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Arctic is set-up in a garage next to a welding establishment. It is only a tap room, no food. There were many styles to choose from. I really enjoyed the Peach Lager, the Chili Lager was decent (not hot), the Vanilla Porter was toooo vanilla and the Oktoberfest was skunked. It was fun to visit this place, very local and home-brewish. If in the area, try it.
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This place is in a warehouse district off the beaten path. The guys running the place are home brewers who wanted to get into the beer business. I applaud that, and their beers are consistent.
However, for a town that loves hops, this brewery is lacking in that category. It's not my cup of tea, as most of the beers are middling.
That being said, the milk stout is very good.
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Arctic Craft was a bit tricky to find, given that the location at the time of our visit (7/05) it was in a small light-industrial complex. Despite the difficulty my wife and I had in finding the place, the visit was well worth it. Our visit was a notable day in Arctic Craft's history; it coincided with the purchase of the first several pairs of rubber boots for the brewery by Tom - a heretofor unseen comfort at this small brewery. The mood was...well, not euphoric, but close.
John, the heart and soul of the brewery, impressed us with not only his passion for beer and beer making, but with his interest in yeast cultivation. Here is a man who has taken his passion for brewing to a level that many brewers with whom we have spoken have not.
John's passion for brewing was revealed in the quality of his beer. My personal favorite was a beer that was, at the time, unnamed as of yet. Arctic Craft had co-brewed, if you will, with the other breweries in Colorado Springs a concoction named Warning Signs. If I recall, it was a bring-an-ingredient-to-include-in-our-monster-beer concoction. The snappy tag-line for this beer was, "This has sack, if you don't." Great beer. I gave it 4 out of 5 thumbs, stars, votes, pints, whatever. Warning Signs was the base for the beer that I felt was my favorite at Arctic Craft. John brewed an off-shoot of Warning Signs in which he used one of his own yeast strains. This off-shoot was about 12% ABV. It tasted just like Scotch. I gave it 5 out of 5.
Another favorite of mine and my wife was the Northern Light (5/5). This pale-colored beer included vanilla as one of its ingredients which came through subtley.
Arctic Craft also served us two versions of the Honey Brown (3/5 for the version with honey extract and 4/5 for the version using natural honey) which had wonderful floral aromas. The natural honey version was very redolent of mead.
We also sampled Arctic Craft's Red Fox (raspberry 3/5 - very tart), White Fox Wheat (3/5), Snow Shoe Brown Ale, Arctic Amber, and Summer Sun Blonde.
I highly recommend exploring Arctic Craft's beer if/when you have a chance to visit Colorado Springs.
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