With that in mind, we decided to spend our Friday about an hour north of Denver in the sleepy little college town of Fort Collins. Which we should add is quite the beer town in its own right.
**NOTE**---Rather than review each place individually, we're going to combine things here.
We started our adventure at the most fitting place we could think of...New Belgium Brewing.
NEW BELGIUM:
And they have an amazing collection of beers on tap. We should note, as much as we would have loved to take the 90-minute tour, we weren't able to get a reservation.
Beers: (Favorites)
Phil--Salted Chocolate Stout (Lips of Faith). Of course I loved this. Right in my wheelhouse. Had a 1554 Black Lager as well, don't know why I never had one before.
Chelle--Tour de Fall. A nice, seasonal, Octoberfest style beer. Easy to drink.
**NOTE**--We also tried a one off run called NBB loves Loveland. It was a sour with lots of fruit notes. Did not taste like a beer, but boy was it good.
Thoughts: A local hangout place. Many of their beers are available everywhere, but the brewery specific beers are amazing. You must come here if you are in town.
The tour from what we are told is worth the 90 minutes, but plan ahead, you have to get reservations in advance. It books very, very quickly.
FORT COLLINS BREWING:
This is a modern, beautiful, art-deco looking building that houses a great brewery and a really, really good brew pub/restaurant. (We had lunch here at Gravity 1020 and it was fantastic)Beers: (We did Tasting Flights)
Phil--Yes, I loved the Chocolate Stout, because I almost always love those beers. This was a really good one. A little stronger than most, but that's not a bad thing. Their new 1020 Pale Ale was pretty good too.
Chelle: Rocky Mountain IPA. Much like me with the Stouts, Chelle loves her IPA's and this one was very good. Lots of fruit and earthy notes, very well done. The Red Banshee Amber was right up her alley as well.
Thoughts: If you come here, get a tasting flight and some food. The beers are very good, the restaurant is even better. I had a Cuban style sandwich on Ciabatta bread that featured house made pickles. Chelle had a flatbread that featured some fresh goat cheese. Really good stuff. Another worthy stop.
ODELL BREWING:
The last stop on our Fort Collins tour. We weren't familiar with their beers because we're pretty sure they aren't available in Georgia. Which is unfortunate because they do some great beers.
Again, we did tasting flights here, which we recommend because you can try a little bit of everything in the house. Well, okay, not everything, they had some 16 beers on tap.
Phil: Their Dopplebock was really good. I can't remember the name of it unfortunately, but it was deep, well rounded and very tasty. Gramps Oatmeal Stout was also very, very good.
Chelle: She also loved the Dopplebock. It may have been a brewery only beer. But man, it was a good one. She also like the Levity Amber Ale. It was a slightly bitter, hoppy classic Amber Ale.
Thoughts: Another obvious local hangout. The building is beautiful and just a couple of blocks from Fort Collins Brewing. They don't have a restaurant, but have food trucks on site daily. The patio/courtyard area is huge and can hold a ton of people, the inside also has quite a few bar seats.
Again, a worthy stop for anyone trying to get the best of the best.
OUR THOUGHTS ON THE DAYTRIP:
This was a lot better than we expected, a straight drive up Interstate 25 North and just a couple miles off the highway, Ft. Collins is a small but cool town. It's very obviously a laid back culture and vibe with several good breweries and pubs. Enough so that we couldn't hit them all.
If you are in Denver for a few days and want a great beer stop, this would definitely be a worthwhile trip.
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