Relic Brewery-Only Beers

Relic Experimentals and Such

If you know Relic Brewing, you know this page could be book-length. I know Relic and I know that “reviewing” every one of owner/brewer Mark’s experiments would be impossible. My man has put out probably 80-100 different beers over the first few years of the brewery’s existence. Instead, I’ve decided to do short little reviews of the more memorable beers – one way or another – over many visits to The Little Brewery That Could in Plainville.

Note: there is no date order to this page and the point here is to highlight some of the most interesting stuff Relic has done. There have been literally 50 other brewery-only beers that I’m not mentioning here.

…………………………………………………….

Madeline on Cherries, 6.5% ABV

Madeline is a traditional Belgian blonde ale brewed with the Chimay yeast strain giving it fruity flavors of Muscat grapes and plums. This beer had been aging a week or so on cherries.

As with many Relic one-offs, the adjective that springs to mind is “interesting.” Madeline is a pretty good ale as it is, and Relic really pumps up the yeast in it to achieve the fruitiness already. Letting it age with some cherries didn’t really add much to it.

Grade: B-

…………………………………………………….

Fortnight with Simcoe and Maple, 8.2% ABV

This special version of Fortnight is more like a DIPA in strength due to the hefty addition of maple syrup and extra Simcoe hops were added as well to lend their unique citrus and pine character.

Brewing with maple is a difficult thing to do. The extra sugars really mess with the fermentation process and to nail it – to really nail it – is a rare feat. Furthermore, I pretty much hate maple flavor in anything other than maple syrup. In short, I very much disliked this effort. Maple and hoppy pine in an already grassy IPA? Not for me.

Grade: D

…………………………………………………….

L’Orangerie Saison, 5.2% ABV

This petite saison is brewed with flaked oats and pale ale malts and white labs Saison 2 for a slightly tart base beer. Clementines and black pepper are then introduced to soak in the beer adding wonderful citrus and spice notes in both the aroma and the flavor.

Honestly, I didn’t write anything down about this one. Sorry. But I include it here merely to give you another example of what springs from the mind of Mark and Relic. He is a self-described “foodie” and loves to play with different flavors in his beer. I think that point is being made quite well on this page.

Grade: n/a

…………………………………………………….

Neuf Bruin, 7% ABV

The base beer is a recipe for Belgian style Oud Bruin, being served on the fresh side. It’s mildly tart and funky with a malt base including special B and Munich malts. The beer was brewed to be aged for the Beer Advocate Night of the Funk and is being aged in various formats including raspberries, plums, various wood, and wood-soaked in various spirits.

As the description says, Mark brewed this for a very special beer fest up in Boston. At the brewery, he gave out samples of the base Oud Bruin without any of the kooky aging on the various fruits and boozes. It was good… very good. I think Mark should do a bottled Oud Bruin one of these days, but trend more towards the sour end of the spectrum rather than the sweet – which is how this one turned out. Well executed beer.

Grade: A

…………………………………………………….

Le Petit Abeille (Lavender Beer) 6.7%

This Belgian-style golden ale is brewed with lavender from my garden and wildflower honey. It has a big lavender aroma and then a nice floral, spicy flavor. It is brewed once a year and finished with floral hops to balance out the sweetness from the honey.

No. Just no. This beer was an important one in my relationship with Mark. This was one of his earliest “creative” endeavors and I hated it. And I told him so. And (I think) he appreciated it. I mean, I didn’t, like, yell out to the crowd at the brewery that I hated it; rather, I quietly informed him that it tasted like I was drinking hand soap. I was informed that many people enjoyed it. And indeed, I watched other tasters asking for seconds and buying growlers of the stuff.

(by the way, I had to borrow a picture from untappd, as I never took a picture of mine. A rare mistake on my part.)

This beer has another interesting story. Mark participated in some horrible foodie/mommy/freebie blogger meet-up at J. Timothy’s just down the road from the brewery in mid-2012. This was the first and last of these things for both Relic and J. Tim’s. Just a bunch of terrible writers who troll the state looking for free food to fawn over in exchange. I’m so happy that this phase of social media idiocy is quickly disappearing. Anyway, Mark served Le Petit Abeille there and while serving lavender beer to a bunch of insipid (sorry, it’s true) women who know nothing about beer was actually a smart move, it still made me laugh thinking of what the room was like that evening. Poor Mark.

Anyway, this beer made a return in the summer of 2014 and people seem to love it on the beer rating sites. I’m the outlier here, I know. But I’m guessing Mark toned down the lavender a bit and balanced it with a bit more (local!) honey. So yeah, had I had some 2014 version, I very well may like it more.

Grade: F… but it was well made for those who like such things. Ignore my dumb grade.

…………………………………………………….

Fresh Hop Saison, 5% ABV

Brewed with whole fresh-picked hops from both my home and plants from Cold Spring Farm in Higganum, this simple Saison has unique spicy, slight citrus flavors and aromas.

Again, sadly, I don’t really recall this effort. But I’m including this one to show y’all that Mark was using home-grown – literally – hops in his beer before all these other local breweries started touting all their “local hops” and whatnot. (Hooker’s had a hop farm for years, but these new guys acting like they were the first to do such a thing is just… it just annoys me. Hats off to Mark.)

Grade: n/a

…………………………………………………….

Double La Leche Milk Stout, 8.6% ABV

Argh. Of all the beers to not have a description for, it had to be this one. Sorry, y’all.

I really, really hope Relic does this one again this winter – and every winter henceforth I suppose. And I’m saying that as one who much prefers a regular stout to a milk stout – or at least I thought I did.

It’s funny, I think the first good milk stout I had was a bottle given to me by Mark back in 2012 or so. I can’t even remember where it was from, but it showed me that sweet stouts can be just as good as the bitter, malty stouts I love. Relic did a La Leche Milk Stout and then magically put out a Double shortly thereafter. I don’t know enough about brewing to know how that works, but whatever. The ABV went from 6% to 8.6% with no discernible increase in alcohol burn.

I really enjoyed Mark’s effort here and appreciated that milk stouts aren’t really in his wheelhouse, but no matter, he nailed it anyway.

Grade: A

…………………………………………………….

Astrolabe, 8.4%

Awash with tropical fruit, wintergreen and floral flavors and aromas, this double ipa contains all New Zealand hops, including Pacifica, Pacific Jade and Nelson Sauvin.

Talk about brewing a beer not in his wheelhouse! A DIPA?! From Relic?! (He’s since done another one called, “Something Different (For Us)” which speaks to that very thing.

Well, um, sometimes stepping out of one’s comfort zone works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Mark will readily admit that he’s not a hop-head and straight up doesn’t like the hop bombs from NEBCO or Beer’d that I love. And that’s what makes the craft beer world go-round.

As a result of this preference, I’m thinking, this beer failed me. Tons of great hops, including the much-loved Nelson Sauvin. But where was the citrus? The bitter punch of the hops I love? Not in the Astrolabe, unfortunately. As our breweries differentiate themselves into their niches, I’ll stick to the kings of DIPAs and hoppy hops (the aforementioned Beer’d and NEBCO), and look to Relic for the saisons and farmhouse ales.

Grade: D

…………………………………………………….

Cranberry American Wheat, 5 % ABV

This American Wheat had pounds of cranberries added at the end of the boil to give it a hint of tartness and berry flavor to this drinkable beer. Mouteka and Chinook hops were used liberally to round out the beer with nice hop flavors including tropical fruits and lemons.

This is why Mark rules. Do you know what a Randallizer is? I certainly didn’t in the autumn of 2012 when the call went out – Relic had a Randallizer and it was going to make this good beer great.

So I went. A Randallizer is some contraption invented at Dogfish Head in which you put whatever you want to put into it to add new and different flavor(s) to your beer. Here’s some info on it.

And here’s an annoying description of it: “Randall, a true Dogfish Head invention, is an organoleptic hop transducer module. A double-chamber filter that you connect to a tap of your favorite beer and fill with flavor-enhancing ingredients.”

Mark had some skinnied down version into which he added cranberries. Thanksgiving was right around the corner, so it just made sense. Unfortunately, the machine just wouldn’t cooperate the day I was there and it was a bit of a mess. But Mark tried valiantly! A true hero of Plainville!

The base wheat ale was good on its own, already brewed with cranberries in the mash. Nicely bittered and “wheaty,” I rather liked it. The failure of the contraption wasn’t Mark’s fault at all and really, what other brewery is going to bust out that thing and try to use it with people waiting in line?

Only Relic. The one and only.

Grade: B

…………………………………………………….

Fools Gold Alt, 7 % ABV

this Alt (or Old in German) is a classic fall style made with 80% German Vienna Malt and 20% German Dark Munich Malt, a touch of roasted German [can’t read it] adds a bit of complexity. Traditionally hopped, this is a malt forward beer with a balanced hop finish provided by German Magnum hops and Slovakian Styrian [can’t read it] hops. Enjoy it in a giant stiein! Prost!

I always thought Mark would bottle this one. A malt-bomb with some sweetness and a clever name? a style that isn’t being pumped out of every other brewery in the state? Yeah, bottle this one, Relic.

It has been re-released several times over the brewery’s short existence, so it is one of the few on this page you’ll be able to get at some point in the future… probably. Of course, you may get a Fools Gold Alt but Mark might change up the ingredients in some way.

Because that’s how Relic rolls, daddy-o.

Grade: A-

…………………………………………………….

Relic Brewing
Back to CTMQ’s Reviews of Relic Beers
Back to CTMQ’s Connecticut Beer Page
Back to CT Breweries page