Craft Beer + Music: Twelvenote Brew Co. Opens in Black Rock

Brian Pietrzak has had some “pinch me” moments lately. As the brewer and co-owner of Twelvenote Brew Co. in the former Aspetuck Brew Lab space in Black Rock, he’ll tell you candidly that it’s all a bit surreal.

“I wake up sometimes at 3 a.m. and I can’t believe I own a fuckin’ brewery, like, I can’t believe this is my job now,” he says.

Originally from Erie, PA, Pietrzak’s brewing story started as you might expect it to, with a home brewing kit he received as a gift from his brother-in-law, who’s his now partner at Twelvenote.

“My wife and I moved to Stamford two-and-a-half years ago to be closer to family after spending most of our lives in Erie,” Pietrzak shares. “My brother-in-law, Paul (Dyer) always talked about doing a brewery together because he knows I brew beer. I actually got started from him and my sister when they gave me a beer making kit one Christmas. Every brewer started that way, on a kitchen stove, then they progressed. I got pretty addicted to it, so why not go bigger?”

But it wasn’t quite as easy as getting a kit, loving beer, starting a homebrewing hobby, and opening a brewery. Pietrzak was a welder and machinist for 20 years at General Electric and he used his trade assistance union benefits to up his hobby by taking brewing science courses at the oldest brewing school in America, the Siebel Institute of Technology.

Twelvenote’s branding is courtesy of Pietrzak’s partner and brother-in-law, as Dyer is the president of the NYC ad agency Lippe Taylor.

“I did that, then worked at various breweries in Northwestern, Pennsylvania, helping out some buddies that own breweries,” Pietrzak says. “I worked at Black Monk Brewery, then I got rehired at GE after being laid off through no fault of my own before I brewed professionally. I still kept brewing on the side, so if friends needed a hand, they’d call me up. I eventually was done at GE and qualified for my pension.”

Now that Pietrzak wrapped up at GE and left Erie for Fairfield County, he found a listing for a brewery for sale on ProBrewer.com which led him to Aspetuck Brew Lab’s former owner, Peter Cowles.

“I checked it out and it was plain Jane in here, but I liked the location and knew it could be dressed up,” Pietrzak says. “The equipment looked good, but I had my friend, Jeff Goodno, who’s opened like 30 breweries and was the head brewer at Victory for 10 years, come down and give it a thorough check. He gave us his thumbs up, and after six months of negotiations, we got the keys. December 2, 2024 is when we had control of the space.”

After a painstaking permit process, lots of interior changes, including acoustic wall paneling and constructing a new bar, and, of course, brewing beer for the public, Twelvenote was ready to rock, pun intended, as the brewery’s name is inspired by the 12 notes that comprise the chromatic music scale, and fitting, too, since Pietrzak is a musician, specifically, a drummer.

At Twelvenote, you can expect a marriage of beer and music in so many ways. Each beer isn’t only named after a song or lyric, but it’s also the beer’s suggested song pairing. The QR code on the back of Twelvenote’s menu? It leads to playlists of music videos. On the speakers in the taproom? You guessed it…music. And on the TVs, you won’t see sports or news, but rather, music videos or music documentaries.

But on tap, Pietrzak’s style are clean, classic brews like You Sexy Thang! (a brown ale named after Hot Chocolate’s “You Sexy Thing”), Wheastie Boyz (an American wheat ale and an ode to Beastie Boys’ “Paul Revere”), and Haight Times (Grateful Dead’s “High Time”), a California common, a hybrid style brewed with lager yeast and fermented at ale temperatures, that results in a toasty, caramelly, malty quaff.

Pietrzak, though, also credits his beers, in part, to Black Rock’s water, something he’s super nerdy about.

Twelvenote’s eight draft lines feature a mix of what they call “Recording Sessions",” meaning each of these are crushable, 5% ABV and below (think ales, wits, blondes), “Thematic Rotation” selections are their experimental brews, “Seasonal Compositions” (seasonal beers), and “The OGs,” that customers should see year-round. As for his flagships, he said he’ll let the people dictate that.

Beer to-go? Currently, just growler fills, but there are plans for canning and self distribution after those initial opening phases.

“Honestly, I was focused on the water source here,” Pietrzak says. “As long as the water is good, you can brew without having to add filtration equipment, UV lights, and all that. I didn’t know much about Black Rock before I got here. My basement looks like a meth lab, but I tested different waters down there for brewing, including Stamford’s when we first moved in. In Erie, I had to use bottled water because it’s too salty from the underground salt mines. There’s low minerality here, it’s super soft, low alkalinity. Stamford’s water is great, too, but here it’s even better.”

What you’ll definitely see, aka, drink at Twelvenote coming up likely won’t be any sours or cloyingly sweet pastry stouts or barleywines, but instead, it’ll be IPAs (both West Coast and New England), a holiday ale, saisons, ambers, and a stout collaboration with Goodno, who left brewing for the coffee industry, so they’ll be using his FSC Roasters beans in a coffee stout.

Early on, besides what’s on draft, Twelvenote offers a N/A hazy IPA from Athletic Brewing Co., Boylan Bottling Co.’s soda, Fifth State Distillery’s Chocolate Old Fashioned, and because this is a dog friendly spot, there are treats available and Tailwagger Dog Beer in case your pup would like to join you in a pint. And as for food, currently they’ve partnered with their next-door neighbor, The Blind Rhino, so all you have to do is scan the QR code inside the taproom, order, and they’ll walk the food right over to your barstool.

And because Pietrzak’s vision is the perfect harmony of beer and music, live music will be a regular occurrence at Twelvenote.

“It’s meant to be a sensory experience with beer and the music, so we’ll do acoustic acts from Thursday through Sunday,” he says. “No sports on TV here, just music stuff, so you can escape reality and have an intimate experience, socialize, do what we used to do, and take it all in. There’s a good amount of hipsters and musicians in this neighborhood, so I think we picked a good spot for a musically themed brewery, and the people here have all been great.”

3389 Fairfield Avenue Unit 3, Bridgeport

203.290.4178, twelvenotebrewco.com