Creativity, Art & Business Collide at Local Relic

Local Relic Artisan Ales turns eight years old this week, and there's a week of events to attend, kicking off with a Triple Anniversary Thursday with 291 Distillery and Side Dish with Schniper!

Intersection of art and business

Local Relic has, ever since original plans to be the anchor brewery at the Lincoln Center fell through, been all about small batch brews. If gypsy brewing is a brewery without a home using different facilities to produce their beer, Local Relic’s style is “nomadic brewing,” as their beer releases wander between concept and ideation, style and improvisation, tradition and experimentation. And it works.

It’s been their calling card for years, despite the greater industry trend 8 years ago, they stuck with it to a point where it’s now the “it” thing to do. The public’s attention span, now in the age of TikTok and YouTube Shorts, is shorter than ever before, so Local Relic’s crew putting out three new beers every week just seems very apropos.

Every Local Relic release is, in and of itself, a time capsule harkening back to a specific time for their brewery. Each bottle shares, on its label, not just beer information, but a piece of fine art produced by local artists, ensuring that every release is unique and supports the wider creative community. (Artists chosen get two free bottles of every beer too, which is super cool.)

“The beer industry is where art intersects business”

With each release, Local Relic’s style can ebb and flow depending on the season, or how their brewing team is feeling. Zearfoss says he likes that they can stick to their original small batch model, but also chase trends when it feels right. We spent a lot of our time talking about how the local scene has evolved over the past decade—supported by cornerstone breweries Bristol, Red Leg and Pikes Peak—which have converted more than their fair share of macro lager drinkers to craft.

I had a chance to catch lead brewer Ben Cape as he was restocking kegs and cleaning lines, and he lauded Local Relic’s brewing model for allowing him to be as creative as he wanted. He also called attention to the wide variety of beers he’s been able to put on tap, from a 4% ABV sour brewed with Tola (an evergreen fruiting shrub) to a Bourbon Barrel-aged Banana Stout, a barrel-aged stout refermented on fresh banana to one of my current favorites: a Fatalii Chili Sour that was brewed with hot peppers and their house mixed culture. It’s that variety that allows any wandering beer mind to walk up to their bar and find a new folly.

Local drinkers and breweries have changed as the years have gone by, with breweries like Bristol embracing new styles (Hazy IPA) they swore they’d never brew, or even the sour and wild producers like Paradox and Casey Brewing moving more production towards clean beer.

Out from beneath Green Man’s shadow

This was our last question to Jeff Zearfoss, from Local Relic Artisan Ales, but it helps illustrate how far Local Relic and The Carter Payne have come in the past 7 years since they took over the church from the ashes of Green Man Taproom.

“More often, these days, we get patrons who were members of the congregation decades ago, who revel in the changes we’ve made and the touches of history that have remained…”

These days, the question of Green Man doesn’t come up any longer, save for a snarky beer blogger who also told Local Relic that they’d be making flagships in no time, almost a decade ago.

Yes, I’m that snarky beer blogger, and yes, I’m happy to be completely wrong about their business model.

Is this just “growing up?”

Think of it like the music industry. Some bands will play the same kind of songs for decades, with every subsequent album arriving like an expansion on the previous, while others will completely reinvent themselves with each release. The fans on the other hand either will be brand-loyal and adapt their preferences or will move on when their old favorite has “sold out.”

For breweries, some patrons stick to the same familiar brewery (and beers even) for years upon years, but others remain brand- or quality-loyal and adapt their tastes as beer styles evolve. Zearfoss likens Local Relic’s members and regulars to the latter grouping, discovering new favorites as the next round of releases emerge, always looking for the something different—which Local Relic can provide.

“We wouldn’t be here without our members. Many have been with us since the beginning, but it was the members who kept us afloat during COVID.”

Creating Careers, not just Community

Beyond the art side of the intersection, brewing as a business is something that feels like a newer thought in the craft brewing world, as odd as that is. Many breweries who started in the heyday of craft beer were borne from a hobby, so the idea of running a business, offering health insurance, and creating careers is often overlooked. In our larger discussion centered around how the business side of brewing has changed, Zearfoss mentioned something that really resonated with me:

“Lots of cultures outside of the US treat hospitality as a lifelong pursuit, while here it’s less prevalent… Often, the hospitality industry—be that breweries, kitchens, bars—are sometimes the only place where certain demographics of our society can find work, so with that comes a stigma that it’s not a place for a career…and we’re working to change that.”

While we sat and chatted in the sun that streamed through The Carter Payne’s southern exposure, employees filtered through to attend an open enrollment session for health care, another thing Zearfoss used as an example of the change they’re trying to instill in the industry.

Chasing the Changing Storyline

One of the aspects of Local Relic that is the hardest for Zearfoss and his team comes down to the continuous story that needs to accompany each beer release. Going back to the flagships versus nomadic brewing style, it’s certainly easier to craft one story and iterate on it with each release, but not so if every release needs its own unique story.

“Every ‘hot’ brewery right now is pushing ‘new’ in front of consumers, albeit an incrementally different release of the same recipe, but with a different hop or a shiny new label…and people are lining up around the block. We’ve been doing that for our entire existence, so our next challenge is to share what we do and tap into that demand.”

Local Relic produces more than two hundred different public beer releases each and every year, save for the ones going to their members, so cutting through the noise presents the biggest challenge—and an even bigger opportunity. There’s only so many hours in the day to be able to talk across the bar or table about their beer, so marketing has become instrumental in their continued success.

“Marketing is probably the biggest challenge, outside of COVID, that we’ve experienced as a brewery. Every single one of our beers has its own story, and sometimes it’s difficult to get each story heard.”

The future, while uncertain, is ripe for the taking

While peeking at the whole pig that was smoking on a temporary pit outside, I asked Zearfoss what was next for Local Relic, and aside from a 28-acre farm brewery plan that they pumped the brakes on due to bureaucratic hurdles, he told me they’re not letting up off the gas, meaning more new beer, more educational events and more food is in store.

As far as their anniversary is concerned, Local Relic doesn’t ever do a single-day affair. They’re hosting our partner publication Side Dish with Schniper and 291 Distillery tonight for a “Triple Anniversary Party” to commemorate 8-year, 6-month and 12-year anniversaries respectively. The Carter Payne kitchen will be serving up 291 stave-smoked Brisket, 291 Distillery’s crew will be on hand to provide tastings, and some special Local Relic bottles aged in 291 barrels will be available.

HINT: If you’re a paid subscriber to Side Dish, your first beer, featured wine or cocktail is free too…worth the price of a subscription!

I reached out to Matthew Schniper to get his thoughts on Local Relic and he had this to say:

Jeff and Melissa were two of the first people to reach out to me back in March when news was spreading about the layoffs at the CS Indy. I had just launched my new Substack and was finding my footing and pondering monetization for long-term sustainability. They offered to host what became Third Thursday Sip with Schnip nights at The Carter Payne, offering beer discounts to my subscribers as a perk I could offer to encourage follower growth. I used to work for TCP Chef Brent Beavers two decades ago, so it's a natural fit to collaborate with him and TCP team all these years later. I love having a spot to make myself available to interact with my readers in a more engaging and interactive way — enjoying good food and drink together in a reverential setting, talking shop, building community.

So I'm grateful for the venue's support. 

— Matthew Schniper, Side Dish with Schniper

On Friday, stop by The Carter Payne to snag some (or all) of their Anniversary Bottle releases, and on Saturday, they’ll have some special keg tappings as well!

Cheers!

What’s your favorite Local Relic memory?