Fort Collins Meets Skagway

I went to Fort Collins last night with my friend Pete as he is gettting on his way to the west coast. We stayed the night and met up with our old freinds from Alaska and Wisconsin who have reloacted to FC. During the afternoon I had the opportunity to have a cider at Coopersmiths and test out this weeks Ferkin at Equinox, which was a nice hazelnut stout. The roasty malts covered up any taste of hazelnut but there was a slight scent of it. Then I trucked it up to the new tap house, The Mayor of Old Town, which has about 100 taps of choice beer. I ended up sitting down next to Owen, a sales rep for Oskar Blues, http://oskarblues.com/ ,who bought me a glass of the hard to find HGH. According to Owen, Home Grown Hops (HGH) is a strong ale (8% ABV) that is made from hops grown by the brewery on-site. It was absolutely a treat and the best Oskar offering in my opinion. Supply is limited due to the hop farm being couple of acres and it will likely remain a difficult brew to find. Currently, it is on tap at a very few select Colorado handles but I urge you to seek it out.

After sampling a few beers I met old friends at the Town Pump where I had the Town Pump Century Ale, an New Belgium O'dell brewed pale ale created to celebrate the 100th anneversiary of the smallest bar in Colorado. The beer itself has a malty finish where one would expect hops in the style and reminds me of a pale alt. It was delicious and between a handful of them, a Brewers win, and a few jello shots and everclear soaked cherries (town pump specialties), I was ready for an Old Style at the Stake-Out Saloon and my hotel room.

It was nice to see old friends, including Nate Dawg, who has been working at the Skagway Brewing Company in recent years. I have yet to try the beer but he has nice things to say about the stuff, so if your cruise ship docks in Skagway, have a pint and let me know how it is.