A Trader Joe's manager by day, CT's stout-loving local celeb Tom M has raised $30K for charity - CT Insider

It is hard to describe exactly what Tom M means to the Connecticut beer scene.

He is not a brewer, a blogger or writer and he bristles at the term “influencer” when applied to him. He used to bartend part time but currently doesn’t work in the beer industry. Yet he is known far and wide in nearly every brewery in the state, in every serious beer bar and in every online community dedicated to Connecticut beer.

So too is his increasingly famous slogan: “It’s always stout season.”

Over the past seven years, the Naugatuck resident and manager at Trader Joe’s in Danbury has become a legitimate local celebrity and digital as well as real-life meme. This is all thanks to his love of visiting breweries — he’s been to most every one in the state — and frequent posting on beer social media forums, as well as his overwhelming passion for stouts.

“I’m one of those people that you’re going to see at all the brew fests, at all the breweries,” says Tom M (his last name is Maugeri but he prefers just the first initial of his last name be used). He notes that, when he goes to a brewery, people who don’t know him come up to him and heckle him for his love of stouts. “They make fun of me. I make fun of myself and it’s to make people smile.”

Rejecting the monetization efforts of other niche online stars, he only uses his unexpected “fame” to help others. In the last three years he’s raised close to $30,000, including more than $10,000 through his participation in the Closer to Free Ride with Team Craft Beer to support the Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center in New Haven.

“I’ve never looked at it to make money for myself,” he says. “I have a great-paying job at Trader Joe’s. They treat me well, I love it to death.”

The legend of Tom M begins in 2013. Back then Tom M was a cider and wine fan who did not drink beer — at all.

“I never liked the taste of beer,” he says. “For years friends would give me IPAs and Corona and Bud Light. I’m like, this is disgusting.”

He has a background in the restaurant industry and worked as a cook as well as in the front of house. When two of his friends opened The Corner Tavern in Naugatuck, he began bartending part time. It is a serious beer bar, and to work there Tom decided he needed to learn more about beer.

One day one of the owners of the bar put a dark beer in front of him.

“I go, ‘What’s this?’ ” Tom M recalls. “He goes, ‘You like chocolate and you like coffee? I’m like, ‘Yeah, I love chocolate and coffee.’ He goes, ‘Try this.’ And I took a sip and my mind was blown. I’m like, it’s not bitter because every beer I’ve ever had was bitter, bitter, bitter, bitter, bitter.”

Just as the spider bite turned Peter Parker into Spider-Man, this beer turned Tom into Tom M.

He began traveling to breweries and beer bars, sampling everything he could find. He logged all the beers he tried on Untappd, a beer reviewing and rating app, and started developing a reputation there. He then truly came into his own on CT Beer Drinkers, a Facebook group with thousands of members.

Tired of people constantly posting about IPAs, Tom decided to take a stand for stouts. He began responding to a stream of posts with a meme that evolved into “It’s Always Stout Season,” written in Star Wars-type lettering in a logo and accompanying hashtag. That meme/hashtag, a bold-faced response to those who only drink stouts in the winter season, became his digital calling card and earned him online notoriety.

“Stout season is about all other beers that are not IPAs,” he says. Online, he cultivated a playfully brash and argumentative persona that is a far cry from him in real life.

“It’s a wrestling character,” he says of his online persona. “It’s me turned up to 11.”

Online Tom M would never admit to drinking another style but stout, but in reality Tom tries IPAs all the time and is extremely knowledgeable about the style, though it’s still not his favorite.

COVID has made traveling to breweries more difficult and eliminated beer fests, but he has remained active. He still goes to breweries regularly, safely socially distancing. During the initial shutdown in the spring, he made a shirt that said “Stay Home and Stout Season,” which raised more than $2,000 and was used to pay a month’s rent for three people who were suffering economic hardships due to the pandemic.

Marty Juliano, director of business development at New England Brewing Co. in Woodbridge, is a friend of Tom M’s and heads the Smilow charity biking team Tom works with.

“He’s always looking to do something to help people in need,” Juliano says. He adds that Tom M recently organized a rare beer raffle to benefit the family of a member of the craft beer community who died unexpectedly. “With COVID it’s challenging, but he still finds ways to do things and get people involved.”

And even with COVID, the stout season movement is spreading.

“He’s created something,” Juliano says. “Hashtag ‘It’s always stout season’ has gone beyond Connecticut and it’s just from him talking about it.”

Tom M picks his two favorite Connecticut stouts:

Kewl Beans (New England Brewing Co., Woodbridge): “It’s a coffee oatmeal stout. It’s my Narragansett Lager. It’s my Miller High Life. It’s my Pabst Blue Ribbon. When NEBCO comes out with it in February that’s all I drink. It’s coffee forward, nice little bittering, nice sweetness, easy drinking.”

Barrel Aged Pitch and Roll (Outer Light Brewing Co., Groton): “It’s their barrel-aged imperial chocolate stout. It’s only barrel aged for like three, four months. It’s so chocolatey, so motor-oil rich, but so silky smooth at the same time. I just opened one from 2018 because it’s the first beer I’ve ever bought a case of.”

Follow Tom M on Instagram: @coolbeans316

This article originally appeared in Connecticut Magazine. You can subscribe here , or find the current issue on sale here . Sign up for the newsletter to get the latest and greatest content from Connecticut Magazine delivered right to your inbox. On Facebook and Instagram @connecticutmagazine and Twitter @connecticutmag .

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