Visiting
Firestone Walker Brewing Company: Oaktoberfest
Oct 10th
In my pursuits of trying new beer concoctions, I am pleased to say I have found a winner. Those who know me are aware of my love of lagers a German Märzen bier. This type of beer originates from Bavaria, Germany. The name ‘lager’ is a reference to how they would make the beer as they would store the beer in the hillsides to keep the brewing cold in the olden days around the 16th century. Oaktoberfest is a seasonal beer from Firestone Walker Brewing out of Paso Roble, California founded in 1996 originally SLO Brewing Company. I had never heard of this brewery and assume they are still a relatively small operation. The beer itself was not a high ABV and was relatively mild. A good balance of malts and hops with a beautiful amber coloring. A wonderful oak aroma and sweetness in the after taste almost like apricot.
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.
New Belgium Fun
Aug 25th
Last Saturday a few Hopping Around writers decided to go on a Hopping Around tour of some of the local breweries in Fort Collins. I had a plan to write about Hoptober (hence the beer coaster/postcard attached to my face), but being how that was Saturday and one of our later stops on the tour, I didn’t write about it and now have forgotten what I was going to write. Instead, I will write about New Belgium itself.
New Belgium was started as all breweries do: two guys who loved beer thought, “What the hell, I can do this.” So, after traveling Europe and Belgium, they decided on making Belgian-style beer. After many successful years as a micro-brew, New Belgium has, over the past 5 years, exploded outside of the state of Colorado; even Virginia just got in on the fun. Now they are considered a craft-brew. Even with soaring popularity and the tasting room always being shoulder-to-shoulder with 100′s of your closest friends, the brewery still tries to stay true to their fan-base in creating the ultimate beer and “beer experience.” You are always allowed four tasters for free upon going, and on the tour you receive a different beer at pretty much every stop you make. This is a devoted group of people to their product, which is illuminated with each beer consumed.
Mountainbeering: Mountain Brewing Company
Aug 14th
The brewery itself is in a gorgeous part of Colorado Springs, off of Inter-quest Parkway in what ten years ago was prairie. It is more of a restaurant that just so happens to make beer. Similar to a Rock Bottom Brewery. This seems to be more and more a common trend for new brewers. Not exactly large scale, only available beer in store. It has been my experience that the restaurant breweries are also very experimental in what the brew. For example, they had a vanilla strawberry cream beer which I was certain was going to make me hurl. The brewery is in its first year and is expanding. They are opening their second location by December off of US-24 towards Manitou in an old gallery. Inside the brewery is a very chic restaurant with a surprisingly small bar with viewing windows to their brewing room. When I go to breweries, especially if they are small, I like to go and talk to the brew-master and take a tour. I was saddened and dismayed to find out that they only do tours Saturdays from 1-3. This I found odd and too much work especially if the beer is not exceptional. They have a huge wraparound, glass walled in patio area where they had live music on a Thursday night. The music was not exactly my cup of tea nor was the older non enthusiastic crowd. No one was dancing.
Evensong
Aug 11th
Recently Dave I took a trip to Ireland and England. Upon arriving in Durham, England I immediately started looking for a map so I could navigate around the city. Instead I found a pamphlet for a local brewery somewhere near town. Unfortunately I was there for a friends wedding and knew that I probably wouldn’t get a chance to visit the brewery. On our last day in Durham we were visiting Durham Cathedral. If you ever get a chance to go, I strongly advise it. It truly is a sight to behold. We decided to eat in a little café located inside the cathedral where I spotted two beers from the brewery. I had two options; Cloister pale ale and Evensong, a red. Given that I am a HUGE fan of reds the choice was easy.
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.
