Colorado Beer Trip

Thursday, January 10

We left Omaha at 3:30 and arrived in Lincoln at 4:30 to pickup VJ. We then left Lincoln at 5:10 and stopped in at Thunderhead and had a couple of beers with my father (on a business trip) and Trevor. Finally, we arrived in Denver at our friend’s place around 12:15 a.m. MST.
Friday, January 11

We left for Fort Collins around 10:30 and arrived at New Belgium at 11:30. I called Eric Salazar and informed him we had arrived. Several New Belgium employees greeted us and served us a beer of our choice. Eric greeted us shortly thereafter and asked if we would like to go to lunch with him and his wife Lauren. We piled in the car and followed them to Choice City Butcher.

This was a great deli with more meat than you could shake a hoof at. In addition, they had a wide selection on tap and in bottles; I had an Eric’s ale with my meal. Which as the name implies, is Eric’s creation from New Belgium. A very nice barrel-aged sour beer, which I sampled when they were at the Crescent Moon.



After Lunch we proceeded back to the brewery and started our ‘VIP’ tour in the new bottling facility. This place was amazing; they were doing a bomber run of Fat Tire at the time. The machinery was very fast and precise, which was no surprise since it was all German-made.

Our next stop was the grain mill, mash/lauter tun, and boiling vessels. This was what most people see on the standard tour, but Eric and Lauren still made it interesting and enjoyable. We then headed outside of the brewery to the highest point...the top of the grain silos. At one point, while walking to the top, we had to cross a large span of steel-grate stairs high above the ground.

I’m not much one for heights, but I sucked it up and did it anyway (it’s amazing what beer will allow me to do). “One at a time”, Eric said, “The stairs bounce when there is more than one person on them.” We finally made it to the top and the view was well worth the mental anxiety. Fort Collins is pretty much flat, so we could see quite a distance.


After we got down, and my heart stopped pounding, we went to view the computer system that runs the brewery...nice software (I’m both an IT and beer geek). Then it was off to the cellar room...Eric saved the best for last. Previously used for wine, these feuters (could not find the correct spelling) were now doing time for the brewery. We sampled several varieties of beer in different stages.

After tasting them, the two people in the group that weren’t so keen on sour beers, decided they weren’t so bad after all. Five hours later, we ended our experience with some trinkets and beer. What a wonderful day; we were going to visit other breweries that day, but nothing would compare. I want to send a big THANK YOU out to Eric and Lauren. Their hospitality was more than we could ask for; it was an experience we will soon not forget.

A quick stop at the Ft. Collins Brewery, then we were off to Wilbur’s package store in Fort Collins before heading back to Denver (this set me back a few dollars). Once we got to Denver we had a great dinner at the four-star restaurant Panzano, where our Denver friend works part-time. Beer Blogger Note: It’s not a good idea to pile red wine on top of a full stomach of beer.

Luckily I prevented a hangover by consuming lots of water before going to sleep.

Saturday, January 12

We left Denver in the morning for the Big Beers, Barleywines, and Belgians Fest (B4) in Vail. The traffic was no where near as bad as it was last year, in fact in never snowed once while we were up in the mountains.

We checked into the hotel in Avon and took the $3 bus ride to Vail. The B4 was at the newly renovated Marriott this year. There was more room than last year’s hotel, but you lost some of the charm because of it. Several breweries were in attendance, with some of the head brewers and higher-ups attending: Doug Odell (Odell Brewing) -- Tomme Arthur (The Lost Abbey & Port Brewing) -- Peter Bouckaert (New Belgium Brewing) -- Will Meyers (Cambridge Brewing) -- Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head Brewery) -- Adam Avery (Avery Brewing).

It’s tough to give a drink-by-drink analysis of the afternoon, since it was information overload from the time we walked in the door. So, we just went about having a great time sampling anything and everything we could in the time we had. However, several beers were a standout in my humble opinion. These were the offerings of Will Meyers from Cambridge Brewing. The beers are only available at the brewery in Massachusetts, so I had never had them before. There was a summer and winter Barleywine, a spontaneous-fermented brew, a heather brew, and a few others which elude me right now. Will was great about explaining the beers and the brewing methods he used.

The best part of the fest was watching the participants file out at the end of the night. We (beer geeks) are definitely a diverse and eccentric bunch of people. We all got a chuckle seeing what big beers can do to people over the course of 6 hours.

Our group then boarded our bus and headed for the hotel. There were quite a diverse group of people on the bus too...people from all parts of the world working in Vail during the high season...and all of them in various stages of sobriety.

Sunday, January 13

We went back to Denver to load up the truck and head back for Nebraska. It was tough to go back...this was a trip I will keep with me for many years.

A toast to Colorado, its beers, and its people....