Colorado Brewery Pilgrimage 2011 - Part I

Our first brewery pilgrimage in darned near two years returned us to one of our favorite drinking states – Colorado. Getting to Colorado meant flying into Denver but beyond a departure day visit to Wynkoop we passed on the obvious and spent our time in and between Fort Collins and Boulder.

Since we were last in Fort Collins Equinox Brewing, in the Old Town area, and Funkwerks, occupying the former Fort Collins Brewing building, opened up. Equinox offered a solid line up of beers, a nice patio and the closest I’ve ever come to a bar fight. Funkwerks, for anyone in Portland reading, was reminiscent of Upright with their beer offerings (although they don’t do any open fermentation).

Our return visits to New Belgium, Odell’s and Fort Collins Brewery, whose new location was just a couple blocks away from Odell’s, proved that they are still going strong. The New Belgium tour was considerably more extensive than before, the Odell’s tasting room larger and with a more polished look than five years ago and Fort Collins Brewing looking quite at home in their much larger new home.

There was more than enough to keep us busy for the day and a half we spent there, including a great breakfast at Lucile’s Creole Cafe, complete with beignets and gianormous, warm biscuits topped with house made jam for the sweet lovers or flavorful sausage gravy, and a non-beer adventure to the Swetsville Zoo.

Check back soon for more details and pictures from the rest of our pilgrimage.