Beer, a Rare Unicorn, and a Rattlesnake

I was never much of a beer drinker before Ryan moved to Colorado. Wine was my alcoholic beverage of choice, with an occasional really cold Yuengling if I mowed on a really hot day. But once I started to explore Fort Collins in 2013, things slowly began to change. The town and many of its citizens pursue beer brewing and drinking with a fervor and intensity I have never seen before. There are at least 20 craft breweries, Beer Week, Tour de Fat (because after beer, bikes matter in Fort Collins), a terrific bar with 100 beers on tap, and Colorado State University offers a B.S. in fermentation science. People in Fort Collins take their beer very seriously, but also with a ton of fun.

New Belgium is one of the breweries I'm most familiar with, mainly because they have a great tour and some wonderful beer. I've visited at least four times, but Justin had never been before, so of course we had to take him.

There are beautiful mosaics on the floor between the brewing vessels in the main brew house,

and foeders built from wood previously used by vineyards to store wine. These are where the bases (Oscar and Felix) used in New Belgium's sour beers are aged.

There is a smaller pilot brewery within the larger brewery, where they experiment and brew surprises.

There is ample opportunity to taste beer throughout the tour, and we got to taste something brand new that's not even for sale yet - Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale. It's a joint venture between New Belgium and Ben and Jerry's that is meant to raise awareness and money to fight climate change. I'll be honest; I thought it was going to taste awful, but it's delicious! Our tour guide said it would be available the third week of October in 47 states. I'm going to buy plenty to drink, and I'm already imagining making some beer bread with it. A loaf with chocolate chips and one with dried cherries ...

Justin is a great son, but he wasn't willing to sneak down into the bottling room to get me some more Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale.

Each tour that I've been on has been slightly different, and this time our tour guide told us about beers she called Rare Unicorns. She said that sometimes the pilot brewery produces a few barrels of something they think might be interesting. These might occasionally be released into the community to see what people think, so she encouraged us to keep our eyes open. Ryan has lived here for more than three years and has never come across one of these special concoctions, so imagine our surprise when we left New Belgium, headed to Choice City for lunch, and spied a Blueberry Oscar Sour. It was excellent, maybe partly because it's fleeting and ephemeral, but truly a delightful Rare Unicorn.

And that promised rattlesnake? While we did some hiking, no rattlesnakes were seen in the wild, but when your brother lives in Texas, you just might get one of his hand-captured and hand-tanned masterpieces for your birthday. (The hole is from where he shot it.)

Better on the wall than in the wild!