“The first 10 or 15 batches I just dumped down the drain,” said Bushnell, a 41-year-old former financial controller, who took up the hobby while his wife was busy pursuing a doctoral degree. [...] I got one that was right and I started handing it out to friends. The proliferation of small-batch brewers —Stamford’s Half Full, Stratford’s Two Roads and Bridgeport’s Brewport — doesn’t mean the road to profitability in this industry is easy, said Bushnell, who opened Lock City with business partner Patrick Casciolo. Instead of distributing their beers to bars and restaurants, the duo wants to keep their product in-house, serving it at their Research Drive taproom three or four days a week and limiting keg distribution. Last week, Lock City was mixing its fifth ever commercial batch at its 2,000-square-foot brewery and taproom, where patrons sip their pints feet from the tall metal vats used to ferment the beer just days or weeks before. The two met years ago through their wives and decided together to join the craft-beer industry. Besides developing recipes, the owners faced a hurdle in finding an available space that met their needs in an area with the type of industrial zoning that would permit them to operate a brewery.