Socializing
Pub Crawl
Sep 26th
A pub crawl consists of one or more people touring, hopping, and drinking at two or more bars. The phrase, according to the Oxford dictionary, originated in the nineteenth century. The largest pub crawl on record actually occurred last December in Chicago, Illinois called the ‘Twelve Bars of Christmas’ containing 10,000 crawlers. Generally these tours mark a special day, holiday, engagement, birthday or promotion. Crawlers also wear some sort of marker that signifies their membership to the crawl such as a shirt, hat, button, or sash. The reason I felt inclined to define this event was when describing my weekend to my mother I had to explain what the event entailed and I believe she is not the only one.
Mountain Sun Pub and Brewery
Sep 19th
I got to tell you, never hearing of this brewery and going there on a whim, I really loved Mountain Sun Brewery. First off, the employees were incredibly helpful. I said to the bar tender what do you like and he without question pours me one of everything on tap. I am not going to say that I enjoyed all of them, but they were not all bad. In fact I drank three of their Irish Nitro Stout. Incredible beer with a hint of sweetness from a little cocoa and toasted taste, no coffee made an incredible Irish stout. Second, the atmosphere was awesome, wish I would have caught them before the kitchen closed because the food looked and smelled incredible.
Tour de Fat
Sep 13th
Today was something weird and wonderful put on by New Belgium Brewery. This is the first wild festival I have been to since Mardi Gras. Tour de Fat is an opportunity to be weird, push boundaries and have wonderful beers. Young and old woke up today, some earlier than others, to begin dressing for the day. While most of the country today got on their college apparel and headed for their team’s game, Fort Collins, Colorado people put on wigs, makeup, sparkles, costumes, and crazy hats. The Tour began with a couple mile long bike parade, then a beer garden with all New Belgium products, live acts, and tons of people watching.
In Defense of Corona
Aug 30th
I know on a beer blog where most of the beers talked about are craft beers, Corona is the probably the worst beer to bring up. It would be one thing if I was planning on saying bad things, but I’m not. In fact the Corona I had this weekend was absolutely perfect.
I had a girlfriend in town from college whom I haven’t seen for a number of years and because of that a bunch of other friends who I had also not seen in many years came out so we all had a barbeque. Nothing fancy a some pre made kebabs, a simple salad, and a few brats. We sat outside and washed our meal down with a few Coronas with lime slices shoved down the bottles. To be honest I don’t really like Corona and I’m not entirely sure I know what type of beer Corona is (Somewhere on the Corona website they say that it is a lager so lets go with that.).
Kaos, Pizza, Hipsters, and Beer
Aug 15th
Hello hopheads. First off since this is the first time you are probably going to read my post (hopefully it won’t be the last), I’d like to extend my personal thanks for stopping by the site and please come back and check out posts by all of our contributors.
By the time you read this, my night of beer and pizza will be digesting slowly, heavily and I’ll wake up and take the train to work regretting it a little bit. You most likely were a little bit more responsible and will be waking up not regretting staying out a little too late again. But, for right now, despite that ride to work looming over my head, it is heaven.
It was a perfect summer night sitting on Pearl Street, enjoying my favorite comfort foods, playing trivial pursuit, and drinking a very hoppy but very cold St. Lupulin extra pale ale by Odell Brewing Co. Admittedly, I don’t normally go in for very hoppy beers and was hoping that it went just a little bit better with my pesto and prosciutto pizza. But that first drink, when the beer was ice cold and crisp. It was perfect.
I was looking forward to trying a new, higher class version of Domino’s and Bud Light and the pizza was good and I like the idea of restaurants selling local craft brews but none of them were paired to the pizza at all and they had kind of a limited selection of the different kinds of beers that Colorado has to offer. My overall rating for ambiance is an A, for food a B, and for beer a C-.
A home away from home
Aug 12th
Punching Hitler in the face one drink at a time. This nerdtastic bar is found in the central part of Dublin, Ireland. Now you may be wondering why am I writing about a bar called Captain America when I was in Dublin instead of, you know, a legitimate Irish pub, and my reasons are, I’m writing this damnit and he’s my favorite super hero. Side note: I loved Dublin and would definitely go back. So this is a traditional American sports bar but still had an old fashioned pub feel to it. It had multiple televisions and a big stage in the back for some small rock concerts and probably karaoke some night during the week. There were also tons of signed pictures of famous people and some of their memorabilia. Don’t worry though, being is this placed is called Captain America there were tons of comics painted along the walls as well.
Penicillin, iPod… Beer bike.
Aug 9th
Today was just like an other day. Went to my favorite coffee shop, worked on anatomy and MCAT. Then on my commute home I see the oddest thing. So odd even it was slowing traffic to a halt. People did not know what to make of it. I thought to myself ‘wish I had my camera, people are going to want to see this.’ Came home and decided I had to write about it. Beer bike. This bike was pretty clever. So simple in its makeup yet so genius. This bike was heading towards Equinox Brewery here in Fort Collins. This tricycle had a keg mounted to it. I am not sure if they served straight from the bike or what, but this was a one function vehicle. Then I get to my apartment and my neighbor started telling me about this article about in Fort Collins coming soon there will be keg tricycle tours which are equipped with a tap, bar, and stool which you can rent for the day as you go to and from the multitude of breweries and bars in Fort Collins. Beer town U.S.A. I tell you. “My Handlebar” Dutch inspired beer tricycle company is going to operate as a limousine service which legally allows alcohol consumption while in commute. Not sure how safe this is having dozens of drinking bikers on the road. But an interesting idea non-the less and I am sure will be an instant hit.
Welcome to Hopping Around
Jun 27th
Welcome to the beer soaked lovechild of Lloyd Greenfield and Zach Saale!
We started this blog to take the everyman beer lover to the beer enthusiast. There is no doubt that we are beer lovers but we are not experts on the topic and this blog was created to make that happen. This is a blog that will not confuse you with difficult beer terms and pretentious reviews but one that will give you simple and concise information on what beer is, how it’s made, and which beers we think are best.
You will notice that on the left of the site there are four categories that the site is broken into. The first is Drinking and it is dedicated to the consumption of delicious beer. There you will find our reviews, recommendations, and food pairings.
Brewing is next and it is focused on the creation of beer. This will chronicle the team as we learn how exactly beer is made and how we can make it ourselves. The goal is to keep the process as simple and easy to follow as possible so that anyone may follow our footsteps.
The final two are Visiting and Socializing and they are dedicated to the local pubs, breweries and festivals that we attend. Socializing will focus primarily on the pub crawls and meetups that we organize in our cities.
So, pour yourself a cold one and keep an eye on this space for some delicious beer knowledge.
