LOSBW Goes To Colorado

Well I’m back…. in more ways than one! I haven’t actually made a blog post yet this year and I figured since I’m back in town I’ll start the year off by talking about my trip.

I once again went out to the Dillon area to stay at my friends cousins house and to hit up a couple ski resorts. I knew there would be many breweries in town and figured instead of going to every single one and be hung over the next day on some mountain, I’d just get a couple beers at the bars instead. Towards the end of the trip, I did end up stopping by a couple Fort Collins offerings but Ill get to that.

So you know the part I just said I wasn’t going to drink while snowboarding? Well, there just so happened to be the Vail Brewing Company at the bottom of the resort. And as predicted, I did get a beer and it wasn’t the best idea. I mean going down an icy mountain close to 30 mph isn’t always the most wise thing to do after drinking a 7% IPA, just sayin.

But in the long run, I survived the mountain while dodging people and tried my best not to slam. I mean every ski movie from the 1980’s showcased it but they were just actors and they most likely were pretending to drink wimpy 4% lagers haha.

We ended up staying in Glenwood Springs that night and stopped off at Casey Brewing & Blending and also Glenwood Canyon Brewing Company to have one. Casey had a bunch of fruit mixed style beers that are aged in oak barrels while Glenwood Canyon had a more traditional craft selection with a little extra added, we ended up eating at Glenwood Canyon and also watched the X games on tv.

Next up we went to the actual X Games in Buttermilk aka Snowmass aka Aspen and I saw a Coors Banquet truck unloading and was going to achieve the forbidden fruit of Colorado during the contest only to discover that Pacifico was the official beer sponsor and they literally and figuratively only had Pacifico there, it was sick with yellow cans everywhere….and not the Banquet ones.

The last time I had that beer was at the X Games in Minneapolis and I thought it was terrible so I skipped it but ironically I ended up going to a Mexican restaurant in Fort Collins called Uno Mas and decided to finally try it on tap and long and behold it was actually ok haha.

So off to Breckenridge and while there we had super special OMG VIP access to the Grand Lodge on Peak 7 where I had an Avalanche Amber ale while sitting in the hot tub, you might have seem the picture I posted on instagram….also if you aren’t following my instagram, you should, the link is above…wink.

On the last night in Dillon we went to a new fancy place called Bistro North and I tried a Jake’s Pils by Angry James Brewery and it was very up to par. So now onto Fort Collins!

We took the scenic route up there because a couple roads were closed for the season through Estes Park and also because some were closed due to the recent snowfall and actual avalanches. I had planned on stopping by New Belgium this trip because the last time I was in town back in 2001, I didn’t go to any breweries at all! I wasn’t a huge “craft beer” person then, I was just a beginner beer person so who knows what would have happened back then if I went, but this time the stop was going to happen!

We got into town semi later in the day and they had one tour left but it was a 90 minute tour and we figured we still didnt have a place to stay yet so we just did a flight of samples…yep it was sort of sad. The funny thing was while we were there, we didn’t realize that Odell Brewery was actually about 4 blocks away from New Belgium so after hearing that, we flew over there just in time for last call.

I recently heard that New Belgium changed Fat Tire into something more drinker friendly so I was excited to try it out. A funny thing happened while I was in downtown Aspen, I spotted a freshly opened can of Fat Tire on a window sill of an outdoors store and I turned it to take a picture of the new art and realized someone didnt even finish it. I thought they were maybe shopping but after walking around for a while we came back that way and it was still there, maybe they just didnt like it and ditched it?? haha

So for my official sampling of the new Fat Tire resulted in a satisfactory taste. It almost had a Hefeweizen flavor to it this time around, which is odd since they are calling it an Amber Ale. Its ironic because for years I used to hate the beer and thought it tasted like an actual tire! Then about 3 years ago I tried it again after buying a spring sample pack and was like WOW this is actually drinkable. But now they officially changed it …again? Oh I will also add that I was sort of surprised that the taproom area of NB was kinda small as compared to the overall size of the campus which was the production facility for being a popular nationwide know brewery, but I guess it works out for them.

Ok off to Odell, we got there with about 45 minutes to spare but still had time to try a few before closing on a Tuesday night. I would’ve liked to see how busy these places were on a Friday and Saturday night but it was still nice coming here on a quieter weekday night. Odell’s taproom was almost equal to the size of New Belgium’s but again I’m not sure how much traffic they get a whatever days of the week. Overall the beer was still good!

After our Mexican dinner with Pacifico that night, we walked around town to places I used to go to but realized most stuff closes relatively early during the week but ended up finding a kick ass craft beer bar called Tap and Handle which had way too many beers on tap for me to try that night because I was already fine after going to two breweries and etc. But with that I did end up ordering the Zwei Brewing Company Pils which was a nice 5.1% ABV pilsner with a classic German taste to it. The place is pretty cool and Id advise any craft beer fan to visit them if you are in town. I think Fort Collins has about 7 breweries?? Including Sweetwater Brewing which Im sure they are from Georgia? I ddin’t stop in but thought it was interesting they were there. Again I wish I could’ve stopped by more but I did turn around in Stodgy Brewing’s parking lot while trying to find the Descendents & ALL’s recording studio, which is next door but it was early in the morning and they weren’t open yet.

So ALL in ALL, it was a decent week of beer and boarding and it was also nice to get the hell out of Minnesnowta too. I visited a few breweries and beer bars without getting too crazy since I’m getting older and now know when to call it a night haha.