Little Red Barn Brewers may not be in a barn but it has a little church, a little schoolhouse and a whole lot of community heart in it. Repurposed wood, taken from old structures around the area, is used extensively in taproom. The bar frame, for example, comes from doors on houses flooded out when the nearby Colebrook Reservoir was built decades ago. Some tap handles are vintage chisels made at Winsted Edge Works, the tool factory that original occupied the brewery’s home. No wonder it’s a fave of the locals! Venture outside on the patio (amply expanded to the parking lot for the pandemic) and listen to the Mad River ramble out behind the building. The beer list leans toward accessible low/mid-level ABVs like cream ale, pilsner and its flagship Everyman’s Porter, but you’ll always find a sour, hoppy IPA or imperial stout on tap or available to go. The weekends are always busy with food trucks and live performances from area musicians.
THE STORY
Two brothers and a friend turned their homebrewing hobby into a career, opening Little Red Barn Brewers in summer 2019. Realizing that opening a business downtown required local support, they ran a Kickstarter campaign to help pay for taproom décor that celebrates the history and people of Winsted. And FYI – the Little Red Barn name comes from an old horse barn where one of the founder’s parents let them brew their initial batches.
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