Bruce Barrett

THE PRESIDENT

The President and Partner. Bruce is an active peacemaker, amateur pianist, and craft beer lover. He and grammar school friend (and partner) Jeff collected beer cans longer before they were of drinking age. He attended Foran High School in Milford, and graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1985. He forgot about beer, gave away his beer can collection (something he now regrets) taught English in Chile (something he loved), returned home, and with his father “Jack” and brother John, helped build Barrett Outdoor Communications Inc, the family billboard business.

In 2000, John and Bruce purchased the Fairfield County News building in Bridgeport, installed a billboard, and rented the building to the original newspaper distributor. Bruce’s notes on the original purchase read “would be a great location for a brewpub.” In 2009 Bruce created IWagePeace.Org and directed, edited, and co-produced his first film, The Billboard from Bethlehem, chronicling the peace work of the Israeli/Palestinian non-violent group The Combatants For Peace. The film won four documentary film awards, including the Mondavi Award for Peace and Cultural Understanding at the Napa Sonoma Wine Country Film Festival. In 2015, remembering beer, Bruce and John invited Jeff into a brewing partnership in Bridgeport. Jeff loved the idea and the partnership was sealed with a drink, a smile, and faith that beer, peace, and friendship held promise for the future of Bridgeport.

John barrett

THE SENIOR PARTNER

Born in December of 1960, John was always a tinkerer and collector who liked “messing with stuff.” As a kid, he would melt lead fishing sinkers to mold coins inside potatoes. He dissected old telephones, rewired them, and mounted the parts on boards so he could see the parts spread out while he made a call. Just for fun, at age twelve, he visited construction sites, spoke with the foremen, collected news, old parts, and learned what was what and who was who. John also found time to train as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and spent many years saving lives as a volunteer for the Stratford EMS. It was only natural among his many fascinations, that John took to home brewing.

John graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1980 and joined Barrett Outdoor Communications Inc, the family billboard business. Under John’s guidance, the company built many sign locations now prominent on I95, Route 84, and RT8. In 2000, John and his brother Bruce purchased the Fairfield County News Building in Bridgeport and John built the prominent billboard towering over the building. The brothers hoped one day to turn the site into a Brewery, but settled for leasing the warehouse to the news distributor who once owned the site…, that is until he and Bruce invited Jeff into the adventure of a lifetime: Brewport. How cool to have a friend who is one of the Connecticut’s top Brewers? John is also a ham radio hobbyist and an elected “Burgess”. It is fitting and natural that John, Bruce, and Jeff are now joining forces to create Brewport; a dream come true and a gift for you and the city we love.

Jeff Sr.

The Managing Partner

The Brewmaster and Partner, has loved of all things beer since his childhood. He started collecting beer cans in the 70’s with Brewport Partner Bruce Barrett and he stuck with it. Quickly he realized the importance of this wondrous liquid and started a lifelong pursuit of knowledge in all things beer!

Most people can’t turn a childhood passion into a career but that’s exactly what Jeff did. He developed his palate by running tastings in college and was already brewing at home starting in his teen years. After a brief experiment in the non-beer world, Jeff sought out a career in brewing in the mid 90’s and has never looked back. Jeff has worked with many national and international companies as a marketing rep and product consultant, with brewing stops at Diglio’s in Hamden, CT, then on to Longshore Brewing Co. in Garden City, Long Island. Eventually, for the last 15 years, he ran the brewery at BAR in New Haven, CT, growing the brewing operation into the largest brewpub in Connecticut.

When the Barrett Brothers came to tell him of this cool old building in Bridgeport that would make a great brewpub he jumped at the chance to make a difference in such a historic brewing city. To this project, Jeff brings tens of thousands of pages of pre-prohibition batch sheets (recipes) from long gone Bridgeport breweries such as Eckert, Hartmann, and the Bridgeport Brewing Co. With these and hundreds of his own recipes he can’t wait to bring history from grain to glass again in Bridgeport; marrying the old and the new.