Ft. Collins Brewery

Sooo I figured I should put up our third brewery of our first trip. We will be hitting up several in Denver next weekend so stay tuned... Do you tune into a website? Stay logged? That makes it sound like you either A. Are covered with a lot of water. Or B. Really have to take a shit. But I digress. On to Fort Collins Brewery, or as I call it, the liquid smoke use'n-est place on Earth.
Please keep in mind that by this time, both J and I were many tasters in.

A bit about Fort Collins Brewery
Location: 1020 E Lincoln Ave, Fort Collins, Co
Web Site:  fortcollinsbrewery.com.
Here is where I would normally tell you a bit of history about the brewery, but they were nice enough to not put that on their website. Checking Wikipedia did not help, but it did lead me to a list of famous people from Colorado and I learned that Bill (fucking) Murry went to Regis University in Denver. Far out. I will tell you what I know about the brewery. As far as I can remember, it started in the early 2000's. It was originally in a small warehouse space in one of the seedier parts of Fort Collins (think of one of the nicer areas of where you live and that will give you a general idea). The tasting room was tiny, they had only a few tables, and there was a picture of little black puffballs smoking cigars that I always wanted. After many years of growing to love that small space, they started making money and moved to their new PALATIAL ESTATE. The place is a huge rambling complex that they use roughly 1/3 of. One would think that since the area is so huge, the tasting room would be the same. Nope. It is bigger than the last one, but not much. Still not a lot of places to sit and they have these weird art deco chairs that make my back hurt just looking at them. But as I said, we were many tasters in and feelin limber, so we climbed on and ordered our tasters.

MMMMMM Beeeeeeeer...

The first two notes I see on my ledger are
1. Need to adjust #'s for drunkeness
2. Fort Collins 1-28-12 (stole this pen from Coopersmiths)

I will start, as anyone should, with their Rootbeer. It has no alcohol, but it is simply divine. You have to ask for it, but it is worth the drive on it's own. My notes on it are... "Third brewery of the day, slightly drunk. Starting with Rootbeer. It is like they made regular rootbeer and then angles ejaculated in it for it's heavenly flavor."

Rating 10/10

1900 Amber 4.7% ABV
This is their new popular beer around town. I enjoy the 1900, but I find it to be slightly boring in a Coors Light kind of way. A bit more flavor to be sure, but nothing really sticks with you. I could drink many of these though, which you can't often say about mircobrews.

Rating 7/10

Major Tom's Pomegranate Wheat 5.2% ABV
Reviewing this beer made me remember something about the brewery. The owner of the brewery had to sell his airplane in order to start the brewery. Talk about first world problems.
The beer is actually quite good. Nicely balanced flavors and the fruit is subtle and works well with a wheat beer. It is a filtered wheat beer which is a bit of a downer. My notes indicate that it is "Girly, yet manly"

Rating 7/10

Red Banshee Red (my notes indicate that this name is a bit redundant) 5.4% ABV
I refer to this beer as the Kelly McGinnis beer. You kinda have to know her. I enjoyed this red, which is a beer style I am normally not that fond of. It is heavier than expected with a subtle earthy flavor underneath. I could only drink a few of these, but I would enjoy the ones I had.

Rating 7/10

Rocky Mountain IPA 6.3% ABV
If I find a beer in our travels that I hate more than this beer, I will be shocked. To give you an idea of how bad it is, I will simply transcribe my notes from the day.
"Hated it before, let's see if the 15 previous tasters makes it any better... NOPE! Still hoppy and bitter. Terrible IPA, if you like this beer, you're racist... or a terrorist... or a racist terrorist."

Rating .01/10

On to the Liquid Smoke!

Kid Lager 5.1% ABV
Don't get me wrong, I actually like this beer, but it tastes like they had a fire in the brewery and they decided to just keep making beer. Smoke flavor be damned! While I enjoy the sampler, I have tried to drink this beer in bottles and I find that the sampler size is about a perfect amount to drink.

Rating 6/10

Z Lager 5.4% ABV AKA, The Bacon Beer
While Kid Lager used the whole bottle of Liquid Smoke, Z lager probably used a third of it. As I stated above, this beer tastes like the flavor you have in your mouth after you have eaten 3-4 pieces of bacon. My notes say "Good breakfast beer, the one I have been longing for." I really like this one.

Rating 8/10

Chocolate Stout 5% ABV
Another solid offering. A very smooth beer that is easily consumed. It has a chocolate flavor, but not in a gimmicky way. It compliments the beer nicely. A very good palate cleanser and a great way to finish your beer tour on the first day.

Rating 8/10

So that wraps up our first of many trips. We will be hitting up several in the Denver area on the 25th of February if anyone wants to come. We follow that with a sure to be lovely dinner with friends. See ya in a few weeks, back and better than ever.
Thanks for reading.