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| Tell me this doesn't take your breath away |
Colorado is gorgeous! Breathtaking, stunning, marvelous. Full of jutting peaks & glimmering aspens below the most beautiful rich blue sky. For five glorious days I was able to relax with great friends, hike north of Nederland & in Morrissette (Red Rocks), see some elk about 10 feet from us, catch the WSU win over CU in Boulder-welcome to the Pac-12 kids!-soak my tired limbs in hot tubs with mountain views and enjoy some quality, local beer.
Did you know that September is actually the month that Oktoberfest celebrations begin in Germany? In honor of that celebration and my affection for a quality brew I toured the very eco-friendly
New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, Colorado. Yes, the Great American Beer Festival was going on simultaneously in Denver, but that sold out over the summer long before my plans for Colorado were finalized. Denver is full of breweries, but I picked the one about an hour north. I really didn't know how far north it was until we were finalizing the logistics, oops!
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| 3-D logo display |
A bustling bar room & patio with bikes lining the entrance lead to our free 90 minute tour that was loaded with some great samples. Our tour guide was great, he just spoke a little fast and at +5000 feet the beer may have gone a bit to my head so I may not remember everything we sipped. Our tour started behind the bar where we received the history of New Belgium (beer #1). We then went upstairs where we learned about their brewing techniques that conserve 30% more water than similar breweries (beer #2 pour your own, I picked 1554 black ale 5.6% abv which was my favorite). Next stop was downstairs to learn about ingredients and their energy conservation, they capture and burn their methane onsite for a percentage of their energy.
We wandered outside to see their property and watched out for bikers & subarus till we got to the bottling plant (beer #3, that was bottled about 30 minutes before we drank it). Next stop the giant barrels next to the climbing wall (Mike was distracted by the wall!) & a history lesson on taking old wine barrels for beer storage, but the wood allows air in which changes the taste of the beer (beer #4, Clutch, a sour ale 9% abv & my second fav). Wrapping up the tour we took a slide down to the tasting room and enjoyed a couple more complimentary 4-6oz samples like the Mothership Wit & Hoptober. We had a great time and most of the staff was friendly; my only recommendation if going is plan plenty of time to get to the brewery, pad your trip with many photo-op stops! If you are late the snappy girl on the phone says they won't wait for you, luckily we got them to bend a little for us given we told them how long the trek out there was for me.
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| Mosaics beautifying the brewing |
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| Matt getting his pour on |
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