Continental Beer Co.

Continental Beer Company
Greenwich, Contract Brewed at Cottrell Brewing, Pawcatuck

Beer List:

1. 1757 gw Beer

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I titled this page “Continental Beer Company and I fully realize that no one, not even the Continental Beer Company, calls it that. But I strive for consistency on these CT beer pages, and that is the name of the LLC that is responsible for their one beer, the 1757 gw beer. And yes, the “gw” is lowercase, which is simply awful.

Another awful thing is that I’m learning that some of these single-brew productions are required to have photoshopped websites. Now, gw’s is pretty good – see the pretty people here with appropriate fingers – just ignore the fact that everyone else is enjoying Corona bottles.

We’ve explored some other single-beer contracts from Connecticut, and they either have what they think is a one-note wonder beer or are just getting started slowly. gw is one of the one-note ideas and fortunately, their website spells it all out for us, so I don’t have to. You should read it… as it’s sort of fascinating. I’m also not quite sure who the interviewER was compared to the interviewEE (I suspect they were one and the same), but whatever.

Like Washington, who took his discontent and started a revolution, Todd Myers, founder of gw Beer, felt it was time for a revolution in beer. Here are some excerpts from an April 16th interview with Todd Myers, owner of gw Beer:

So where did you come up with the idea for gw Beer?

Years ago I had gotten a copy of George Washington’s beer recipe (he had written it in his diary in 1757) I love drinking good beer and love history so when I learned of his recipe this was a natural for me. Then I was on the beach on the north shore one summer day and in the cooler were your typical heavy hopped-up micro brews and other watery no-taste high volume lager like beers. No good beer – know what I mean? I had a craving for a really good tasting, well balanced, smooth and easy drinking beer. George Washington was a man of the people, and because of my feelings of discontent with the present state of beers, I decided it was time create a new beer – America’s first craft brewed beer for the people (all of them)!

Did you make it exactly the same way as Washington?

Well Washington made it in a wood barrel and left it in a field to ferment covered by a blanket. My brewer told me that he wasn’t going to make beer in an open field with a horse blanket covering it so we took it indoors.

What is the difference between your beer and other micro brews?

My proposition is pretty simple, why can’t there be a microbrew for everyone. People who want a great tasting beer are tired of the foreign domestics, but they don’t want a heavy, highly hopped beer either.

You mean a microbrew beer for the mainstream?

Yeah I guess – something that’s got fine craft brewed flavor but that you can also drink to quench your thirst. It’s all about having a right balance of toasted malt and hop flavor and aroma, creating a beer with high drinkability

So you are the all American beer?

Well I haven’t thought of it exactly like that but yeah I guess we are. Every ingredient, the packaging, everything is made in America. You can’t get a more all American recipe; that’s for sure.

Are people comparing you to Sam Adams?

They can – but they shouldn’t. I never quite got Sam Adams. Koch, the owner, makes a point of saying it is his German great – great grandfather’s recipe, goes to Germany to buy ingredients but then names the brand after an American patriot from Boston. Look we’re an American beer, with an American recipe, using only American ingredients and brewed with a taste profile for everyone not just a select few beer connoisseurs.

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Hm. I happen to like hoppy beers done right and am not quite sure what it means to take a historically famous recipe and water it down for the masses, but I’m about to find out.

To the beer!

1757 gw Beer
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