Area Brewers May Come Home to Naugatuck

The Great American Beer Festival is considered the “Academy Awards” of sorts for beer makers.

The annual Denver, Colo., based competition has been running for 30 consecutive years, and in that time, Connecticut brewers have won four medals. The Cambridge House Beer Co. & Brewery, owned by two Naugatuck natives, has won three of them.

“We’re the best beer you may have never had,” quips co-owner Steve Boucino.

But plenty of people have tried and enjoyed the beer in the past eight years, and the business is expanding rapidly. Boucino, who now lives in Torrington, founded the Cambridge House Brewpub in Granby, which he operated from 2005-09; and for a short period he owned another brewpub in Torrington. Now, he’s focusing more on the brew and less on the chow, and he’s partnered with Naugatuck resident and longtime friend, Kyle Best.

The duo currently brews and distributes out of Western Massachusetts and is on pace to outgrow their current rented facility. They are looking to build a facility of their own in the next couple of years and have their sites set on their hometown.

“I think it’s safe to say that initially are happy with the model we have now – being a tenant brewer, putting the product out there,” Boucino said. “But I think we’re starting to see that we’re so passionate about what we do that we’d like to have our own brick and mortar facility closer to home.

“If there was a redevelopment plan in Naugatuck that had some great backing with some of the great incentives that breweries in other areas such as Hartford are getting, then that is something we would definitely love to explore.”

Naugatuck is currently in the process of seeking development proposals for downtown.

‘We Can Do it Better’

Boucino’s career began out of college as an insurance salesman for 13 years with The Hartford Group. One day, while sitting at a bar with a friend, he contemplated “what (he) wanted to do when (he) grew up.”

He and his friend ultimately decided they wanted to buy an old bar because they thought they “could do it better.” So they set their sights on one and worked up a business plan to present to a bank. Then, the bank denied the plan.

“We heard stuff like seven out of 10 restaurants fail in the first year,” he said. “Then we began researching brewpubs, and discovered that seven out of 10 of them actually succeed.”

So they got their loan and created the Cambridge House Brew Pub in Granby in 2005. The business succeeded, and Boucino eventually sold it in 2009. He maintained rights to the name and perhaps most importantly, the beer recipes.

‘Maybe We’re on to Something’

Before he ever put his own beer on the table, Boucino learned how to brew from a man he calls one of the best in the business: brewer Steven Schmidt. Schmidt has brewed at some of the most successful microbreweries in the United States and England.

Boucino spent every day for a year working on the craft with Schmidt, whom he says created the recipes still used today.

“After that I thought, ‘maybe we’re on to something,’” Boucino said.

Two more beers, a stout and an India Pale Ale (IPA), have also medaled at the beer festival, while the company has won several other awards at international beer festivals.

Coming Home Again?

Boucino and Best recently signed a distribution deal with Anheuser-Busch, which approached them to distribute their beers in Connecticut and soon in Massachusetts. The company has 600 accounts, mostly package stores, and is in some restaurants, including Jesse Camilles in Naugatuck, Boucino said. The owners are investing in more kegs to distribute into more restaurants and bars, many of which have asked for the beer.

They have the ability produce 40 different styles of beer, but for right now, Boucino and Best are focusing on just four, which are all medal winners: two IPAs, a stout and a Kölsch.

They plan to distribute not only to Connecticut and Massachusetts, but also other New England states and possibly in New Jersey and New York.

No matter how fast the company grows, the owners say they will never stop striving to put out the highest quality product they can.

“We get laughed at because we’re using ingredients that some say are too expensive,” Boucino said. “But we want to put out a great quality product. Steve (Schmidt) taught us about quality control, and we stick to that. If we get a batch of beer that is not up to par, we’re not putting it out there. We’ll dump it; it’s happened before.”

It is that level of perfectionism that Best appreciated when he reacquainted with his old pal, Boucino, years ago.

“We had lost touch for a while, and then I heard that he opened a brewpub, so I tried to visit as much as I could,” Best said. “I was impressed, and I loved the beer.”

When Boucino told Best that he wanted to get more into beer distribution and focus less on food, Best said that is something in which he was interested.

Now that the two friends are in business, they like what they see in their future.

“We’re two local guys who want to bring something good and local back to the area, something that will have that great community spirit,” Boucino said. “We’d love to have something like a volunteer night once a week or twice a month where people would help with the bottling process and get paid in beer. Or have events in our building.”

And the business could bring in jobs, which Boucino said could be between seven and 10 once the company is at full scale.

“We’re proud of our heritage that we grew up here, we’re locally owned and we’re in a locally supported market,” he said. “I’d love to come back to this area.”