Fort Collins, CO – The Napa Valley of Beer?
I keep hearing people say certain areas are “the Napa Valley of craft beer”. In the past few weeks I’ve heard people say this about both Durango and Fort Collins, I don’t really agree (neither Durango nor Fort Collins grow the ingredients for their beers in the area, and both have only a few breweries compared to the many wineries in the Napa Valley) but Fort Collins did remind me of another wine region, Mendoza, Argentina. The reason for that is the emphasis on bikes. When I was in Mendoza I took a bicycle winery tour to various wineries within biking distance. Fort Collins had a big emphasis on cycling and all their breweries/brewpubs were well within cycling distance of each other, they even had a centrally located, bike rental place.
I only visited three of the breweries in Fort Collins while I was up there (skipped the two brewpubs) but had a great time.
First stop was New Belgium Brewing Co. New Belgium has a solid line up of regular year round and seasonal beers, they also produce quite a few limited run brews. Their flagship beer, Fat Tire Amber Ale, as well as the brewery’s name come from a bicycle tour the founder took through Belgium. New Belgium Brewing Co. is a great example of the coming together of beer and bikes, every year they sponsor the Tour de Fat, a big bicycle and beer festival in many cities throughout the country.
The New Belgium Brewing Co. brewery and tap room are housed in a great looking building. I didn’t go on a full brewery tour, but spent plenty of time in the tap room. As you enter they check ID and give you a couple tokens for beer samples. At the bar they have all their standard beers on tap, plus a ton of special release beers. I’m not sure what happens if you want to sample more beers than you have tokens for (I was lucky enough to be given a few tokens by someone that didn’t want to drink). Since I’ve had all of their standard beers in the past I opted for some stuff I’ve never had (or even heard of). I first tried the Dandelion Ale in the Lips of Faith series. It’s brewed using dandelion flowers (in place of hops or in addition to hops I’m not sure). At 7.8% ABV it didn’t taste that strong, luckily it was a small sample glass. I didn’t take great notes (and couldn’t find them on their website) so I don’t have too much info on these next two beers. I next had another beer in the Lips of Faith series, Adam’s Ale. This was a much lighter beer, a lager according to the description at the brewery, why it is called and ale in the name I’m not sure. It was easy to drink but nothing special. The last beer I had I can’t even remember the name of, it was referred to by people at the tap room as “our anniversary ale this year” it was musty and slightly sour (but very mellow). My least favorite of the three.
Next we went to Odell Brewing Co. New Belgium Brewing Co. was crowded but Odell felt more so (which was probably because they have less space. I waited in a line about 20 people deep waiting to order, nearly everyone in front of me was in their early 20’s and ordered a beer sampler, almost every person. Even though I haven’t had many of Odell Brewing Co.’s beers, I decided not to get a sampler and opted for a full pint, to sit back, relax and enjoy the beer. I chose the Cutthroat Porter on nitro and Kinsee had (and I sampled) the Easy Street Wheat coming in at 4.8% ABV/43IBU and 4.6% ABV/15 IBU respectively, both were great beers for a hot summer day. It was so crowded and we wanted to make it to one more brewery so we decided not to have another and went down the road to The Fort Collins Brewery.
The Fort Collins Brewery turned out to be my favorite of the three breweries I visited. The beer was good, but not exceptionally better than the two previous breweries, but I liked the feel of the brewery much more. It was the farthest from the college and “downtown” Fort Collins and appeared to be the smallest of the three visited. It wasn’t too crowded, but wasn’t empty either, and had a nice welcoming feel to it. It seemed like everyone was there to drink beer, not because it was on a brewery tour. I might be totally wrong but it felt like the place locals went for a beer, not filled with college kids or tourists.
Unlike before at Odell Brewing Co. I decided to go with the sampler here. We got two, one of their regular line up of beers and one of the seasonals for a total of about 14 samplers. None of the beers stood out as a must have beer, but the Rocky Mountain IPA and Chocolate Stout were my favorites of the day. The small tasting room and patio, as well as the friendly bartenders made for a great environment to have a few beers though.
Nice article! Fort Collins and Durango are definitely not the Napa Valley of craft beer (though I have yet to visit Ft. Collins). I’d say the Willamette Valley in Oregon takes that cake, and it definitely shows if you visit. In Portland alone there are more than 30 breweries, and the beer up there is truly amazing!
I was just about write pretty much what Scott did, but he beat me to it. So I’ll just concur instead.
Good article!