Road Trip 2012: Friday 10/19

15 miles and still in Fort Collins, but at the home of Stan and Betsy (Koch) Johnston.  Betsy is a Gouverneur native and was a year ahead of me at Gouverneur High School.

After a leisurely morning with Dean and Tanya, I followed Tanya to work at the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins.  Tanya has scheduled me for the 11:00 AM tour.  I have drank the well know Fat Tire beer before, and I was aware of the New Belgium company.  However, I was not prepared for spontaneous and free wheeling culture of the company.  Zoey even was encouraged to walk around the plant.  New Belgium is an employee owned company, and one of the company's mission statements is to have fun.  Their attitude is, happy employee/owners are good employee/owners.  On top of that, the company goes to great lengths to be environmentally responsible.    The 90 minute tour was really informative, and did I say, FUN!!  Plus, they served samples.  They have made a loyal customer out of me!!

Tanya and Zoey at New Belgium.

Energy usage information panel.

Can beer make you smarter?  If you drink it while reading this, then yes.

Mash vats.

Bicycle art and heat exchanger.

Dave, our tour guide explaining how to taste.  We were all holding samples.  :-)

Storage silos.

Bottling line just starting.  Red caps are full bottles going to the labeling machine. 

Solar panel demonstration.

"Can-delabra" lamp of the New Belgium canned beers.

Fast way down from second floor to first floor.

After the tour, and a couple of purchases, I drove the few miles to Stan and Betsy's home on the other side of town.  We had lunch, and went for a long walk at the Environmental Education Center.

Pond at the Environmental Education Center.

I have to admit that I really like the "flavor" of the western college towns I have visited.  Boise, Eugene, and Fort Collins  have multitudes of parks, are bike and dog friendly, and offer many choices of vibrant micro and craft breweries.  These cities appear to be stimulating places to live and work.

I'm going to spend one more day with Stan and Betsy in Fort Collins, and then Sunday head east into Nebraska.