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Day 1: Fort Collins
Choice City Butcher & Deli
Located at the heart of downtown, right next to Old Town, Choice City has excellent food and a modest, yet selective, tap menu. We went with New Belgium's Jessica's Porter and Odell's IPA. The manager/owner told us that they were one of the first places to get Jessica's Ale, which made this an even more exclusive spot!
Read my BA Review. |
New Belgium Brewing
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New Belgium is currently the only wind-powered brewery in the world. The above pictures are what you will see as you approach the Brewery & Liquid Center (Tasting Room).
Significance of the Bicycle: Years before the brewery was opened, owner Jeff Lebesch took a bicycle tour of Belgian breweries. He visited a number of abbeys, trappists, and lambic brewers. When he returned, he started the brewery with his wife Kim. The brewery was to have the singular goal of brewing belgian-style beers in the U.S. (quite a goal for 1991). Their most well known beer, Fat Tire, is an amber ale based on DeKoninck, a Belgian amber ale, and named after his trusty bicycle. |
New Belgium Freebies
(they gave us a bunch of free NB gear to take home) |
Bicycle Repair Kit |
Fat Tire Patch |
Temporary Tattoo |
Bicycle Metal Decal |
| New Belgium Liquid Center Offerings |
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When we arrived at the NB Liquid Center, we were given a paper menu with all of the available beers on tap that day. We were told to choose any 4 we would like to sample...FREE! Staff was very knowledgable, so much so that we passed on the tour to stay and chat with them. As a result, we got a ton of free breweriana (see above). |
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Our Selections:
→ La Folie
→ Mighty Arrow
→ 1554
→ Blue Paddle Pilsner
→ Mothership Wit
→ Abbey
→ Tripel
click to read review |
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| This is just one of several very cool dogs we saw hanging out at the Liquid Center that day. They even provide a water dish emblazoned with the New Belgium logo! |
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Old Chicago
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| Old Chicago is a chain bar/restaurant specializing in pub grub and a lot of beer. The menu advertises over 100 beers but I was unable to find that many actually listed. Oddly, we were served our selections (Boulder's Hazed & Infused and Schlafly's 90 Schilling) in these HUGE mugs and they were really cheap (like $2.50 each) because we happen to hit Happy Hour. This was an alright place to have a beer and a great place to people watch. In fact, while drinking this one gargantuan mug we were accosted by a local wanting to know if we needed any herbal supplements :) |
Coopersmith Pub & Brewing
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Coopersmith was our last stop of the evening. They have two large buildings right next to each other in Old Town Fort Collins. One building houses their pool tables and a large bar. It is essentially the game room side of Coopersmith. The other building is the larger bar and restaurant with a sizable patio, which we opted for. Their menu was quite extensive, see beer offerings below. The food was amazing as well: I enjoyed a "Six ounce chicken breast marinated in Dijon mustard and fresh chives, then charbroiled. Served on a fresh croissant with Brie cheese and caramelized onions." This meal paired beautifully with their cask Punjabi Pale Ale.
Beers available that day (click to read review):
→ Combine Kölsch
→ Poudre Pale Ale
→ Punjabi Pale Ale (& Cask)
→ Sigda's Green Chili Beer
→ Not-Brown Ale
→ Horsetooth Stout
→ Albert Damm Bitter |
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At the end of the day, we retired to the hotel with a bomber of Stone Smoked Porter.
In the morning we woke up and drove down into Denver. On the way out of town
we stopped at Wilbur's Wine & Spirits for a little beer shopping.
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