Visit Fort Collins Craft Beer Guide

Craft beer find it here!

Destination:

BREWERIES

This is the land of craft beer…

immerse yourself!

More than twenty breweries, and counting, have brews for you in Fort Collins. And the variety goes on, from crisp pilsners to creamy stouts and everything in between. Take in the character and setting of each tap room…some warm and cozy, others bright and breezy. It’s all part of the experience.

When you’re here with a glass of beer in hand, don’t rush it. Raise that glass and admire the beer. Give it a swirl and stick your nose in the glass. Inhale the rich hop and malt aromas. Now you’re ready to savor the flavor. Take a sip and let it linger on your palate before swallowing.

Clink glasses. Cheers! Welcome to the Craft Beer Capital of Colorado!

PHOTO BY RICHARD HARO

Think you know

beer?

Well you can prove it by becoming a Certified Cicerone (sis-uh-rohn).

You’ll spend a year or two learning the ins and outs of beer. You even have to pass a taste test!

If your server seems particularly well versed about beer, he or she might be a Certified Beer Server, a step on the way to becoming a Master Cicerone.

Certified Cicerone

Certified Beer Server

(76,000 and counting worldwide) Learn great beer service and how to talk to guests about, you guessed it, beer.

(2,600 and growing) Demonstrate excellent knowledge in beer styles, brewing procedures, how to serve and talk about beer, and how to pair beer with foods... and how to taste beer.

Advanced and Master Cicerone

(fewer than 100) Basically, master every technical and aesthetic aspect of beer and converse with professionals and consumers on their level. Oh, and be able to taste beer as a quality-control panel member.

A taste to remember

Whether this is your first time or 40th time tasting, the Fort Collins Tasting Journal is meant to help you get familiar with craft beer. All you have to do to get your own journal is complete the Tasting Journal form online at www.visitfortcollins.com and print out or show your confirmation at our visitor’s center in Old Town Fort Collins, 19 Old Town Square, Suite 137. If you’ve ordered a visitor guide and received a postcard, bring it with you to receive a tasting journal. Let the checklist at the beginning of the journal be your guide to an exploration of craft breweries.

#FoCoBrew visitfortcollins.com

Fort Collins

[BY THE BREWERY] NORTH

NORTH SIDE Anheuser Busch

Jay Montez

Brewer at Odell Brewing Co. Jay Montez taps into his

passions when he taps into beer.

He loves drinking it, has read just about everything written on the subject of brewing it, works for Odell Brewing Co., wants to work in the industry forever and believes “there’s a beer for everybody,” so it’s only natural he becomes a certified Cicerone. What’s that? Someone who’s deemed a highly educated beer connoisseur who knows all the styles, their ingredients, and how to brew, evaluate, serve and pair them with food. Once he brewed up the idea to pursue his Cicerone

www.odellbrewing.com

certification, many of Montez’s colleagues asked him to lead a study group so they could join him in becoming a documented beer expert with bragging rights. But for him, becoming a Cicerone and thoroughly understanding the brewing process isn’t about prestige, “it’s about making something that makes people happy. And doing that in Fort Collins, a mecca for great beer with a population that supports it, is what it’s all about.”

PHOTOS BY RICHARD HARO

DOWNTOWN CooperSmith’s Pub & Brewing CSU Brewery at the Ramskeller Equinox Brewing Fort Collins Brewery & Tavern Funkwerks Horse & Dragon Brewing New Belgium Brewing Odell Brewing Pateros Creek Brewing Prost Brewing Company Snowbank Brewing MIDTOWN Black Bottle Brewery C.B. & Potts Restaurant & Brewery Gilded Goat Brewing Company Intersect Brewing Jessup Farm Barrel House Maxline Brewing McClellan’s Brewing Rally King Brewing Three Four Beer Company SOUTH SIDE 1933 Brewing Zwei Brewing ON TAP Soul Squared

SOUTH

[the brew in front of you]

It is easy to see why some might feel lost when looking at a beer menu. Here are some clues that will help you decipher what a beer might taste like.

[COLOR] A fair number of beers are named after their color, and you can often make a good guess of a beer’s malt flavor just by knowing its name and seeing it in a glass.

LIGHT/PALE FLAVORS: grainy, bread-like STYLES: blonde ale, helles, Belgian-style

AMBER FLAVORS: toasty, bread crust STYLES: amber ale, amber lager

[SPECIAL INGREDIENTS] Special ingredients range in intensity, but there is usually an expectation that the brewer will aim to strike a balance.

FOOD: chocolate, coffee, breakfast cereal FRUIT: raspberry, peach, cherry, orange SPICES: cinnamon, ginger, cardamom

ALES ferment at warmer temperatures and often present more yeast-derived flavors (fruity, sometimes spicy). You can safely anticipate that yeast flavors provide at least some of the flavor profile in an ale.

[FLIGHT PLAN]

BLACK

BROWN FLAVORS: toast, roasted nuts, chocolate STYLES: brown ale, Marzen, dopplebock

FLAVORS: burnt toast, dark chocolate, coffee, espresso STYLES: dry stout, robust porter, American black ale

[REGIONAL STYLE] There are exceptions, but these geographic terms offer clues about a beer’s character.

GERMAN | lager with complex malt character and floral hops BELGIAN | fruity, spicy ales or sour beers ENGLISH | pale ales, porters and stouts with earthy hops AMERICAN | hop-forward beers with pine, citrus and resin flavors BELGO-AMERICAN | fruity/spicy Belgian yeast with American hops

LAGERS ferment at cooler temperatures and create a much “cleaner” beer, allowing you to taste the malt and hops more explicitly.

[YEAST] Today’s brewers are using nontraditional yeasts, blending types of yeast and using traditional yeast in untraditional ways.

When visiting a brewery many people opt for a beer sampling flight. Often breweries will supply a description sheet for their brews, which allows thirsty visitors to plan their taste journey.

NAME: This is your first clue as to the taste of the beer.

ABV: Alcohol By Volume is a standard percentage measurement of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a volume of liquid (beer).

DESCRIPTION: A love-letter from the brewer detailing the subtleties and delights that you can expect from the beer.

}

IBU: The International Bittering Units scale, is the quantitative measurement of bitterness of the beer by the amount of iso-alpha acids present.

An IBU between 20-45 is considered average with beer having an IBU of 45+ being considered very “hoppy” and bitter.

COMPOSITION: Malts, hops, yeast and water are the building blocks of beer. Get to know the varieties used to brew your sample.

Beer Events 2017 Fort Love Brewers Jamboree Late May brewersjamboree.com Taste beer as brewers teach about their art and tell the stories of their craft-beer journeys.

Colorado Brewers’ Festival June 24-25 downtownfortcollins.com/events Sample beers from more than 40 Colorado brewers and enjoy great music.

Tapping

the town

9. Funkwerks

Plot your own taproom tour.

11. Intersect Brewing

You can head to the heart near downtown or branch out and sample the suds at breweries scattered around town. Each establishment has its own personal character and style of brewing. Grab a friend, pick

New Belgium Tour de Fat

up a Tasting Journal and raise

September 2 newbelgium.com Ride with thousands of costumed revelers celebrating all-things bicycle.

1. 1933 Brewing Company

FORToberfest September 16 downtownfortcollins.com/events Try local foods and local brews at this.

German-style party in Old Town

Small Batch Festival May 27 www.odellbrewing.com Enjoy a variety of unique beers, music and food at this event that features brews from Odell Brewing’s small-batch pilot system.

Know your limit

please drink responsibly

a glass to craft beer!

4025 South Mason Street, Suite C

2. Anheuser-Busch Brewing Co. 2351 Busch Drive

3. Black Bottle Brewery 1611 S. College Suite 1609

4. C.B. & Potts Restaurant & Brewery 195 East Foothills Parkway 1441 E Horsetooth Rd.

5. CooperSmith’s Pub and Brewing 5 Old Town Square

6. Gilded Goat

3500 S. College Ave Unit 194

1900 E. Lincoln Avenue

10. Horse and Dragon Brewing Co. 124 Racquette Drive

2160 W. Drake Rd., Suite A-1

12. The Jessup Farm Barrel House 1921 Jessup Drive

13. Maxline Brewing

2701 South College Avenue, Unit 190

14. McClellan’s Brewing Company 1035 South Taft Hill Road

15. New Belgium Brewing Co. 500 Linden Street

16. Odell Brewing Co. 800 E. Lincoln Avenue

17. Pateros Creek Brewery 242 North College Avenue

18. Prost Brewing Company 321 Old Firehouse Alley

19. Rally King Brewing

1624 South Lemay, Suite 4

20. Ramskeller Pub & Grub 1101 Center Avenue

21. Snowbank Brewing

225 North Lemay Avenue, Suite 1

22. Soul Squared Brewery 6421 North County Road 15 (no tastings on site)

7. Equinox Brewing

23. Three Four Beer Company

8. Fort Collins Brewery & Tavern

24. Zwei Brewing Co.

133 Remington Street

1020 E. Lincoln Avenue

829 South Shields Street

4612 South Mason Street, Suite 120

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Soul-Squared Brewery does not currently have a tasting room on site. However you can visit them online to find their taps around town and discover retailers who carry their beer.