GABF 2012: Ft. Collins Day Trip Part 2

Picking up where I left off with our day in Ft. Collins, our next stop on the Colorado Brewery Bus Tour was Equinox Brewing. Prior to booking the bus tour, I had never even heard of Equinox. 

This place was was a lot smaller than both of the previous stops in Ft. Collins but still had plenty of bees to choose from. We opted for a few sampler trays to share which is always the best way to check out a new brewery.

It was right around this point in the day where I hit a huge wall. I could hardly keep my eyes open and just wanted to take a nap but on we went to Odell Brewing for our final stop on the tour before heading back to Denver.

A few samples of beer, some fresh air...

...and a Pizza from Marco’s Coal Fired Oven I was feeling much more like myself. Wes and I ate at Marco's in Denver last year and I was excited to see they had their coal oven "food truck" at Odells for the day.

Signs and bottles inside the brewery showcasing some of Odell's different beers. 

Before we knew it it was time to head back to the bus and get back on the road for Denver. All in all I really enjoyed the whole Brewery Bus experience. It was great to have a designated driver for the long day so that everyone could enjoy themselves. Probably the only downside to the whole thing was that we really wanted to go to Funkworks Brewery and the tour didn't stop there. Next time we're in Colorado I think we will probably rent a car and stay the night in Ft. Collins so that we can see even more of this great city.

Up next... A spontaneous trip to Longmont, Colorado!

GABF 2012: Ft. Collins Day Trip Part 1

After a few fun days in Denver, we all purchased tickets for the Colorado Brewery Bus Tour for Saturday and opted for the Ft. Collins itinerary. I’m going to break this post up into two posts because we visited so many places. 

Our first stop on the itinerary was The New Belgium Brewery. While tickets to this brewery tour are free, it can be quite a challenge to actually get the tickets as the tours are always booked up way in advance. One of the perks of taking the brewery bus was that we were guaranteed tickets.

A view of the tasting room. (double click to expand the image)

Taps at New Belgium Brewery. 

All of the Lips of Faith series beers on draft at the brewery when we were there. Lips of Faith beers are beers that are here today but might be gone tomorrow. Most of the New Belgium beers that I have in Houston are from this series. 

Along the tour we were given periodic samples of different New Belgium beers to try. This one was The Lips of Faith Cocoa Mole. 

One of the really neat things about the tour was seeing inside the fermenting tanks and seeing what was actually happening at different stages of the beer making process. 

All of the fermenting tanks were surrounded in this mosaic tile and each tank had a different theme. I like this one in particular because it seemed to have hidden images. I didn't even notice the football in the picture below until after I took the picture. 

Sustainability and being eco-friendly is very important to New Belgium Brewery. On their one year anniversary, each employee of brewery receives a bicycle such as the one below.

Wesley inside his favorite room at the brewery, the barrel aging room. 

A "candilear" inside the portion of the brewery that contained the canning line. The cans were attached to bicycle wheels, another signature of the New Belgium Brewery. 

      

                                                                 Up next we headed to Ft. Collins Brewery and Gravity ten twenty for lunch. Our bus driver/tour guide took everyone’s order before we got off of the bus at New Belgium so when we got to Gravity We didn’t have to wait very long at all which was really nice. 

My sample plate from Ft. Collins Brewery contained the Haus Brew Cream Ale, Major Tom's American Wheat, Red Banshee Red Ale and the Rocky Mountain IPA. 

The beer was good but the food was even better. I got a BLT with smoked turkey on a croissant with sweet potato fries. This meal was way better than I expected food from a brewery to be and is a must stop for grub if you're ever touring breweries in Ft. Collins.

And that concludes the first half of our day in Ft. Collins, stay tuned for part 2 coming up tomorrow! 

GABF 2012: The Bars & Breweries

Another highlight of being in Denver is the great Craft Beer Bars and Breweries. We didn't spend a whole lot of time in any one place in particular this year but rather we enjoyed several different places. 

Falling Rock: A very popular craft beer bar where the staff is rude and the beer is good. I’m not complaining that the staff or the service as it’s kind of one of the things they are known for. Someone told me they even make t-shirts about the bartenders not being friendly. We hardly spent anytime at Falling Rock this year but I did manage to get a few pints of Pliney the Elder while at Falling Rock.

(double click to expand the image)

FreshCraft: This was by far our favorite bar to hang out at during GABF. The bartenders and staff were so friendly as were all of the people sitting at the bar. We made it out to FreshCraft a few times (more on this under special events) and each and every time we met some really nice people.

Denver Beer Co.: A new brewery in Denver that we all really enjoyed. This brewery is located across the South Platte River, a part of Denver I had never been too but really enjoyed. They had a couple of pumpkin beers that I really enjoyed as well as a Fresh Hop.

Great Divide: Wes and I really enjoyed Great Divide while in Denver last year so we knew it was a must stop for us this year. I was kind of disappointed that they didn’t have more one off kegs on and that most of the stuff they had we could get back home in Texas but I did enjoy some Fresh Hop.

Up next... GABF 2012: Ft. Collins Day Trip - Part 1

GABF 2012: The Food

One of my favorite parts of Denver is all of the great food and restaurants. We ate at one repeat restaurant this year and we tried several new places as well. I figured I would make things easy and just do one big recap on all of the places we ate while in Denver. 

Sam’s No. 3: This was a repeat for us. We loved it so much last year that we knew we had to go back. Wesley and I were starving and we knew that their portions are huge so we ordered an appetizer (Mac-N-Cheese Dip) and then split the Kitchen Sink Burrito.

Delectable Egg: Wesley and I met some up with a group of people from Houston here for brunch one morning. I ordered the Denver Omelet (I couldn’t resist!) and it was really good. Looking back, I probably should have gone for something with a little more carbs just because of they day we had ahead.

Hi Rise: This was a perfect grab and go breakfast when you didn’t want to spend a lot of time waiting. Wesley and I actually ate here two mornings. I couldn’t get enough of the cinnamon raisin bagel with peanut butter and jelly.

Vesta Dipping Grill: Wesley and I attempted to go here last year but their hot water heater broke and they had to cancel our reservation. I was glad that we had the opportunity to go this year. I have to admit that I really don’t remember exactly what we ordered and I didn’t take any pictures but I remember it was really good.

Mici: We grabbed a pizza from here based on the recommendation of the door guy at the hotel Jeff and Denise were staying at. I’m not sure what it is about margarita pizzas in Denver but they are all just so good. Ignore me looking stupid in the background. This is what happens when you ask your husband to take a food picture.

D’Corazon: Mexican food in Denver? I know. What were we thinking? We went beer based on the recommendation from some locals who swore by this place. And you know what? It was really cheap and really good AND we walked right in on a Saturday night. That’s a win-win in my book! I got the tamales and Wesley got enchiladas and we both liked them but my tamales stole the show. The salsa was also really good but really spicy.

New Belgium Hub: This is a mix of Bar and Restaurant but since I ate there, I put it under the food section. This restaurant is located in Terminal B of the Denver Airport and was a nice place to hang out and have some food and one last beer before heading back to Texas - or wherever you're headed! The food was just okay but the beers were tasty!

Up next... GABF 2012: The Bars and The Breweries!

GABF 2012: The Special Events

One of the best parts about being in Denver around the time of GABF is all of the special events going on around the city. We attended several special events and tapping's (some good and some bad) which I've detailed below. If you ever make it to Denver for GABF, be sure and attend some of these events as well!

Avery Midnight Breakfast at Euclid Hall: This event was by far the biggest let down of the entire trip. The menu didn’t look good to me at all but I went along because everyone else in my group wanted too. We paid $99 each and had expected a sit down dinner since the information released had paired courses. We were wrong. Thankfully for us, we left GABF a little early and ate a pizza before getting in line for this event. We were first in line, and had we not been we would not have had a seat. Even though we had a seat, I had to put my drink on the floor in order to eat the food since I didn’t have a table. The drinks were good and the food wasn’t very good. We drank what we wanted and then left about an hour after the event started. Don’t waste your money on this one.

Pints for Prostates Rare Beer Tasting: This event was definitely a highlight of this trip for me. I went in thinking there wouldn’t be very many beers that I would enjoy but I was very wrong. I think it is this event that now has me liking sours. Just like with the Thursday session of GABF, everyone pouring the beer was very knowledgeable. All of the breweries (except for one) represented were not from Texas and most of this beer will never come to Texas (no thanks to TABC) so it was a great opportunity to try some new things.

Total number of beer tasted: 24

Breweries: 23

Styles of Beer: 20

States: 13

Special Tapping's at FreshCraft: Not all of the special events going on during GABF in Denver are ticketed events. Some of our favorite “events” were special tapping's at FreshCraft. The first one we went to was a Cigar City one where they tapped Cinnamon Apple IPA, Hotter Than Helles, Guava Grove Saison, Marshal Zhukov’s Russian Imperial Stout and Ligero Black Lager. We ordered a flight with came with all of the beers except the Guava Grove Saison so we ordered a tulip of that one. All of these beers were incredible and we all really enjoyed this tasting. The second event we went to at FreshCraft was the Oak Aged Extravaganza with Firestone Walker and Odell Brewing. We ordered a Firestone Walker Reginald Brett and a Firestone Walker Anniversary XIV and shared them both. 

Up next... GABF 2012: The Food!