At Witchdoctor Brewing, the Experiments Go On
- Philip Thibodeau
- 27 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Many brewery owners get their start by experimenting with brewing at home. Josh Norris, the head brewer of Witchdoctor Brewing in Factory Square, is no exception.
“I was a home brewer, doing about ten gallons at a time in the backyard. I had all the equipment, the propane burners and the modified kegs. I got some unofficial schooling by being involved with the homebrew club of East Hartford, of which I was one of the founding members. It was really great, we were constantly doing experiments and learning. We had the guys from Firefly there to help.”
The Firefly in question is Firefly Hollow Brewing, one of the first modern breweries in the area to take off. Housed in an old factory building in Bristol, it developed a reputation for having a no-nonsense focus on quality beer before it closed in 2023 after nine years of operation.
The founders of Firefly inspired Norris to make his own leap into the beer business. Another factor was his experience with the downsides of his original profession, engineering.
“Being in the engineering world, I was over and over again unpleasantly surprised by the layoffs. So I finally made the jump into business. I started searching for a place in 2014. We’ve been here almost 10 years; we opened in April of 2017.”
The place Witchdoctor calls home is the century-and-a-half old brick manufacturing building, now known as Factory Square, that used to belong to the Southington Tool Manufacturing Company. The first-floor space at 168 Center Street needed a lot of work before it could be used for brewing and hosting.
“These were the original floors, but they looked very different then - like this,” he said, gesturing to some of the panels in the face of the bar:
“The floor was crazy. There were nails sticking up every six inches. The very first thing we did was come in with hammers and pound down the nails across the entire floor. We also had to sand down a lot of screws.”
In between hammering nails and setting up tanks, Norris was meditating on the name. According to Norris, the rather poetic explanation given for it on the website i accurate: “The name 'Witchdoctor’ presented itself to Josh as he sat amongst the trees and the stars pondering what craft beer meant to him. Craft beer was ancient. It was brewed like a mysterious potion that changed over time to a drink that made people feel different and brought them together… Over the course of time, there have been many names for the those who make potions, tinctures and are regarded as greatly important to the well-being of the community. Out of these, ‘Witchdoctor’ seemed to provide the mystique he was after.”
The next step was to turn this concept into a visual brand. “One of my buddies from the brewing club helped us with the branding,” Norris said. “Really, I get a lot of help from people, from the community. Whenever we need something that the extended community can help us with, they reach out.”
And in fact, as our interview was taking place, two of Josh’s customers were in the taproom working to replace the wheels on a mobile tank. Josh had mentioned the problem to them and the pair had come over with their drills to help out.
Rotating Beers
The beer menu at Witchdoctor’s taproom mixes old standards and novelties. Among the most time-tested offerings are Monk’s Hood, a Belgian saison, and Pauper’s Porridge, an oatmeal amber ale. “Those are the oldest, right off the homebrew rig,” Norris said.
As for the most popular, Norris mentions their German pilsner, called Factory Pils, their blonde ale, Love is Blonde, and Cloudstepper, "an IPA with kashmir and Osaka hops.”
Witchdoctor bartender Joe Wilton said that the Vienna Montana copper lager could be added to that list. He also noted that there are seasonal variations, since people prefer different styles at different times of the year: “It’s seasonal. In the fall, the dark beer will jump to number one. In the spring, sours become more popular.”
Among their newest offerings are a coffee pilsner, Columbian Gold, and Dreamsicle, an orange creamsicle sour. Another recent experiment, Sleigh Maker, is a chocolate peppermint stout.
As for Norris’s personal preferences, he says, “I enjoy the sweeter ones, and the hazy IPA’s. I tend to gravitate to whatever is new on tap – a new recipe, or a returning one.”
Changing Events
Josh’s business partner Mike See is the barroom manager. He takes care of the rustic interior space, making sure people feel welcome, with a variety of seating options and traditional pub activities like darts and billiards. Dogs – including the house dog, Loki – are welcome at Witchdoctor. There is no kitchen, but people can order or bring in food from the Lab, Barb’s Pizza, or Anthony Jack’s nextdoor. A mocktail menu is also available for those who prefer their beverages non-alcoholic.
Then there are scheduled events. “Once a month we have yoga," Norris said. "That’s probably our longest running activity, once a month on Sundays. We’ve been doing karaoke here since last summer. Live music is a long-running thing, although it has waned in popularity, unfortunately. We did trivia for a couple of years, then it too started to wane, so we let it go.”
One new trend is what Norris calls pop-up activities. At Witchdoctor these are arranged by bartender/events manager Devon Dzicek.
“I look on social media for other small businesses that do unique things,” said Dzicek. “I was looking for a chunky blanket vendor and saw someone who was marketing herself, and we arranged it.” In a chunky blanket event, participants make a blanket from extra-thick or ‘chunky’ yarn.
“Some of the workshops cater to a more female clientele; they will tend to do those activities and bring their partners. We just did a Paint-Your-Partner event where couples paint each other - where they paint portraits of each other.”
“I’m usually reaching out. Although the spirit doll vendor – it's called a spirit doll, not a voodoo doll – she found us. She was traveling up from South Carolina, she makes the dolls for us to sell. It fits the Witchdoctor theme.”
Obstacles and Rewards
Running a brewery and taproom is not all fun and games. “Rising costs are definitely tough,” Norris observed. “And it’s not so much the ingredients as it is rent, insurance, taxes, they’re always going up. Summer is especially stressful because there are fewer people; it’s a time when people are out doing their own thing.”
Finding parking for his customers has become a growing challenge: “Coming here on a Friday night, you have to do laps around the block to find a spot. There is parking, but there are more businesses coming in. There needs to be a parking lot somewhere in this area that they’re building up.”
Still, at the end of the day, Norris finds it very rewarding: “My favorite thing is being able to do it and to guide it and to fly the ship. Being able to steer it the way it needs to be steered. Being creative with beers and other drinks. Really, just being a businessman.”
