New Belgium Brewery

According to Brew Magazine, Fort Collins is to brewing for alcoholics, as Rome is to historical crap for Christians. If this analogy holds up the New Belgium brewing tour would be the Spanish Steps (Budweiser would be the Roman coliseum).... First it is free of charge, which includes 4 free drinks of their many brews. The second thing is that it has a diverse group of people from around the country. Finally the New Belgium brewing company is historically one of the earlier successful microbreweries, and does relay much of the history with the microbrew movement.

When you step into the new belgium brewery tasting room you'll get the vibration of chaos and disorganization, you know the classics, people with dogs sniffing each other, a guy trying to play his guitar, ect. Luckily the place is very organized, and you will quickly be in a seat with a friendly waiter or waitress ready to get you a drink. Basically they give you a long list of brews and you get to pick out 4. Most of the suds can't be purchased outside of fort Collins and they usually have a seasonal drink. In the beer spectrum you will find a hole range, from smoked rachbier, to sour lambics, to your joe six pack favorite of lagers.

One thing that really impressed me about New Belgium is the diversity of people who hang out in the brew room. The other day we sat next o a couple of elementary school teachers who had a little too much with their kids and brought a dog to go chill out for some free drinks. Also there are people from across the nation, and I got quite a few shout outs for my washington state shirt or my ohio ID, making the new belgium brewing company a true melting pot.

The tour itself tells a great story of a man living the american dream, and starting up a beer company. The tour takes you through the fermentation, lautering, and packaging areas, pretty much just a bunch of machines, pipes and tanks. The figurative "clam in your linguini" of the tour is that you can sample some of the experimental brews that the company is working on.

Overall I really enjoyed my trips to the new belgium brewing company and will be making some more. You have to be 21 to drink, but it’s all free, and kids and pets are welcome as long as they behave. This is a must for any beer fanatic like myself!

Though this is not my favorite micro-brewery in Colorado (see review on Odell Brewery - that's my favorite) it still deserves some recognition! New Belgium brewery is a wind powered brewery that does many good things for the local community. Oh, and their beer is good too.

Their beers include:
Fat Tire - an amber ale
Sunshine Wheat - wheat
1554 - Black ale
Blue Paddle - Pilsener
and many more!

You get 4 samples of any of their beers (including the seasonal releases) and it is free! They have a lot of cool merchandise too, from t-shirts to bike tire repair kits. The staff is quite colorful and friendly too!

Fort Collins in a college town and it is filled with breweries. New Belgium Brewery is a fun and cheap way to check out a Brewery. There loads of parking. You head inside and you can purchase a guided tour or you can walk through a certain area by yourself and check out the process. Staying in the main room there are many tables and chairs where you can sit. The server comes around and hands out a paper with a list of beers. You can pick up to 4 for free. They bring out samples for you to try. The beers are on tap and cold and refreshing. Also for the young or non beer drinkers there is sparkling water and a lemonade with different flavors (Peach Mango on this day, my niece wasn't particularly thrilled)
Also on hand is a products you can buy. You can get beer on tap, bottles of beer, shirts with the logo, chap stick, a bike bell, Frisbees and more.
The brewery is employee owned and very eco friendly. They support bike riding and they give employees New Belgium bikes. Supposedly after 5 years the company will pay for a 2 week vacation to Belgium. Not so surprisingly there is a low turnover rate for employees.
The employees are very friendly and will kibitz about beer with you and will tell you about each kind. They can pretty much figure out which beer you are drinking by the color.
The place is very fun and they have all kinds of quicky things around. Like a shrine to Saint Martin (who encourages drinking of beer instead of water in the middle ages which saved many peoples lives), also they have mirrors to show your beer belly, beer quotes and many other little knicknacks. They also have post cards available which you fill out and place in mailboxes that they will mail for you for FREE.
Its a fun enjoyable brewery and definitely worth the price.