Day 8 of our Denver trip was SO epic I have to break it into 2 parts. Grab your helmets and hang onto your seats.

We headed out to Fort Collins, arriving at Odell Brewing Co. just before noon. We were familiar with the Odell brews from GABF and some of the local pubs and restaurants, but wanted to experience it fresh.

We were instantly impressed by the facility, driving up to a spacious parking lot, walking past the Odell leaf-style bike racks and along the wooden path up to the brewery and tasting room.

The tasting room was stunning, with a stone bar (marble perhaps), with a generous area for sitting and sipping. The ladies tending the bar were friendly and quick to answer any questions, and I spied a bookcase with an assortment of brewing publications, books and some boardgames (my kind of people).

We passed on taking a tour, and instead opted to try both the Classic Tasting Tray and the Pilot Tasting Tray, each a whopping $4 (which is a steal). On top of that, we were given 2 $4 tokens, good towards a merch purchase of $10 or more.

While Odell’s t-shirts were rather tempting (I LOVE their woodcut-style bottle labels), we opted to turn the tokens back over toward some of the charities the brewery was supporting that month.

But let us talk beer.

Classic Tasting Tray

• Easy Street Wheat: super wheaty and refreshing, unfiltered.
• Levity Amber Ale: a lighter take on the traditional amber. Hints of caramel, hops shine through.
• 5 Barrel Pale Ale: hopped in 8 stages with 6 different hops. Deep golden color, perfect session pale ale.
• 90 Shilling Ale: a cross between a Scottish ale and English pale ale. Deep amber, light fruit and nutty aroma.
• IPA: American style, resiny flavor, slightly fruity/floral aroma. Thirst quenching with a big, bold taste. Sunshine gold in color.
• Cutthroat Porter: nearly opaque brown with hints of red, slight head. Roasty nose. Chocolate and coffee.

Pilot Tasting Tray

• Snowriders Ale: filtered American wheat, slightly hopped with Centennial and Amarillo. Hops shine through, making this an interesting wheat/pale hybrid. Crisp!
• Curry wheat: base beer is a German hefe. Curry spices include kaffir lime zest and leaves, coconut, coriander, ginger, cayenne, cinnamon and fenugreek. Traditional hefe aroma in the nose, with hint of spice. Spice flavor is subtle.
• Hast la muerte: “Austria’s answer to the oktoberfest” stated the tasting note. A lager brewed with Vienna, pilsner and crystal malts with a hint of chocolate. Deep amber in color. Malty, yet crisp.
• Isolation Ale: winter ale made with premium malts imported from England. Malty and robust, nice caramel notes. Fairly light for a winter warmer.
• Nitro Cutthroat Porter: nitro brings out even more roastiness
• The Wanderer: double marzen with Brett. 11.2 percent. Fruity sour in the nose, amber in color, thin head. Balanced with the sour, nice fruity characteristic, with hints of caramel—hides the alcohol well. Ray also noted that he picked up a nice caramel flavor right at the beginning before the Brett kicked in.

This sign hung above the door leading into the brewery—I'd never seen something posted like this. Very cool.

After finishing our tasting trays, we decided to share a 10 oz pint of the Bourbon Barrel Stout, which we first had at GABF. Dark, rich and thick—this was a bourbon barrel-aged beer done well, much like Golden City Brewing’s Cuvee #1 (maybe it’s just a Colorado thing).

Odell Brewing did us right. We were blown away by the beers and probably could have spent the entire day in the day room. However, we had a very important 2:00 reservation to keep …

Breweries, Craft Beer, Denver 2010 1 Comment »