CANAAN, Conn. (AP) — It was the barking that saved Rippy, a mutt that fell deep into a working rock quarry. After passersby and even a drone failed to locate the lost dog, rescue workers drawn to his barks rappelled down the pit’s walls and lifted him out three days after he went missing, […]](https://www.courant.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Quarry_Dog_45004.jpg?w=526 "NORTH CANAAN, Conn. (AP) — It was the barking that saved Rippy, a mutt that fell deep into a working rock quarry. After passersby and even a drone failed to locate the lost dog, rescue workers drawn to his barks rappelled down the pit’s walls and lifted him out three days after he went missing, […]")
