On Saturday, Bristol Brewing Co. hosted its 10th annual Buses at the Brewery with Bulli Klinik (a local business dedicated to the preservation and restoration of vintage VWs) and beat everyone to the punch celebrating all things German with both VW buses and and the release of its Red Baron Oktoberfest.
A Vienna-style red lager, with a great copper color and a satisfying caramel malt profile — but still very drinkable on what turned out to be another warm day — Red Baron is one of three lagers Bristol makes: Yellow Kite in the late spring and summer, Red Baron Oktoberfest for the fall, and its philanthropic Give! Black Lager in the late fall and winter. Red Baron stays strong in the Oktoberfest theme, brewed using Munich grain and Augustiner, a 300-year-old German yeast.
It was a great turnout from all walks of life. “We just want people to come out and celebrate the bus and the free spirit lifestyle,” says senior beer ambassador Chris Linquist, a.k.a “Trout.”
Brewery owners Mike and Amanda Bristol are big fans of VW (thus the Mass Transit Ale) and appreciate the broad spectrum of folks that also connect with what VW stands for. “You have engineers, grease monkeys and Grateful Dead fans,” says director of public relations Matt Ward likening their “Bristol groove” to VW, claiming both are off the beaten path. “We want to infect our vibe and our beer with everybody,” he says.
Bristol is deepening that connection and letting its creative juices flow with the progressive release of its Forgotten Genius Series: four new, elevated, imperial-style beers that go further down the rabbit hole than its tried and true flagship beers.
Forgotten Genius consists of:
-Automaton White IPA, quadruple hopped to counterbalance the witbier base, producing lovely coriander and citrus notes from the Belgian yeast.
-World Peace Death Ray Imperial IPA; triple hopped and rounding out Bristol’s highest IBU count yet at *89, maintaining immaculate balance for an imperial IPA with a manageable but enticing ABV of eight percent.
-Knob Hill Station Imperial RyePA; a nod to Tesla’s workshop, and “one of the best beers I’ve ever made,” says head brewer Chris Hastings. Using a 25 percent rye mash bill, it has a great dank, earthy profile and boasts big boy status with nine percent ABV.
The last of the four beers from the Forgotten Genius Series will be unveiled in mid-November. It’ll be a variation on an old winter favorite and beloved Bristol character, a deeper, more robust take on what we enjoy chewing on in the colder months. (Your stew just got that much more flavorful.)
The inspiration for the Forgotten Genius Series stems from Bristol’s reverence for Nikola Tesla, whom resided in Colorado Springs for about a year, conducting some of his most well-known, high-voltage experiments at his workshop at Knob Hill Station (which lends its name to the coveted RyePA).
“He was a student of the game and had true creativity,” says Ward. And like Tesla, Bristol wants to shrug off some Colorado Springs stereotypes and also exhibit the depth of its vision with a brighter, bolder statement. “We want to show who we are and what we’re into.”
Swing by Ivywild or grab some Red Baron Oktoberfest at Rocky Mountain Oktoberfest in Woodland Park with Bristol on Saturday, September 17 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
“O’zapft is!” (It’s tapped!)
[Images: Dionne Roberts]
