After the great response from the folks over at Bristol from my last post on them, and checking the freezer and finding it nearly empty of buffalo (which we get from Black Forest Bison), we made the trip down to Colorado Springs this weekend to whet our whistle and stock up.
Seen above is the new location for Bristol come 2012; the bartender confirmed a hoped for February 2012 opening date. The new location, formerly the Ivywild School, will double the brewing capacity of Bristol and will offer not only the meeting space and community gardens as mentioned in my previous post, but will also host a local college’s radio station’s remote site. The community space will host musical events that barring unseen circumstances, will be broadcast live from the location.
We did the full round of tasters available at this time of year, which confirmed our estimation of their brews. The highlight was the Smokehouse Porter which is one of their quarterly brews that support the local charities. All of the proceeds from the beer, available only on tap at the brewery, go to the chosen entity; this time to an organization that supports artistic expression. The porter had just a hint of smokiness with coffee overtones that the wife found heavenly, especially considering she normally doesn’t like the usual porter. The nitro-infused Compass IPA was as incredible as last time, maybe more so.
Again, I encourage you to stop by Bristol if you’re passing through the Springs, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
update 3/22/12
The approval and financing processes for the Ivywild project are now complete and renovation will start very soon. You can read more about it at the Colorado Springs Business Journal.
