Ft Collins, CO - a microbeer community

My husband and I are here in Colorado to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary.

We landed in Denver around 10 am, and drove up to Ft. Collins. We drank beer at the New Belgium Brewery first. I liked their 1554 beer the most out of the free samplers they gave out. I also really liked the Harvest beer. They seem to be quite an incredible company. They own a windfarm in Wyoming to provide 80% of their energy. The last 20% is from the methane gas, collected from a pool, where they treat their own water, to ease the load on the city. Additionally, they have coaster postcards that they give out to people to send out. If you fill out a postcard, they will send it out for you free of charge. The tour was very entertaining, and it was a pleasure to see how seriously they take being green.

Thursday evening we went to Cooper Smith Brew Pub. We asked if they had schooner's, but the waitress didn' t know what a schooner is. I guess schooner's are known as bullets over here. Jeremy had 5 different samples. I liked the stout the best. I only had a few sips of his beer. I tried their homemade rootbeer with my chicken pot pie. I found the rootbeer overly sweet. I ordered the rootbeer on a whim. Why? I have no idea, because I don't like rootbeer. LOL.

Today is Friday. The weather has been beautiful. Its been 80 degrees during the day, but it is starting to cloud up. This morning, we started out with an appointment with MouCo Cheeserie. They create one of my favorite cheeses, the ColoRouge cheese. We met with the owner Robert, who once brewed at New Belgium. They also make a camembert, and are getting ready to release their Blue Cheese. The tour was very informative, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. We were the first tour in over 2 months. They aren't really set up for tours, and are trying to keep them down, to keep contamination down. It sounds like they do just about everything by hand. It also looks like he took some of the green company culture from New Belgium, as they have the vendors they sell to ship boxes back to them, or losing a $15 deposit. I have to remember to send a thank you card for the samples (huzzah for cheese!). I look forward to them being able to sell directly to Top Foods, so I can see the price of the cheese to drop.

Then we went to the Ft. Collins brewery. Their Kidd beer, a dark lager was incredible, and their Chocolate Stout was smooth and tasty. I wish we could take some home, but we're not really prepared to take bottles home with us. Especially with the new laws about liquids on planes.

After Ft Collins we drove over to Odells. Jeremy liked their 90 Shilling the best. I like their Cut Throat Porter the best. I started recognizing people from the other breweries we'd been to.

We then went back to New Belgium, where Jer drank another sampler from them. I stuck to their seltzer water which was fantastic. Slighlty fruity, and just a hint of sweetness. I wish I could find something like that on the market. Seltzer waters are usually way too yucky and sweet.

I'm hoping to get a chance to browse through downtown before the shops close. Its a nifty little town. The trees leaves are turning red and yellow. I think there is some sort of Greek festival going on. I could kick myself for not bringing my LCA. I over cleaned last weekend for the party and now I cant find it.

Still thinking about ideas on how to use the coasters and stickers in some sort of beer or travel journal. New Belgium had an altered 3d box book, like Jonathan Carroll's work. Need to think about that somemore. And this print that is in our room at the Hilton is very cool. Can't tell if they did some kind of printmaking with watercolor prints, or some kind of crayons or pastels. I need to take some art classes.

Will have more after the Great American Beer Festival tomorrow, I'm sure.

Woohoo, its Friday!!

The end of the work week. Relief, for a brief moment.

Time to clean the house. My sister in law is moving into town for the next year, while she gets her masters degree at the UW. We're having a welcome to Seattle party for her tomorrow night. Which means : figure out what to serve the guests and clean up the house. The living room, kitchen, and dining room are pretty much ready. I need to finish vaccuuming and cleaning the bathroom out.

Ideas like crazy floating around in my head, and not any time to make art. *sigh* I need to work on my time management skills.

We leave Thursday to Denver for our 5 year anniverary. We are going to tour a couple of breweries, and try to visit the MouCo Cheese company. That is, if I can get a hold of somebody for a tour. Their ColoRouge washed rind cheese is fantabulous.

I have to find some time to make art to trade. Art and Soul Retreat in Portland is coming up the weekend after Denver. I only have like 10 items to trade. I also hope to have enough time to go to the Belltown Book Club meeting on Tuesday night. I made a couple of pamphlets that Michael demo'd at the last meeting (the 1st I ever attended). Its nice to have an adult show and tell. LOL.

Good night.

Artfest 2007

Stardate 19.9.2006

This is my first blog entry, after having met one of my roomies online for Artfest 2007.

I just got my class list back. I got one of my first choices, and two of my second choice classes. Thursday's class will be with Traci Bautista, "The Graffiti Bouquet." While I am excited to take that class, the one I really wanted the most was Susan Lenart Kazmer's "Resins: Creating Transparent Pages." Although, she has an article in the current Somerset Magazine, so maybe I'll be able to do them on my own. For Friday, I have Anahata Katkin's "Creative Instinct", and on Saturday I have "Book of Hours : Metal Purse and Journal." If you are interested in checking out the website, the link for Artfest is http://www.teeshaslandofodd.com/Artfest07/info.html. This will be my 2nd year at Artfest.

I hate having to wait over 6 months for classes though. Its pretty crazy. Even college only made you wait a couple of months after registering. I'll probably spend the next couple of weeks figuring out what to make for trades, and the procrastinate until the week before it starts.

Time for a nap. I'm not feeling well, after a weekend visiting my husband's family in Bellingham.