The Saturday after we went to GABF, we got the chance to do one of the things I’d been looking forward to more than anything. Yes, I was excited to head to the festival. Yes, I was excited to try Biker Jim’s. Yes, I was stoked to see Denver.
But there’s a little spot about an hour and some change away from Denver called Ft. Collins, CO. And Ft. Collins is the home of this not-so-little brewery called New Belgium. This brewery consistently puts out some of my favorite beers including, but not limited to:
- Shift
- Tart Lychee
- Ranger IPA
- Somersault
- La Folie
- Cocoa Mole (OOoh baby)
- Kick
- Vrienden
- Valentine’s Day Beer (does this have another name I’m unaware of? Either way, it’s DELICIOUS!)
Unfortunately, New Belgium doesn’t (yet!) distribute to PA/NJ/DE. I’ve been itching to get my fix. What better way than to go straight to the source?
We had a brief (2 hour) wait in the tasting room since we missed our scheduled tour time…. but that was okay, there was plenty to do drink.
I’ll take one of everything.
Just a sample of the samples…
Can this be my bedroom wall?
Two hours of enjoying some delicious NB Brews, and we managed to squeeze into a tour. YES!! The luckiest of ducks.
I’ve been on a number of brewery tours in my day but there are few that truly stand out as both educational and fun. Yuengling had the title before this…. Now, I’m not so sure.
Our AMAZING tour guide, Lauren (who I mistakenly called Kate maybe 3x)
Our tour guide was incredible. She taught us to romance our beer, warming it with our hands (and our hearts).
Getting pretty intimate
We tried a number of delicious beers as we traveled through the brewery, getting up close and personal with the inner workings of New Belgium.
Gotta catch em all.
Mmmm it smelled like oatmeal.
We even got to check out some of the barrels they use for whipping up those tasty barrel-aged beers (one of which we got to try later).
Beautiful Barrel
Oooh la la, Leopold?! (Which we tried later that night!)
True Love
At the end of the tour, full of beer and overflowing with happiness, I couldn’t resist nabbing a sweatshirt (that I’m currently wearing). AND a chance to model that shirt in front of their sign.
Sorta Sorority Squat
This tour was whimsical, educational, and DELICIOUS! If you’re ever ANYWHERE near Ft. Collins, please, do yourself a solid, and book the tour! For the low cost of $Free.99, you, too, can enjoy the heck out of a magical Willy Wonka-esque beer factory.
Just make sure you are careful when you slide your way back to the real world.
Too fun.
What would be your ideal factory/brewery to tour?
Food, Sweat, and Beers 
Sweets story. Def want to go there one day!!
I’m itching to go back already!
I am so jealous of all the beers you get to try. I’ve never been to a big beer festival/ brewery tour…just toured some of the small breweries here in Alberta.
Canadian beer, eh? Sometimes, I think the smallest breweries are able to have some of the best tours. Probably because they are so intimate with their beer.
That tour looks awesome – my favorite tours have been Full Sail and Widmer in Oregon, and Cigar City in Tampa, FL. Also, if you were willing to go to Delaware for New Belgium beer, you should be equally willing to take the trip one exit on I-95 into Maryland (a state that New Belgium does ship too) and hit State Line Liquors in Elkton.
Ah, maybe when I next get a car under my control (i.e. currently I’m car-less in the city.) ALSO I heard that Cigar City is UNREAL good and alas, the line at GABF was about as long as a city block the whole night…. Ugh. Guess it’s time for a Flo-rida road trip.
Yes, sadly as a GABF volunteer, I didn’t have the time on my break to spend in the long lines, but Cigar City (and Stone as well, at the very least) were serving beers on the sides of their booths, so you could have skipped the lines… something to keep in mind for future GABF visits. As far as the Tampa trip, I will say the Cigar City tour (and Tampa in general) was well worth renting a car for one day during a Disney World vacation…
Haha love that you were romancing your beers!
As a displaced Delawarean, I simply had to do the Dogfish Head tour. I did it this summer and certainly wasn’t disappointed.
Ah! I want to go! Did you try the La Folie sour brown ale? My high school bff went on the tour over GABF weekend and also really liked her tour guide. I wonder if you were on the same tour. I’ll ask if someone kept calling the tour guide Kate LOL. Ideal factory tour: RAISIN FACTORY! Mark my words, I’m making it happen. Runners up: any running shoe company, tour of Google + Salesforce, Dr. Pepper factory/museum in Texas, Reese’s factory…..
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