From Salt Lake City, we headed northeast through Wyoming and then south to Fort Collins, Colorado. My sister moved to Fort Collins a few years ago, so it was the perfect place to have a layover day. Plus, the town is home to quite a few breweries, so we were pretty darn excited for a brew day!
Before I recap the amazingly beer-ful day, here’s the stats for the days:
3 states
434 miles
7.5 hours
1 big Wyoming rain storm
4 breweries
Day 2 started out driving across Wyoming in pursuit of Colorado. I think I spent almost all of the 7.5 hours looking for buffalo to no avail–I ended up seeing a buffalo farm as soon as we crossed the border back into Wyoming on Day 4!
The state was gorgeous, but the towns were so spread apart, I’d have a hard time not going a little stir crazy if I lived there!
Fort Collins was one of the highlights of our trips. It’s such a fun town and Jeff and I hadn’t visited for 5 years, so a visit was definitely due. Plus, Fort Collins will always hold a place in my heart–it was where I visited my first brewery! Like most of Colorado, the town has a very outdoorsy feel to it with bike trails and running paths connecting the entire town–definitely something SLO could take note of! Plus, two of my great friends live in nearby Boulder, so I got to see my sister and friends all in one stop before heading over to the other side of the US!
Okay, onto the fun things–the brewery tours!
We started the day at New Belgium Brewery, maker of Fat Tire and one of the biggest craft breweries in the US. I thought I’d booked us a behind-the-scenes tour for Saturday, but of course, I had accidentally booked it for the day before we got there–oops! And since tours are booked months in advance, there was no hope of rescheduling. Oh well!
We still had fun sampling all of their Lips of Faith series, their experimental line that sometimes gets bottled for the public, but more often is just served in the brewery. The brewers seems to be on a sour beer kick which was interesting, but not what I would really consider beer.
Still, the place was packed and was such a fun environment to kick off the day–they even had a social station where we could email postcards to family!
Next up was one of the other breweries Jeff and I had been to the last time we were in Colorado–O’Dell. We got two samplers–the traditional and the speciality beers and for the most part, they were all amazing.
We especially loved their IPA, I think it was my favorite beer of the day! I’m hoping they start shipping further east because they are definitely a brewery I’d like to see and drink more often!
After O’Dell, we headed downtown for a smaller brewery/restaurant, Equinox.
Again, we shared a few samplers and ordered an all-local bread and cheese platter in their outdoor beer garden. It was a great spot to relax and hang out in Fort Collins’ wonderful downtown area.
Finally, after doing a little much needed retail therapy, we headed to the last stop of the day–Fort Collins Brewery–for dinner and one last sampler. My sister and her boyfriend had gone there for their new years eve party, and wanted to take us to check out their chic restaurant, Gravity Ten Twenty.
They had a great menu, and I ended up getting a Speakeasy: Smoked turkey, applewood bacon, arugula, tomato, onion, dill Havarti, and honey mustard on toasted croissant. It came with a salad with a chunk of deep fried cheese–so good!
Sadly, we had to hit the road the next day and continue eastward. Hopefully we’ll be able to visit again soon!
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