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Category: Brewery

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project, Denver Colorado (June 25, Brewery Stop #4)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project, Denver Colorado (June 25, Brewery Stop #4)The fourth brewery we stopped at on our cross country beer discovery tour (click here to read about the whole trip) was Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project in Denver CO on June 25th. After hitting New Belgium north of Denver, we drove south into town and checked in at our hotel to unload some stuff. We were looking forward to trying this brewery as we had recently tried some of their beers at our local favorite bar, the Hop and Vine. The H&V poured a number of Crooked Stave beers during a sour fest and it was great to try them in person. This brewery is located in a recently renovated industrial complex with a LOT of different businesses inside the main building to include a specialty meat market, three or four restaurants, a liquor store, two or three other bars, and a common seating area. Once inside the main building (parking lot is gravel, so if it’s rainy, it might be muddy), head to the far back left corner and you’ll find Crooked Stave. They do have a number of bar seats and tables …

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2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: New Belgium Brewing Co., Fort Collins Colorado (June 25, Brewery Stop #3)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: New Belgium Brewing Co., Fort Collins Colorado (June 25, Brewery Stop #3)The third stop on our beer discovery tour (click here to read about the whole trip) landed us at New Belgium in Fort Collins Colorado. This well known establishment is just a few minutes from Odell Brewing. This is one of the best known micro-breweries in the US with Fat Tire Amber Ale being their largest distributed beer. The company is ’employee-owned’ so it’s definitely got a ‘sort-of-corporate-while-not-trying-to-be’ vibe going on with all the low-key stuff on their walls and ‘community’ atmosphere. The main building gets lots of visitors, so parking can be an issue. Just inside, they have a BUNCH of swag for sale and a bar area to get samples, pints, growler fills, and bottles to go. Once inside, we decided to grab a small table once one came open and ordered a few samples at the bar. They do offer everything they distribute in bottles and cans via tap there on site, as well as a few experimental and one-offs that are not distributed. We decided to try the one’s we had not had before with the local only beers. We did …

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2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Odell Brewing Co., Fort Collins Colorado (June 25, Brewery Stop #2)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Odell Brewing Co., Fort Collins Colorado (June 25, Brewery Stop #2) The second day of our journey to the east coast on our beer discovery tour (click here to read about the whole trip) in late June we made our way from northern Utah into southern Wyoming and then into Colorado to Fort Collins, just north of Denver. The first brewery stop for the day was Odell Brewing Company. We got there just as they opened for the day, and discovered they had a food cart truck and live music over the lunch hour on their patio (see pictures below). The facility is quite large with lots of seating inside and outside with lots of interesting artwork and things to keep you distracted. The brewing production areas can be viewed if you go on one of their free brewery tours which you have to sign up at the bar. The surprise for us was that we didn’t think that they would have so many beers on draft on site (18 the day we were there). We knew that they had a lot of varieties that they distribute across the west coast, but it was quite a …

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2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Highlands Hollow Brewhouse, Boise ID (June 24, Brewery Stop #1)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: HIGHLANDS HOLLOW BREWHOUSE, BOISE IDAHO (JUNE 24, BREEWERY STOP #1) The first day of our journey to the east coast in late June on the beer discovery tour (click here to read about the whole trip), we stopped in Boise ID for lunch at the Highlands Hollow Brewhouse. This old-school brewery is located on the north edge of town, just past downtown off of N. Harrison Blvd where it turns into Bogus Basin. While there are a number of breweries in the area that we could have gone for lunch, I wanted to revisit this great establishment as it had been over a year since I was last there and I was curious what their brewer had produced since then. The vibe is certainly on the ‘down to Earth’ and everyone is treated with attention and respect. This is a ‘family’ restaurant that serves beer, there is a small bar you can sit at, but for the most part, it’s a big room with lots of friendly people. We arrived just at the start of the day-time lunch rush. Actually, it’s not much of a rush, but more of a trickle of visitors and locals. The …

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2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR, Portland OR to Portland ME and back… 24 June-9 July, 2015

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR, Portland OR to Portland ME and back…7800 miles later… From late June to early July 2015 I was lucky enough to go on a cross country road trip with Gary and our nephew Devin. We drove my car from Portland Oregon to Portland Maine in just about three weeks. We took a ‘central US’ path East and came back taking a more northern passage. Regarding where we went each day, we made it to about 40 breweries and a handful of tap-houses, bars, and brewpubs to find local beers and food along the way. While the long distance driving was challenging some days (10+ hrs at a time), we really enjoyed the trip with it’s the ever-changing scenery and wonderful cities, towns, and people we met. Before leaving on the trip, we gathered and then took a couple of cases of local specialty beers for our friend Rusty in Pittsburgh. The sucky part was that while we wanted the beers to not get ruined by the heat, we ended up unloading and reloading it a LOT as we stopped each night. This is a valuable learning experience, to stick to mailing stuff like beer and wine, …

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Review: Fortside Brewing Co., Vancouver WA

FORTSIDE BREWING CO., VANCOUVER WA The second brewery stop on Friday, May 29th was at Fortside Brewing Co., located off of NE Andresen (just south of Fourth Plain Blvd. a few blocks). We were super excited to learn about this brand spankin’ new brewery at the Thirsty Sasquatch bar and decided to make the drive down Fourth Plain to try it out. Fortside just opened in late April 2015, so it’s really new and they only have three of their own beer available, +1 root beer (non-alcoholic). The location is in an industrial mall complex, the signage on Andresen is limited to just a small thing on the side of the building, so you need to keep an eye out for it. The building has a large painted logo on it, and as you can see from the pics, it’s a long open space with lots of raw wood, metal, and windows. The bar seats just a few people, they have plenty of tables, and a few seats outside for the smokers. The brewing facility is in the back of the business behind a large glass/windowed wall. We spent a few moment talking to the bartender about it and he …

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