Day 11

June 28, 2011
Beautiful drive from Grand Junction to the Denver area! From Denver we headed north to Fort Collins. Stopped at Coopersmith to get a certain special glass for a needy person...then on to New Belgium. Got there 30 minutes early for our tour--the tasting room was hopping.

As promised by Meagan and Marlowe, the tour was excellent AND we hit a special day--their 2oth anniversary! All their employees were given a new bike as part of the celebration. Tour lasted 1 1/2 hours. They bottle 700 beers an hour with only 8 people. They have 380 employees in total, many of which are in sales. They are in 24 states. Now for the beers--

1. Somersault--5.2%--good summer brew. Our guide Dave has a keg of this stuff at his home--his second one.


2. Super Cru--10%--one of their Lips of Faith series of experimental beers--pretty good for a high octane brew.


3. Blue Paddle--4.8%--a pilsner--I think the only one I had not had before (in addition to the Super Cru maybe--I have one Lips of Faith on my shelf but can't remember what it is). There is a funny story about how it got its name but that will wait for another time.


4. Fat Tire--5.2%--our guide called it their "gateway" beer--at least it was for him, meaning the beer that weaned him off Bud when he moved to the area. The bottles that we drank had just been bottled 20 minutes before our tasting--now that is fresh..


5. And finally--a special treat--La Folie--another Lips of Faith brew--a sour beer aged for three years in large oak barrels obtained from a CA winery. Think Granny Smith apples at 6%--pretty special brew!

St. Arnold is the patron saint of brewers. The New Belgium employees get 10/30 off in recognition of his birthday.

The bike on the Fat Tire Label has been gradually disappearing and is now gone. Part of some contest I don't understand...it will come back.

After the tour, we were in the tasting room for our free beer--Priscilla had Somersault and I had the Blue Paddle. Then the two founders got up on the bar and recognized their 20 years by toasts and thunderous applause from the crowd. As I said--great tour.

Then we decided to hit one more establishment before getting a motel for the night. We picked Odells since we had their stuff for the first time in Denver. We had their Classic Tray flight of six

1. Easy Street 4.6% unfiltered wheat see Day 2 post


2. Levity Amber Ale 5.1%--too light for both of us


3. 5 Barrel Pale Ale 5.2%--one hop added in the fermenator and 4 during the kettle boil. Despite this, it was not too hoppy for Priscilla!


4. 90 Shilling 5.3%--third time on the trip for this good one.


5. IPA 7%--after one sip, Priscilla let me finish it


6. Cutthroat Porter 4.8%--named after the state fish. Of course, Priscilla liked it. I found it OK.

Hard to believe but at supper tonight--we had water to drink! 11 samples were enough for the day...

Tomorrow we turn in the rental car and take off for the mountains with Pooh. I think another microbrew and Pike's Peak is on the agenda so the blog will continue.