Colorado - Day 3

It was windy today in Estes Park, and really windy above 9000 feet (10-30 mph, with gusts to 50 mph) So, not wanting to get blown off the mountain, we decided to postpone our hike to Bierstadt Lake until tomorrow.

We decided to head over to Fort Collins to visit a couple of breweries, have lunch and just check in all out. The drive over on 34 was really cool. The scenery was amazing and the drive out of the mountains went through an amazing valley with steep rock faces on both sides.

On the brewery tour was ODell Brewing Company and Anheuser-Busch. I thought it would be interesting to see the difference between a small brewery and the dominant brand. ODell's was fun and we had a need tour through the three rooms where the beer is made, bottled and shipped. Compare that to Bud's place where the tour walk was a mile long and took over an hour. The sheer volume of Budweiser and the controls they have in place to ensure product consistency was amazing. On the flip side, it was fun to see the passion for the beer being made in the small shop.

At ODell's we sampled a flight of their core beers. I have had the Easy Street wheat beer at Smokin' Dave's a couple of times and it is tasty. We liked all of the beers, except the Cutthroat Porter. Neither of us likes really dark beer. Too bad Mark wasn't with us, he would've liked the Porter.



One of the best parts of the Bud tour was the Clydesdales. Susan made friends with the old, retired veteran, Serendipity, and the new rookie, Wheeler.



On a culinary note, breakfast this morning was at the Donut Haus. I've posted about it before - Huge Donuts - but never seem to get a picture out here. I'll work on that tomorrow.