If you don't know about New Belgium you may have the same dilemma as us, they just don't sell it in your state. Having had several trips and family living out west, I have had the pleasure of having New Belgium beer, namely Fat Tire. But alas, Fat Tire is not sold in Virginia just yet.
I'll explain the brewery in a second, but first I want to talk about Cheyenne's Frontier Days, which we did not go to, not intend to. However, apparently that means that just about every camping site within a hundred miles is booked up for the entire week. Luckily, we were able to find a spot in the Poudre Canyon area just north of Fort Collins. It was a KOA campsite, which I'm usually not big on, but this one was quite nice.
The next morning on our way to the brewery we stopped at the quintessential diner, Ever-Open Cafe. They have been open over sixty years in the same spot, and they are quite good. Within a few minutes you feel like just another one of the regulars with a good helping of eggs, hash-browns, sausage and toast, which they slice and butter for you. Definitely worth the breakfast stop.
From there we went to the Brewery, unfortunately we didn't have reservations for the tour which apparently books up about a month in advance, but the staff were all really nice, and gave us several chips to sit and taste all their different creations. The story behind the brewery is pretty interesting, the founder, Jeff Lebesch, who did a lot of home basement brewing took a trip to Europe in the late eighties. While there he went to this small pub in Belgium, which was supposed to be closed that day, but due to the holiday it was actually open. Lebesch was the only one in the pub other than the owner, who happened to be a Belgium beer master brewer. After a long afternoon, Lebesch had been given a small symposium on the different ways and means to brew beer. When he reutrned to Fort Collins he and his wife took out a second mortgage and began brewing New Belgium beer, starting with Fat Tire, named after the fact that Lebesch had been biking through Europe on a mountain bike that the locals referred to as a Fat Tire. Now New Belgium brewery, has about twenty different beers, and is the second largest craft brewery in the US.
Due to the lack of a reservation, they put us on a wait list, but that didn't matter because one of the employees decided to take us a few other, wait-tees, on an abridged tour, where we got to see the distillery, learn about the history, and again try some incredible beer. Oh, and because he did the tour on the fly, it was free. The employees were all really nice, we ended up getting a few bottles, t-shirts and then they through in a poster, bottle openers and bumper stickers. I think one of the reasons everyone there was so accommodating is that after a year of working there, each employee is given partial ownership of the company. So when they talk to about the brewery there talking about their own company, and thus a sense of pride and concern for the quality of the whole place is really emphasized. As Joe said in a previous comment, there really isn't much in Fort Collins, but the New Belgium Brewery is a must-see. Almost home now, but I have several things to say about the Largest Ball of Twine, and the long roads of Kansas. See you on down the road...
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