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| The FRIDGE of DREAMS |
Arriving at my Dads house it was pleasant to see that he had
seriously stocked up on beers with his fridge containing bottles from Dogfish Head, Great Divide, Odell, Breckenridge and Oskar Blues to name but a few. He
removed a snarler (which I soon learnt is a small growler) from the fridge
emblazoned with the logo of Big Beaver Brewing Company who are a small brewery
based in Loveland, the next town
along from Fort Collins. Big Beaver
have made a name for themselves locally with the cheeky double entendres used
for naming their beer, it’s not popular with everyone but those that turn their
noses up at what is just a little harmless fun are missing out on some
seriously great beer. The growler contained Big Woody, a double IPA that had a
chewy, sticky malt character and was laden with piney hops that gave a real
kick of grapefruit and lemon rind, it was a fantastic beer to start the trip
with. Currently the only way to get Big Beaver beer is from their tap room in
downtown Loveland, you can either
pick up four pint growlers, two pint snarlers or by the pint in mason jars. If you're ever in the area I highly recommend a visit to Big Beaver for a beer and a brat cooked in their own Hefeweizen.
Dad and I spent the remainder of that evening trying a
couple more IPAs from the likes of Oskar Blues and Boulder Beer Company but it
had been a long journey and I was soon ready to hit the hay.
Thanks to the jet lag I was wide awake early on in the
morning, the temptation to start working my way through the fridge of dreams
was high but I had a big day (make that a big week) of drinking ahead of me and
decided to stick with Mr. Coffee. We headed into Old Town Fort Collins at
lunchtime and it felt as though I had never been away, the sun was shining and
the beer would soon be flowing. We grabbed lunch at the Tap n Handle, the
latest specialist craft beer bar to appear in Fort Collins
which opened back in February. The Tap boasts a whopping 74 taps with brews
from the US, UK, Germany and Belgium present and correct, it’s not quite as
many as the nearby Mayor of Old Town which has 100 but while deciding what to
drink the bartender mused that Old Town must have more beer taps within one
square mile than anywhere else in the world. She may well be right, and after a
bit of a personal crisis (it’s tough choosing between 74 amazing beers) I went
for a White Rascal, a witbier from Avery Brewing who are based in nearby Boulder.
The rascal was a lovely, light and quaffable wit, laced with
banana and clove esters and had a lovely hit of coriander in the finish,
it made a delightful accompaniment to my Philly cheese steak sub which was
tasting as good as the beer. Sadly this was the only chance I had to visit the
Tap n Handle in what would become a very busy week but next time I’m Stateside
I hope to spend a bit longer within it’s warm, friendly walls.
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| Hop bines are growing at the back of this shot |
After a bit of shopping we headed to that most hallowed of
places and my Dads favourite local hangout, the tap room at Odell Brewing Co. My
Dad spends a lot of time here as he usually chooses to finish a hard week at
work supping a fresh pint of IPA with his colleagues so it was a nice surprise
for me when I walked in and the guys behind the bar shouted ‘Hey, Matt’s here!’
I instantly felt like an old regular and was soon sat outside in the sunshine watching
some live Bluegrass and working my way through a tasting
tray of some of the newly released and pilot brews. Highlights from the tray
for me were Turkish Rye Wit, an interesting wheat beer which, as the name
suggests, also contained rye in the mash, Deconstruction which I can only
describe as a superb American Gueuze and The Meddler a newly released beer
which is the Odell take on a Flemish style brown ale. It was delicious, tart
and surprisingly suppable for it’s 8.9% ABV,
unfortunately I seem to have misplaced my tasting notes for this one but it
certainly comes highly recommended.
One thing you’ll soon realise if you visit the States at the
moment is that brewers and beer geeks alike seem to be obsessed with sour beer
styles. There were few tap rooms and bars that didn’t have a range of offerings
that had been fermented with Lactobacillus, Brettanomyces or something equally
as funky. It’s almost as if some brewers have got bored with attempting to make
the strongest, hoppiest beers around and are trying new ways to create insane
levels of flavour. Fort Collins heavyweights New Belgium have an almost
ridiculous range of sours available at the moment and have recently installed
new tanks to make even more, the good news is that their mastery over this
style of beer is supreme.
After Dad and I, who had been joined by his girlfriend Terri
at this point, had worked our way through the tasters we got straight onto the
IPA. My Dad always likes to boast about the one time he tried it straight off
the bottling line and just how damn good it was then but this is a beer that’s
always on stunning form, one of my all time favourites. Interestingly Odell
always have one cask beer on rotation and the current offering was a wet hop
beer simply called Fresh Hop Cask, which had been brewed by Matt, one of the
Tap Room staff at the brewery using Columbus
hops that had been grown at the brewery hand picked by his good self. It was an
interesting brew that was dank with oily hop resins, my Dad certainly seemed to
be enjoying it and quickly polished off a pint.
Before we headed off for some food I had one more beer,
Mountain Standard Double Black IPA which is brewed using 100% Colorado
grown hops. I first tasted Mountain Standard last year when my Dad brought a
couple of bottles with him when he visited over Christmas and loved it but this
time the autumn/winter seasonal had been released just days before my arrival
so all of those fresh, piney hops were much more up front than the last time I
tried it. Mountain Standard was a real highlight of my trip as was Wild Raven,
a barrel aged version fermented with, you’ve guessed it, Lactobacillus and
Brettanomyces.
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| This is what a happy beer geek looks like |
We then headed back into Old
Town for some food at Jax Fish House, there was a minor moment of panic when I almost wasn’t served alcohol as
my ID wasn’t issued by the US Government. Thankfully the Manager soon sorted
things out and I enjoyed a delicious pint of Tropic King by Funkwerks, another Fort
Collins based brewery that specialise purely in Saison
style beers. Long time readers will know that I’ve really discovered my love
for Saison since I started writing about beer and as I result I definitely got
more out of this beer than the last time I drank it. Tropic King has an almost
juicy quality with tropical fruit flavours mingling with the funkiness of a Belgian
yeast and it paired beautifully with the pile of peel ‘n eat shrimp and crab
burger that I was munching down.
After dinner we decided to head back to the tap room at
Odell and why not, they were tapping yet ANOTHER new brew (these guys are unstoppable), this time another
wheat beer called Fall Harvest Wit. It tasted a bit muted after all of the
flavour bombs I’d been drinking throughout the day and as it was only a
Wednesday night we decided to head back home after a couple more beers and continue working our way
through the epic fridge of epicness. My first full day in FoCo was complete but
I still had another six days of hardcore beverage consumption ahead of me…
Thankfully I got to visit that wonderful tap room at Odell
Brewing Co several times on this trip and I’d just like to thank all of the
awesome staff that work behind that bar for the warm welcome and the great
beer, hope to see y’all again soon!
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