Fort Collins CO – Black Bottle Brewing

Even though Fort Collins has a multitude of breweries now, I returned to Black Bottle simply because I enjoyed them so much from my visit last year. Once again, they did not disappoint!

They have a pretty large tap list; all of their beers are listed in bold:

Naturally, I started off with a flight of 6 (you can do any number, but they sort of discourage more than 6):

These were all Black Bottle brews, and from left to right, are:

Boy Band Battle: Howie D – So tasty! This would have qualified for my follow-up pint if I hadn’t decided to venture into the unknown.

End of Days – I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of American Pale Ales, although there are some that I find enjoyable. This one was good, but didn’t make the cut in terms of something I’d consider a full pint of.

Friar Chuck – Now this is a great Kolsch! It’s not the absolute best I’ve ever had, but it’s definitely in the top 5 and is certainly pretty much perfect, in my humble opinion.

American Graffiti – This is a good sour. It hits the mark between too sour and not quite there, although I wouldn’t have done a full pint of it.

Hawaiian Shirt Day – I was puzzled by this one, to be honest. The alcohol really came through, and this was surprising given that it wasn’t any higher than the other beers I tried. It also didn’t have the type of taste I associate with a saison style.

Recession Proof – This is a very good porter, although I prefer the Chocolate Porter from Periodic Brewing.

Although I was tempted by several items on the menu, I ended up ordering the same Meatball Sub as I ordered last year. I’ve never forgotten how wonderful it was, and this one was every bit as good:

Once the flight was gone, I decided to try a pint of the Mr. Miyagi, an interesting session beer brewed with 80% rice and 20% oats. It was certainly intriguing and I don’t regret ordering it, but I wouldn’t go for it again.

Once that was gone, I was just too relaxed to want to leave so I decided to order a Root Beer Float (with their own house root beer). Instead, the server talked me into a float using their Liquid Metal imperial stout:

That is one awesome stout! I’m not sure I could do a full pint of it, but a half pint might be nice sometime. The ice cream actually helped to take the edge off the ABV and make this more of a milk stout.

And with that, I’ve seen the last of Colorado brewpubs for this year. Tomorrow, I’ll be somewhere yet to be decided in the Omaha NE area.