“Remember when the only bottled craft beers on the shelf were Redhook, Pyramid and Bridgeport Blue Heron?” asked Bridgeport’s brewmaster, Karl Ockert recently, a bit wistfully. “Those were the days!”

Things certainly have gotten more crowded in supermarket and package store coolers over the years. But with competition comes inspiration.

Take Ockert’s latest brew, Stumptown Tart, Bridgeport’s first-ever fruit-infused beer. “I’ve never done a beer like this before … period,” said Ockert. “It was a real stretch.”

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