And the winner is . . . Coopersmith’s NOT Brown Ale.
Just got back from my beercation in Ft. Collins, and trust me, it was hard to pick a winner.
Best Local Brewery goes to this tiny place called ‘Equinox’. I asked the Bartender how far do they sell their stuff and he said, “Within in a 3 block radius.”
Best rental car, jet black 2013 Dodge Charger, that car rocked!
Best Saturday afternoon drinking partner, my uncle Mike!
Best Saturday Night drinking partner/tour guide, Megs!
Best Hosts, Mike and Joy, who were kind enough to let me stay with them and take me out to some great places to eat.
Best Sunday Lunch, Betta Mo’s Gumbo (sp?) in Loveland, CO where I had the special of the day (shrimp boil) and homemade bloody mary’s.
Totally worth it gallery stop, Loveland, CO, Francisco Goya’s plate prints on display.
Weirdest photo wall art, The Forge, I won’t even post a picture of it because it was so disturbing.
Best place to get a pint, The Mayor. 100 beers on tap, I had a Trinity Saison and a Hoegarrden Wit.
Best detour between Ft. Collins and Denver, Estes Park.
First Brewery I hit on Friday, Fort Collins Brewery, their scotch ale was amazing and their Weisenbach was also probably #2 on my list for best beers.
Equinox Brewery, best brewery in Ft. Collins, hands down, definately craft, craft, craft beer. Their Wit, Saison and Hef were some of the best I ever had. The employees of Equinox, not so friendly, they take ‘Beer Snobs’ to a whole new level.
The one thing I will say about Ft. Collins is it is a ‘Bike Town’ Everyone rides, they even have a thing called ‘Bike Library’ where tourists can ‘check out’ bikes. The other thing that surprised me is that a town with the same population as SF has a massive DT that spans about 6 square blocks, chucked full of galleries, bars and restaurants. In fact there is probably more on two blocks then there is in all of DTSF. The problem I see with DTSF compared to Ft. Collins is ‘Marketing’ DTSF business owners need to do a better job of promoting our DT. Period! We also need to drop the ‘attitude’ DT. Ft. Collins has it’s problems though, the city government is super-duper corrupt. They just recently gave $50 million of taxpayer dollars to a Canadian company to ‘refurbish’ the mall. They also only have ONE cab company, that has a monopoly on the town, and can charge whatever rates they want to. When you ask locals about it, they say, the owner has ‘connections’
I think I tried over 40 different beers while I was there, but it is never enough 🙂
Fantastic – happy times!
sample the local herb, too?
Fort Collins has other stuff SF doesn’t too – a university with a student population of nearly 30,000 – 50 mile proximity to a city with an SMSA population with over 3 million people.
DL – You are one lucky bastard! OMG you suck!
Mrs. Jew and I are hoping to do a Michigan beercation sometime soon. Mark my words, this will get rubbed in!
Ruf – How did I know you would come on here and tell me I can’t compare the two cities, and you are right. But their are many similarities.
Larry, hasn’t become law yet, think it happens in August.
“What’s the matter with the beer we got? I mean, the beer we got drink pretty good, don’t it?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cj5IFdapS8
Sounds like a good time. I’m adding Equinox to my list.
It’s a college town. Most college towns have a vibrant downtown. The Hilton there is a good weekend hangout when you’re in north Denver and don’t like to travel on fridays. OK, I’m spoiled.
Okay peeps, it’s JULY! College isn’t in session.
There are still college classes in session during summer DL – and the profs, grad students and research projects are going full-bore during summer. It’s just the little undergrads (well – the average ones) that split for summer. They amount to around 40% or so of the whole college-town culture.
Really, is that why the college grounds looked like a ghost town on Friday when I got there in the morning, and when I drove past in the afternoon, I saw one guy sitting outside a building. I actually asked when I was there, because I knew this would come up in convo. About 80% of the student population leaves in the summer. And when I was walking around Friday & Saturday afternoon, most of the people were middle aged and younger families (visitors). I think our DT would be more vibrant if we made it more diverse and cultural. I still chuckle about how all these fuddy-duddies DT business owners cried about a tattoo shop opening DT, like the freaking sky was going to fall. If we want more traffic DT, we need to give peeps a reason to come DT besides Minerva’s and a couple of sculptures of a goose reading a children’s book. Something else I like about DT Ft. Collins NO METERS! While it was hard to find on street parking, they did have a 4 story public parking ramp right in the heart of the DT.
There’s no tower on your mountain picture. I can fix that. Maybe red & white stripes with strobe lights.