This page is looking back at the history or Hull's, but also looking forward to a Hull's of the future. History:
The Hull Brewing Company was begun in 1870 by Col. He started the business on Whiting Street off of State Street, at what is now the old Coliseum site. Most knew it simply as “Hull’s,” and after a hiatus during prohibition from 1920 to 1933, the company moved into the old Fresenius brew
ery at 820 Congress Avenue. While many local beer makers closed up shop during the Great Depression, Hull’s kept going; indeed, for forty years, Hull’s was Connecticut’s only brewery. It made a variety of types but its most popular recipes were the Export Lager, the Cream Ale and the Bock. Eventually, amid major national advertising campaigns of now-monster breweries in St. Louis and Milwaukee, Hull’s couldn’t compete. It folded in 1977 and the old brewery burned the following year. The building was torn down, and it spelled the end of local brewing for about two decades. The old brewery was built by Philip Fresenius, a German immigrant. He founded his self named brewery in 1852 at Congress Avenue and West Street in the Hill neighborhood on the outskirts of town. At first Fresenius hand-delivered kegs by strapping them to his shoulders. He began building a larger brewery on the same site in 1874, adding new sections to satisfy the city’s growing thirst. A giant statue of the European folk legend Gambrinus was constructed three stories up, imploring all of New Haven to drink and be happy. The water used at the brewery came from Vermont-fed springs that ran directly underneath.Those springs are the same that fed Hull's and may still exist below a manhole on that site.
