Local Relic – September 2019 Visit

This was a momentous visit for me and Mike. We started this blog a little over a year ago with the intention of visiting every brewery in Colorado Springs and documenting the visits – initially, to jog our own memories, but eventually to share our thoughts with a wider audience. Well, this was the last of the twenty-some-odd breweries we had to visit. We had both been here in the past, Mike more often than I, but this is the first occasion we had to visit with an eye toward putting “pen to paper” to record our impressions.

As is noted on the Local Relic page, the most noteworthy feature of this brewery is the building itself. It’s (obviously) a former church (among other things) and that vibe is very present to this day. It serves as an excellent backdrop for, I dare say, some of the city’s most unusual beers. In fact, we have actually decided not to come here on some occasions because we knew we were going to be joined by some less “adventurous” friends and we wanted to make sure they had some beer that would suit their palates. We were joined by Scott this week. He had the ESB. I’m not too sure what he thought of the beer, but, as always, the conversation was most excellent.

Let’s move on to the beers.

Citrus Lavender Saison – 6.9% – I didn’t get much aroma from any of the beers I tried this evening, at least until they had warmed up a bit. Once this one did warm, I got mostly a citrus aroma. The same goes for the flavor. When cold, I really could not get anything but the citrus from the hops. Once it warmed, I was able to detect some of the lavender, but it was really overwhelmed by the hops. However, I imagine that lavender would be one of those flavors that would be extremely easy to overdo, especially in a beer, so I appreciate the light application. It did finish dry.

Blackberry Belgian – 7.2% – This was probably my favorite beer of the evening. The fruity blackberry flavor really came through, but it wasn’t overpowering. I particularly enjoyed the slight sour finish this beer had. I was able to get some the Belgian character with this one.

Juicy Brut IPA – 8% – This unmistakably a brut IPA. It had a distinct citrus aroma. Dry and crisp and more citrusy that I was expecting. Over all a pretty mellow IPA.

Idaho Gem Brett SMASH – 8.9% – I was excited to see that they had not one, but two SMASH (single malt and single hop) beers on tap. Since I’m still trying learn what I can about craft beers, I love the idea of a beer where I can get a good idea of what a hop is supposed to taste like. This may have not been the best example since this had the influence of brett on it, but I think I get a good idea of what the Idaho Gem hops taste like. Overall, I liked this beer just fine. It was pretty mellow with a dry finish.

[Mike] – It certainly was a bit of a big deal that we tied up our city wide brewery tour with our visit to Local Relic. The most excellent local homebrew club, Brew Brothers of Pikes Peak, hosts meetings there once in awhile, and we even visited during our Downtown Colorado Springs Pub Crawl in June, so I’m pretty familiar with the really unique beers that Local Relic offers. However, we never created a visit post, so here we are.

Honeysuckle Saison – 7.3% – Tart with a slight bit of funk to it. Really light. The tap list says it’s made with fresh Colorado honeysuckle.

Lemongrass Brett – 7.5% – Light in body, light lemon grass flavor. Not overpowering at all. According to the tap list, it was aged for five months on fresh lemongrass, which I would have expected to make the lemongrass flavor far more overbearing, but instead it really was nice, not light enough to be missed, and it blended really nicely.

ESB – 6.3% – Really light malty flavor to it, very sessionable. I would have liked some more maltiness from it.

Spiced Pear English Mild – 6.4% – The pear flavor is really delicate and you have to search a bit for it. The tap list says that it was aged on holiday cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice. When I was drinking it, I would never have picked out any of those spices. They were all really light and blended together to give an overall impression of spice flavors. Really a complex beer.

Beers we’ve had at Local Relic:
– Belgian Brett Wheat – Downtown Pub Crawl
– Blackberry Belgian – September 2019 Visit
– Brett Gruit – Downtown Pub Crawl
– Chili Wheat Sour – Downtown Pub Crawl
– Citrus Lavender Saison – September 2019 Visit
– ESB – September 2019 Visit
– Honeysuckle Saison – September 2019 Visit
– Idaho Gem Brett SMaSH – September 2019 Visit
– Juicy Brut IPA – September 2019 Visit
– Lemongrass Brett – September 2019 Visit
– Spiced Pear English Mild – September 2019 Visit