Craft beer currently is all the rage in Connecticut, with new breweries springing up across the state. But is there a point where our mugs runneth over? The lawyer from Hyderabad, India, was incensed. “This is nothing but insult to the Indians, nothing but insult to the Indian constitution,” Sunkari Janardhan Goud told NewsX, an Indian news site. And the “insult” would not stand—in January 2015 he filed a private petition on the matter. The subject of the petition and Goud’s ire: Connecticut beer. Actually, one Connecticut beer in particular, Gandhi-Bot, an uber popular double IPA made by Woodbridge-based New England Brewing Co. Goud and others on both sides of the Atlantic felt the beer and its label, which depicts a robotic Mahatma Gandhi, was disrespectful to the late Indian political leader who did not drink alcohol. Goud’s petition and the ensuing controversy over the beer’s name sparked international news coverage, hundreds of articles and even a joke from late night TV host Conan O’Brien. It also led New England Brewing Co. to announce in late January that the name of the beer would be changed. This “beer-gate” episode is an odd example of what many local beer lovers already know. Connecticut—once seen as a latecomer to the craft beer party—has begun to flex its brewing muscles in a major way. “I started writing about the Connecticut beer scene in 1994 and there were just a few breweries here then,” says Gregg Glaser, editor-in-chief of Yankee Brew News and editor and publisher of Modern Distillery Age. A few years back, Glaser recalls, “Other states seemed to be adding more and more breweries and Connecticut wasn’t. But that’s changed now.” The number of breweries in Connecticut has grown from just a handful to close to 30 currently. Specialty beers from breweries like New England Brewing Co., Beer’d Brewing Co. in Stonington and others are sought after like rock concert tickets or new Apple products. “Craft is rising, there’s no two ways about it,” says Margaux Gingras, director of corporate strategy for G&G Beverage. “The younger generation wants something new. They want new electronics all the time, they want the latest car and they want the latest beer as well.” In repurposed factories and inside industrial warehouses usually located in the “bad,” or at the very least, less scenic portions of towns, Connecticut breweries are launching a revolution of sorts, liberating bar taps and liquor store shelves across the state from the longtime yoke of big beer. The success of these breweries has also had a ripple effect, bolstering the burgeoning business of Connecticut beer bars and drawing tourism. “The brewing scene in Connecticut is exploding right now,” says Randy Fiveash, director of Connecticut’s Office of Tourism. “Since the launch of the Connecticut Beer Trail in 2011, we’ve seen growing interest from residents and visitors to experience our revolutionary trail, especially with the increasing popularity of culinary-focused travel, since so many travelers are driven by their stomachs.” Fiveash adds that the Connecticut Beer Trail is one of the most popular pages on CTvisit.com, attracting more than 30,000 visits annually. Fiveash expects that number to grow and for the beer trail to continue to be an economic driver much like the state’s long-established wine trail. The success of these breweries has also led to constant, almost weekly beer festivals and events. A little over a year ago Kevin Mardorf, a New Canaan Internet marketer, founded CTBeer.com, a site dedicated to all things Connecticut beer, and beerfests.com, which provides information about beer festivals occurring across the country. Mardorf has noticed increasingly big crowds at festivals. “Some of these events are seeing a tripling in their attendance,” he says. One of those festivals, the Shakes Beer festival in Stratford, saw ticket sales jump from a few hundred when it started to more than 1,400 last August. Connecticut bars have also witnessed a consumer shift toward beer made in the state. “The amount of local beer that’s available to us versus twelve-and-a-half years ago is dramatically higher, and it’s great beer at that,” says Christian Burns, owner of Skal Restaurant Group, which operates four of Connecticut’s most celebrated beer bars— The Cask Republic in Stamford and New Haven and the Ginger Man in South Norwalk and Greenwich. And it’s not just beer bars that are getting in on the action. Sports bars and places that don’t specialize in beer have begun to carry local brands. “Even restaurants with four or five handles might have as many as two or three local beers on tap,” Burns says. Connecticut breweries are not enjoying this success all alone. According to the Brewer’s Association, the number of craft breweries in the United States recently passed the 3,200 mark, the highest total since the 1800s, and in 2014, new breweries opened at an average rate of 1.5 per day. Collectively, the craft industry has even cut into big brand beer sales. As the Wall Street Journal noted last November, “Budweiser has gone from being one of four beers on draft a decade ago to being one of 10 options today, distributors estimate. Many bars don’t offer it at all.” Even so, Budweiser is still one of the companies that dominates U.S. beer sales, but in a telling sign of just how far the craft beer has come, one of Budweiser’s Super Bowl ads took aim at the craft beer movement, mocking those who “fussed” over their beer. Craft beer, once a counterculture pursuit, has become mainstream, as likely to be ordered by bearded hipsters as jersey-wearing sports jocks of both sexes. And the industry here in Connecticut continues to grow at a dizzying—some say dangerous—rate. Steady Habits Brewing Co. in Haddam opened this year and five more— Kent Falls Brewing Co., Stony Creek Brewery, No Worries Brewing Co., Outer Light Brewing Co. and Veracious Brewing—are hoping to open soon. In sideways logic worthy of Yogi Berra, it’s this rapid success that some brewing industry observers worry could be the downfall of Connecticut beer. For the first time people are asking a question that just a few years ago would have seemed laughable: Will Connecticut soon have too many breweries? For 17 years, Willimantic Brewing Co. has been serving microbrews from a bar and restaurant in a converted historic 1909 U.S. Post Office building. David Wollner, the brewpub’s owner, is the vice president of Connecticut Brewer’s Guild and viewed as one of the elder statesman of Connecticut beer. He doesn’t believe breweries here have oversaturated the market just yet and points out that we’re still behind places like San Francisco, which has more than 100 breweries. “We equate it to the number of pizza places you have in a town, you can have a dozen in a small town and each one of them does business,” he says. Despite his optimism, Wollner isn’t viewing the world through rose-colored pint glasses and acknowledges the current craft market presents challenges. Willimantic beer is only available at the brewpub. Wollner is considering bottling or canning some of his beer, but knows getting an audience for his product is not a given. “There are so many IPAs out on the market, why is mine going to be better than anyone else’s? I’d like to believe it will be,” he says, but he knows convincing consumers could be difficult. In addition, just getting his product on a shelf is a tall order. “The package stores only have limited space, the grocery stores only have limited space and there’s so many brands competing for that shelf space,” he says. Across the state, that shelf space—along with bar tap lines—has become increasingly valuable real estate. Byron Turner, founder of ctbeertrail.net, has launched #Two CTTaps, a social media campaign that encourages local bars and restaurants to devote two lines exclusively to Connecticut brews. “There’s a lot of great beer in Connecticut, but there’s a lot of great beer elsewhere too,” Turner says. “Unfortunately, there’s only so many taps and so much cooler space available. We’re just asking bars and other venues to take a chance and offer a few local beers alongside those more widely distributed brews.” Turner believes that for breweries producing quality products, there are all sorts of opportunities. “I think there’s plenty of room for successful breweries here, but there are also many definitions of success,” he says. “For some, owning a nano-brewery and developing a small following in their hometown is a victory, to others running a medium-sized craft brewery with an active taproom is success. Not everyone will grow into a regional brewery, and I think that’s okay.” The question of whether Connecticut breweries can keep growing at this rate would likely not have been asked at all if it weren’t for Two Roads Brewing Co. in Stratford, which opened in late 2012 and, in the process, literally changed the rule book for Connecticut breweries. It’s early afternoon at Two Roads Brewing Co., and Brad Hittle is talking beer. We’re inside the brewery’s taproom, which overlooks a cavernous canyon of giant silver fermenting tanks and other brewing equipment. Hittle founded the company along with brewing guru Phil Markowski and several other partners, who were clearly thinking big. Today, Hittle is talking big—explaining where he thinks the giants of the industry went wrong. “Big brewer attempts at craft with brands like Shock top and Blue Moon are encouraging their once ultra-loyal drinkers to commit ‘brand treason,’” he says. “The never-before attempted act of trying a new beer suddenly unshackles them, enabling them to go forth and try other, even more interesting craft options.” But when it comes to the Connecticut market, the biggest mistake the established beer brands made might have been letting Hittle switch sides. A former marketing executive for Rolling Rock and the chief marketing officer for Pabst, where he was in charge of brands like PBR, Lone Star and Primo, Hittle had long dreamed of opening his own brewery with friends. When he finally opened that brewery, he helped change the face of Connecticut brewing in the process. Prior to 2012, breweries in Connecticut could not sell product directly to consumers in any form and could only sell tickets for tours that could include a tasting; only brewpub licensees could sell by the pint or out the door. That legal situation prevented brewery taprooms, like the one at Two Roads, which seats 250 people, from being viable moneymakers in their own right. Prior to opening Two Roads, Hittle, along with other company representatives, and some local politicians approached the legislature with proposed legislation that would allow breweries to sell pints, growlers and packaged beer to go. Ultimately, that legislation was passed. Suddenly, the business model for Connecticut breweries became a whole lot more viable. Now, nano-breweries could earn decent profits selling to customers in taprooms while bigger breweries like Two Roads had a reliable moneymaker and, perhaps more importantly, a fun destination that served as a one of the most effective marketing tools a business owner could hope for. Two Roads produced 70,000 barrels of beer last year, 16,800 of which was Two Roads beer while the rest went to other brewers. Hittle hopes to keep expanding those numbers and is optimistic about the prospects for him and other Connecticut breweries. The numbers seem to back that optimism. About 200 million barrels of beer are sold in the U.S. each year, with mainstream beer representing about 70 percent of those sales. But big beer has been losing market share by about 2 percent annually, and it is within those percentage points that Hittle sees a lot of room for craft beer growth. “Some is going to wine and spirits, but about 2 to 3 million barrels of beer per year is crumbling off the monolith,” he says. Connecticut liquor distributors are also seeing an increase in demand for craft beer that doesn’t show any signs of slowing. Adam Read is director of craft development at Rogo Distributors, a liquor distributor based in East Hartford. He is also a brewer who has worked for Magic Hat Brewing Co. and at The Cambridge House in Granby. He sees a bright future for the Connecticut brewing industry. “I don’t think we’re anywhere close to being saturated yet,” he says. “It’s an exciting time in the state and the industry as a whole.” In other words, don’t expect the GandhiBot name controversy to be the last headline generated by Connecticut beer.