Beer Garden Party at Haystack Mountain Golfcourse

On Sept 9th, Ales for All along with friends from Haystack Mountain Golfcourse put on a Beer Garden party. We had about 75 people attend this event. Each person was asked to bring some beer, an appetizer and $5 donation for the band, 18switchbacks.

Local Colorado breweries donated beer for sampling. We setup a beer 'station' for each brewer to showcase their beer. Organic beers provided by Asher Brewing included their Green Lantern Kolsch, Tree Hunger Amber and Green Bullet IPA.

Grimm Brothers supplied us with a few year-round beers (Fearless Youth, Little Red Cap and Master Thief) and one specialty beer (Clever Hans).

Oskar Blues provided lots of their delicious beer - beers in cans and growlers of a few specialty beers. Garret Frase from Oskar Blues was on hand to answer questions and discuss craft beers with fellow beer lovers.

Geoff Hess from the Oskar Blues Hops and Heifers farm stopped by as well. Here he is chatting with a few beer lovers:

Craig Taylor from The Pumphouse Brewery was able to show off a few of his beers and enjoy the party. He even ran into an old buddy from school at the party..

Odell Brewing was generous to provide a variety of beers for sampling. The Cutthroat Porter is one of my favorites. Thanks, Amanda!

Bubba Love from Left Hand Brewing dropped off some 400lb Monkey IPA along with their flagship beer, Milk Stout. Thanks for the love, Bubba.

Boulder Beer donated a variety pack of their beers - shoutout to Dan the Chicken Man for that! You can see their 'beer station' here next to Garret from Oskar Blues.

We were fortunate enough to have MouCo Cheese company donate some of their wonderful cheese. If you haven't tried their cheeses, you really should. They have a wonderful Camembert, ColoRouge (munster-type cheese) and Trufello, flavored with truffle oil and flakes. These rinds are soft and delicious (and unwaxed) - be sure to eat the rind since this is where the flavor is at it's peak.

Beer lovers having a good time:

The band, 18Switchbacks, was awesome. Everyone seemed to enjoy them.

Oh, and there was croquet too....

Big Thanks to Maxine (shown below) and CJ from Haystack Mountain Golfcourse for the beautiful beer garden and for being co-hosts with me.

Fort Collins Brewery Hopping

This past Saturday, I went brewery hopping in Fort Collins.

Started off at Funkwerks Brewery. They were serving 5 different beers. Sampler tray was available for $7.50.

Casper - a light session beer. 5% ABV.

White - a Belgian White. Aroma of orange zest and ginger. 5.5% ABV.

Saison - their flagship beer and my favorite. 6.8% ABV.

Maori King - new imperial saison. 7% ABV.

Belgian Resistance - german munich malt w/german noble hops and their house Belgiam saison yeast. 6.7% ABV.

Hopped on down the road to Odell Brewing
to sample their pilot beers. I adore their pilot beers - they are so much fun and there are always so many good ones to try.

This time I went with the Pilot Tray sampler. 6 pilot beers for $4.

Maize Azul 5.2% ABV - brewed with New Mexico blue corn. The corn was soaked for two hours and then mixed with the barley to form the mash.

Town Pump Pail Ale 5.1% ABV - traditional British style pale ale, dry hopped.

Session Dark Bitter 4% ABV - dark ale that is kettle hopped and then dry hopped.

Odell Red 6.5% ABV - American style red ale but with a variety of American hops added.

Nitro Cutthroat Porter 4.8% ABV - their classic Cutthroat Porter served on Nitro.

Cherry Stout 6% ABV - used a debittered dark malt (Carafa Special II) that adds deep color and aroma without the bitterness. 125lbs of sweet-tart cherries were added.

The Cherry Stout was awesome so I brought home a growler.

Bounced around the corner to New Belgium Brewing where I sampled their Frambozen (Raspberry Brown Ale) and Vrienden Ale (collaboration beer by Allagash and New Belgium).

Then it was time to drive back home. Next week, I am planning on brewery hopping around Colorado Springs.