Tastings

Thanks to Adam, I've been on my fair share of brewery tours. New Belgium, hands down, is the best tour we've experienced so far. The beer's pretty good, too.

Check out the quirky/cute/hip/colorful/creative overload that is the New Belgium Brewing Company:

Adam is proudly displaying our beer ticket (Sunshine Wheat, FYI). Tours fill up fast. Fortunately, Alison planned ahead and booked us three spots. I suggest you do the same. Now.

We sampled five incredible and very different beers on the 90 minute tour. I picked exactly the right time to finally enjoy beer. At any point in my previous 33 years, I probably would have been sipping a ginger ale instead and missing out on all this goodness.

Check out that vessel!

This room and all its giant casks are reserved entirely for the wild and sour beers, a process that takes much longer than a typical brew. Ask Adam about the details. He's really into this style. I'm hoping I can talk him into a trip to Belgium for this.

Our amazing tour guide, in front of the equally amazing employee rock wall, a gift to an original employee of New Belgium based on his years of service to the brewery.

New Belgium is ever-expanding and will be making a trip to the East Coast market very soon.

The bottling lines were on break during our tour, but I was still impressed by the efficiency.

Our guide, explaining some of the sustainability decisions at New Belgium. The brewery was actually quite remarkable for its environmental impact, as well as its employee-oriented culture. And, of course, the beer.

Not every company gets their own spiral slide. This one does. Seems like a very cool place to work.

After the New Belgium tour, we met Adam's cousin Chris and girlfriend Katie for a long lunch in Fort Collins. Then we headed over to Equinox Brewing for another awesome tasting. When it rains, it pours.

I'm starting to reach my limit of beer right about here, but Adam is just getting started. That is what experience gets you.

We had such a great time that we overstayed our welcome a wee bit. Fortunately, Fort Collins is forgiving and probably assumed we were tasting at one of its many fine establishments. We were.

The hours simply ran out on the day.We only had time for one more stop, so we briefly stopped by the Oskar Blues Brewery in Longmont. Simply amazing. Again. Although I mostly just remember all those peanuts.

Such a long and delicious day! We had a list of at least three more breweries we were hoping to visit, including Funkwerks and Odells, but we'll have to return for those. Instead, we ended our night with a margarita and a cheers! to good company. Thanks for the memories!