Bristol Brewing Company

We were very excited to travel from the Denver area to Colorado Springs in order to visit the Bristol Brewing Company.  In previous visits to Colorado I had tried their Laughing Lab (Scottish-ale) and Winter Warlock (stout) and liked them.

After the hour drive, we arrived at Bristol ready to experience what looked like a neighborhood-style taproom.  The place was packed, but after a few minutes a table opened up and we settled in.  The inside was small and decorated as one would expect: brewery paraphernalia; a beer-cap mosaic; and other assorted beer-related stuff.

The line for beer was long, as this was the day before the Superbowl and folks were getting growlers filled. A great sign that the beer would be yummy.  We got in line and waited.

When we finally reached the server, we asked for several samplers.  We had a large party and everyone wanted to sample the beers.  I was shocked and extremely disappointed when the serving girl gave us a look of disdain and started complaining about how much time it would take to fill the samplers...and look at the line behind us...and yadda, yadda, yadda.  Bad form Bristol Brewing and a loud "boo" to your serving staff.  Not an auspicious start to our day of brewpubing in Colorado Springs.  The serving "wench" finally agree to bring the samplers over to our table "when she got a chance to fill them."

The samplers arrived a while later and our pleasure of the visit increased immediately.  They taproom had several good beers and some were really quite good.  I particularly liked the Black Fox Diablo that was spiced with cayenne pepper.  Others in my party enjoyed the Black Fox Som and the Old #23 Barleywine.

The dog theme was present throughout the brewery, with pretzels were served in dog bowls and tasting instructions that were dog training commands. I like when breweries have themes like this.

After we finished our samplers, we decided not to linger.  I hate to admit it, but the poor (and rude) service turned me off to this brewery.  Although I realize that one server does not represent the entire brewery, she was my first contact with it and first impressions are hard to change.  I, for one, will never go back and I cannot recommend this taproom.  There are too many other great breweries in the area to waste your time with this one.

Cheers,
Zymus