Red Leg Brewing Company December 2019 Visit

December 10, 2019 Jesse

There are pros and cons to the strategy that Mike and I have chosen regarding our visits to the local breweries.

The most obvious “pro” is, of course, that we get to sample some amazing beer made by talented people. With few exceptions, each visit to a brewery is going to provide a delicious new beer to drink and discuss, especially if it’s months (as in our case) between visits.

A not to obvious “con” is that, by visiting these breweries only once a week (ish), it frequently does take months for favorite breweries to bubble up to the top of our list. I think it takes a bit of will power (for both of us) to not simply go back and forth between two or three of our favorite breweries. But, it would make for a pretty boring blog, and we willingly make that sacrifice for you, gentle reader.

That being said, I feel like this week we definitely hit a high in the cycle. Red Leg popped up as being next on the list, which is one of my favorite breweries in town and one of the handful that leap to mind when people ask me “What is the best brewery you’ve been to?” (of course that’s like asking who your favorite Stooge is. It’s an impossible question.) I tend to forget the sheer size of the tap list at Red Leg. Of course they had their flagships, but also an impressive array of seasonal and rotating beers.

We had a limited showing this week compared to the past few. Mike and I were joined only by Bill. On to the beer…

Hunting Season Hoppy Saison – 5.7% ABV 25 IBU – I had to read the name of this beer twice when I saw it on the tap list. “Hoppy Saison”. What’s next, a White Stout (oh, wait. That’s a thing, isn’t it?)? It sounded interesting so I thought I’d give it a try.

Rather than order a half-pint to try it, I made a mistake and ordered a full pint. That was, as Bob Ross would say, a “happy little accident”. I certainly did not mind having a full pint of this beer to drink. I liked it more as I drank it.

It is exactly what it says it is. A (good) saison, but with some flavoring hops added. It has all of the saison characteristics; highly carbonated, very slight lemon flavor and dry finish. But rather than it being a clean, dry finish, I could tell there was an element of hops in there as well. My palate isn’t sophisticated enough to be able to identify the type of hosp, but it was undeniable.

I might not get a growler of this, but I would certainly get a pint again.

Wild Weasel IPA – 6.5% ABV 48 IBU – I’m kicking myself right now for not having tried this beer before. I thought I had, but I think I was confusing it with Red Legs Twin Tail IPA (which is also excellent, BTW) so I always gave it pass to try “new stuff”.

Well, I don’t know what made me try this one this evening, but, boy, I’m really glad I did. This is a great IPA, especially for people who want some hops, but aren’t interested in a hop-bomb.

This beer has a slightly piney aroma, but has a surprising malt sweetness. The finish is piney, as the nose suggested, but it’s pretty restrained. The combination of the sweet malt and slight bitterness give it a really rich mouthfeel.

This is a dangerously easy drinking beer – “crushable”, I think is the word the kids use these days.

Red Leg Taproom — Grain bags full of something on the ceiling for sound mitigation? Brilliant!

[Mike]

As Jesse mentioned, getting to some of our favorite breweries infrequently is one disadvantage to hitting every brewery in town. Another disadvantage that we have is trying to remember which beers that we’ve had at each and every brewery. I have to admit, I usually pull up our page about the brewery when I get somewhere, and try to pick the beers we haven’t reviewed yet.

The problem is compounded by the fact that in addition to our website / review beers, we tend to enjoy malted beverages on our off time as well. It’s just too much to keep straight sometimes.

This week, I didn’t do really with coordinating my beers. Oh well.

Hazy IPA – 6% ABV, 45 IBU – I’ve got to say, if you like traditional West Coast IPAs, you’ll probably like this East Coast one. It has a nice pine aroma in the nose, then pine and orange in the flavor, just slightly bitter. Not as juicy as a lot of the Hazy IPAs around, and I appreciated that. It was really good.

Blue Nose Brown – 5.8% ABV, 37 IBU – If you’re looking for a great brown, look no further. This one is just spot on. Malty and flavorful, nicely balanced, and much lighter than the dark color suggests. Finished with a light roast flavor. We reviewed it back in our March visit, and it’s just as good as ever.

Helo Heffe – 5.3% ABV, 12 IBU – Do you like Hefeweizen? Then you’ll like this one. Nice light clove flavors, really no banana that I picked up on, banana flavor seems to be a detractor for many people but not me, and of course hazy. It’s a great Hefeweizen. My issue is that I pulled it up on untappd, and realized that I’ve already had it, so I assumed we reviewed it as well, which wasn’t the case, so I didn’t bother to take any pictures. You’ve seen a hefeweizen though, imagine it looks like that 🙂

Note: We were chatting with the beertender, and mentioned how the bar setup must be a pain for them, it’s only open on one side, so when people sit on the far end of the room, which is where we happened to end up, the bartender has to walk all the way to one end of the room to get out from behind the bar, and then all the way back across to get beer to customers. Anyway, she mentioned that they weren’t going to do that in the “new” place. New place you say?

It turns out that Red Leg brewing is building a new facility just west of the current location. I did some google-fu and found this article in the Colorado Springs Independent, published back in July of 2018, and the new place sounds really neat. Expanded Tap room, outdoor food hall and market, and increased production facilities. It’s going to be built to resemble an Air Force hangar, bike accessible, and close to some trails. Sounds pretty sweet!

We didn’t get any inside scoop on when the new facility will be opened though, so keep an ear to the ground.

Beers we’ve reviewed here: