Category: Craft Beer & Community

Brewers' Olympics 2016

6/19/2016

Here's our short take on the Brewers' Olympics of 2016. This is a reason in itself to visit Fort Collins (or play here if you're lucky enough to live here already)! It kicks off Fort Collins Beer Week (#FCBeerWeek), which culminates in the Colorado Brewers' Festival in downtown FoCo at Washington Park (the last Friday through Sunday in June -- this year, it's 6/24-6/26, with the cool Summit [read: extra-special beers] taking place on Friday night).

This year the Brewers' Olympics benefited The House that Beer Built II, an effort by 12 NoCO breweries and several local craft-beer-centric businesses, spearheaded by Odell Brewing Company and New Belgium Brewing Company, to help FoCo's Habitat for Humanity build a house this fall for the Beavers family in FoCo. Watch for other upcoming events that enable each of us to pitch in (financially or with a hammer) to this effort! (e.g., Check out Bowling with Brewers this Thursday night -- 6/23/16 -- at Chippers Lanes (North College), and watch for our upcoming beer release, Groundwork Red IPA, the proceeds from which will go directly to the HTBBII effort).

I'm uploading our pictures below -- if you want the commentary, click on the picture to read our ever-so-accurate editorial take on the day. Suffice it to say that this day is one of the reasons we 100% love FoCo.

Despite our best efforts, we failed to bring The Torch home to H&D for another year -- it'll be residing at Fort Collins Brewery for 2016-2017. Big ups to them. We'll bring our best game next year, though, so be prepared, all y'all!

First stop is a video (borrowed from FCBeerWeek's Instagram), of our team's entrance. Backstreet Boys got nothin' on them. Or at least, they brew beer really well!

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Horse & Dragon Half Marathon & Pint Run (6/12/16)

6/16/2016

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As you might guess if you've ever walked 1/8th of the way to Horsetooth Rock with us, TimCo & I don't run. To those of you who did -- of all ages -- in costume and not -- for 13.1 miles or for 1.6 last Sunday -- thanks for including us in your running culture for the morning. It was awesome and impressive.

8 million thanks to Betsy Fisher & Steve Cathcart for planning and executing the whole thing, to Book Trust for being a generally awesome and A-1 charity partner, to Patrick Bols & Jimmie Hinkle for letting me use some of your photos, and to the companies who sponsored it (see below) so that Book Trust kids can choose & own books next school year. And a shout-out to the FoCo Police Department for making it all work despite Ma Nature's best efforts during runoff season. (Possibly the first tag-in/tag-out 1/2 marathon in the US? Hang on. There's real terminology for this; let me look at Betsy's email. "Transition crossing" with "timing out" and "timing in".)

A few fun stats: 346 total participants signed up representing 4 countries (woohoo howdy, you folks from Colombia!) and 16 states. There were 221 finishers in the Half Marathon and 84 finishers in the Pint Run.

Here are some moments captured by Jimmie and Patrick. (And a couple by me. Yes, I took a picture of a purse.) There are more posted on the event page. With my amazing web skills, I cannot make the captions stay where they should be so please try to sort it out if you're reading them!

Cheers and congrats to all of you healthy and happy folk. Thanks for registering, running, and relaxing afterward, and for contributing to Book Trust. If you'd like to attend a Book Trust book delivery one day next school year in FoCo or Denver, give us a holler via email at info@hdbrew.com.

Did not know that if only I could run, I could cross this type of finish line.

Many thanks to Kristine McAuliff & Linda Mitchell of Book Trust, who came up from DEN to participate (Here's Kristine pacing behind the awesome Scholastic Books books table before all you runners got here.)

Some of the wonderful NoCO Book Trust board members -- Joanna, Michele, & MaryPat -- serving up #freshtastycraftbeer. Next year, a photo of Holly, who was carding y'all, too!

So here's the start of the 1/2. We missed this. Love our landscape, and all you runners.

Lean left!

HUGE SHOUTOUT TO CASA DEL MATADOR in the Foothills Mall. If you've not been there, go there. Great food. And they donated all your burritos, without any questions, to support Book Trust.

When I saw you could check a box to get a medal (mind you, as previously stated, I wasn't registering to RUN), I wondered which on earth adult would want such a thing. And then I saw these. Hello! Amy Hayman (local artist/potter) is amazeballs, clearly. And I need a link to her webpage, but I cannot find it.

Sustenance!

Some people seriously RAN the pint run. I mean. Timothy Cruz finished in 10:21, and Jennifer Lee finished in 11:43 PUSHING A STROLLER. [These, BTW, are course records. Heh heh heh.] Some guy (Paul Stein) finished the half in 1:19:46, and some gal (Susan Cundiff) finished it in 1:37:31. The mind spins.

Strolling is also good. Especially if you can pull off these guys' style while doing so.

These people. You would think they are plants by us. But they are just good people, supporting folks. Thanks to them for taking us along on the run!

Linda (left, of Book Trust) and Sister Amy (green tutu) workin' the Pint Run.

Some spectators dressed up, too. Would love to have posted the very overwhelmingly cute photos of 3 towheads & Dad cheering on Mom (complete with poster) but I figure not all parents want their offsprings' faces posted online....

Race organizer....

Ken wore a silk jacket (with dragon design) and ran fast enough to make it billow out like dragon's wings. Extra credit.

MIRAMONT!
Provided transport from here to there and everywhere. If you work out (and I know you do, because we saw y'all buffed out and whatnot), check out their climbing wall up here by H&D. As well as all their other facilities, o'course.

Karen & Sharon
& Claire & Abby & Chad.

Vicky Boyd (of our across-the-street-neighbor Jo Boyd Offspring fame) showing how it's done when you travel from sea level at the last minute.

MoTD, with her 2 granddaughters (sorta').

Not to out Heather as fashion-forward, but her fancy bag matches her running shoes.

I'm fairly certain this guy on the left won the half. Or at least, transformed himself from my size to his in the last 18 months and ran like crazy. Plus, has good friends.

Gotta' love a pink dragon!

Clearly, won a costume award...

...this one, too. Think this is the one pushed by the Pint Run winner, Jennifer Lee?

Dragon? He's got the right attitude!

Dragon & Horse -- ran 13.1 miles and looked glam the entire way.

My fav. Two fabulous women!
(There's an even better pic on the FB events page, but I didn't get permission to use it here...)

Hoping these guys sleep for a week now. Thanks, Betsy & Steve!

Last but not least, big gracias(es) to the folks who sponsored the run and made it possible for us to donate to Book Trust!
Ed Carroll Motor Company
Altitude Running
One Seven Advisors
Miramont Lifestyle Fitness
PFS Insurance Group
Scott Barber
Spruce Moose Foundation
Casa del Matador Mexican Restaurant
Heart and Hand Chiropractic

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GABF 2015 through the rear view mirror

9/30/2015

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You wouldn't know it from media reports, but the week is barely about medals. (Which is a good thing, seeing as how we won none!)

Loads of you likely have experienced the Great American Beer Festival in Denver and have your own impressions and memories of the hoopla. Here are some of ours. (Page down if you want to skip to the pictures.)

People seem to begin flying in for beercations the weekend before the festival and some spend some quality time visiting breweries up here in FoCo. This was a blast (photoless, however) -- meeting brewers and craft beer lovers from all over the country -- and some from further afield (ahem, Carolina & Leo) -- is a joy. Goofy to say, but if you haven't felt that craft beer joy yet, I recommend sinking your life's work & savings into opening a craft brewery and experiencing how rejuvenated and elated and connected a week like this one makes you feel. Folks traveling and gathering to share a love of craft is awesome.

Craft-centric bars throughout Denver and Fort Collins (and, I'm guessing, several other cities) celebrate this week with special tappings of beers from all the heck over the place. Falling Rock Tap House in Denver and The Mayor of Old Town in Fort Collins tapped the last 2 kegs of our Rum Barrel Aged Coconut Porter (inventive name, we realize) on the same night, the Monday before the festival. The Mayor created Tap Into Northern Colorado (TINC) a couple of years ago and has 100 Northern Colorado breweries' beers on tap for this week, partly so that we can enjoy our local brew scene, and partly so that people coming in from out of town who can't make it to every brewery can try a whopping number of them at The Mayor. Tap & Handle has special tappings each night for a week before the festival. Restaurants around town do all kinds of beer-related events. And, as you might imagine, Denver craft bars & restaurants go to town all week with awesome beers.

Truth be told, this pic is from last year. Join the mayhem and sample some fantastic brews at Falling Rock Tap House every night of GABF week!

Tap Into Northern Colorado at The Mayor of Old Town showcases 100 NoCO beers.

We started our Denver days with a pairing of small plates with LoHi SteakBar on Tuesday night.

We might have eaten twice our body weights. But can you blame us? Look at it.

Here was the conference that went on at the end of the bar when we got there -- between the staff who put on this amazing dinner every night, the owner, and his son.

How can you not love a restaurant that prints this?

Eat local, people!

We hopped around The Highlands a bit and after a beer at Old Major we made Linsey carry the keg home (the awesome bar manager there was strapped for space as he'd stocked up beer for the week -- we like that kind of full fridge and kicked-keg-filled hallway).

[In real life, Luke helped.]

Thursday & Friday we had awesome brunch pairings at The Lobby (and got to crash a fellow's bachelor party,which he was having with some H&D).

Side note: we met up with some long-time friends who where passing through from Cleveland. Hi Greens!

Throughout the week we got to visit great craft beer spots with fantastic food, and all were filled with folks celebrating this Week of Craft Beer in Denver. Too cool! It was crazy awesome to see our beer pouring at some of the places we've admired for their craft lineup for forever. Huge thanks to those Denver bars who were willing to pour some H&D during GABF week!

We were a little gawker-ish in the Big City:

Hey, are you by chance attending a beer festival?

Vanimal's big day out.

The Big Blue Bear would like in too, plz.

.Cool to run into a couple of Weldwerks Brewing fellows on the walk downtown

Setting up our booth was fun and dead easy.

[We were greeted by our neighbors' "big-ass" sign behind us, though. Kinda' sad it's in 90% of our photos!]

The session opens each day with a bagpipe procession from the "opening gates" -- very cool!

Here they were coming by the booth a few minutes later:

The GABF sessions were a scene. I'm a bit low on the people-watching photos, but here you go for a few:

Some of our favorite FoCo peeps.

Great tee.

In addition to a medal for Friar Chuck, Black Bottle Brewery wins for best-dressed.

We love these FoCo peeps!

Happy birthday, Titus!

Love this, too. From Monument, natch.
Where people are very focused.

Now THAT'S a pretzel necklace!

Tiffany & Ryan, of William Oliver's Publick House fame, might have found my phone at some point.

If you go, you must MUST go dance at the silent disco. Ohmigosh. From either side of the fence it is the best thing at GABF.
Gitcherself there.

The Colorado State Legislature brews 2 beers (one by the House, one by the Senate) and if you visit the Colorado Brewers' Guild booth, y'all can sample each, meet a rep or two, and vote on which one you prefer. I voted with the House this year, but I believe the Senate beer won. Both were great! Kudos to Cannonball Creek Brewing Company & Big Choice Brewing for brewing with these cats.

Fair warning that y'all want to empty your bladders before you enter GABF.
(And about time that this is the ratio at the restroom lines in a public place, am I right, ladies?)

Taken from the back of the men's room line 2 hours in. See the "MEN" sign off there in the distance?

Taken from the back of the women's room line
2 hours in.

We got to pour in the "Meet the Brewer" section (by lottery) and were psyched to staff our booth for all 4 sessions. Here are Linsey & Titus holding down the fort, and Chad, Tim & Luke putting in some hard time.

We might have been a bit tired between the 2 Saturday sessions.

"Who's the creepy family passed out behind the palm fronds?"

We weren't alone. Here's what the brewers' space out the door of the main hall looked like at 5pm on Saturday.

This place was an oasis. You could step out of the fluorescent lighting and massive white-noise-din of the exhibition hall into this sanctuary of natural sunlight & relative silence. One woman who walked out with us said, "Oh my gosh, I feel like I just walked out of prison!"

Yes, there was the bottling and submission of beers for judging weeks and weeks before (and yes, I should know the actual date! Alas.). In our case, that involved submitting the freshest batches of beer we had and sending them off with several other FoCo breweries' submissions in Snowball (Snowbank's delivery van -- many thanks to them for delivering!). Luke then delivered kegs for pouring samples a couple of weeks ago. We sat through the awards ceremony crossing fingers during our own categories (to no avail!) but also being so psyched that so many friends and acquaintances throughout the industry took home some hardware for their hard work, and celebrating the fact that so many states were represented in the medals. The craft revolution is well and truly upon us and folks all over the U.S. are making great beer!

Here's how sad we were to head back to the last 2 sessions medal-less:

With not-much-sleep and loads of standing-on-concrete, we were pretty happy to return to our "normal" lives up here in FoCo. But we wouldn't trade the week for anything.

Before

AFTER

It's loud, long, and a lot o' concrete-standing. But it's full of awesome people & beer!

Cheers to all those who love and support craft beer,
whether by making it, serving it, or drinking it.
How great it is to have a festival together
celebrating all of that!

Plus, how often do you get to see
sharks getting off an escalator?
Worth the price of admission.

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Barley, Baby!

7/20/2015

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I’m behind in the life of H&D. (Actually, we can shorten that to just: I am behind in life.) But rather than catch up by starting with this weekend, let’s go back to last week. We got to take a (free!) bike tour with Beer & Bike Tours of Fort Collins which included a jaunt out country roads to a farm a few miles east of Horse & Dragon. There we recreated this picture with barley farmer Greg Walker, maltster Chris Schooley (of Troubador Maltings), and brewer Linsey Cornish (of Horse & Dragon Brewing Company – woot, woot!). The first was taken shortly after the field had been planted last spring, and the second was last Wednesday.

[Zach (of Limagrain) and I took a selfie so as not to feel left out.]

We loved the field-side lecture.

We rode from there to Troubador and Chris gave us the mile-high overview on the malting process (when you get to take this tour, ask him about the heating unit).

Linsey had to dance a bit during Chris’s talk. As you do.

Noah & Lauren, of Beer & Bike Tours fame, tried out Zach Yendra’s keg-carrier. Okay, it’s really an anything-carrier, as Lauren is proving, but we can’t help thinking of kegs of freshtastycraftbeer when we see it.

We then rode on to Odell, which had brewed a beer with Troubador's malts that we of course had to try. (Delicious, BTW; Trouvere Ale.) At the moment we've got Total Genie ESB on in the taproom, which was brewed with Limagrain's Genie malt (the very type Greg is about to harvest out there, though this ESB's grain wasn't grown on Greg's fields. Hopefully, though, we were walking through next year's brew!

No better way to spend a Wednesday afternoon. Whatever you call it – acres to ales, grain to glass, field to foam – we’re happy it happens and glad to be a part of the chain. Three cheers for growing, malting, brewing, and drinking! And, o’ course, for biking betwixt and between them all.

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Fire Captain Irish Red Ale

7/27/2014

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If you've not heard of the Firefighter Community Compassion Fund, here's what we know. But if you know or meet a firefighter, ask him/her about it, because stories from the horse's mouth are better than those from the dragon's!

$1 of each pint of Horse & Dragon's Fire Captain Irish Red Ale sold in our taproom at 124 Racquette Drive will be donated to the FCCF. Here's why:

Because of their role as emergency responders, the men and women of our Poudre Fire Authority are made aware on a daily basis of problems facing friends and neighbors in our community. They often pool their own private resources to try to alleviate some immediate concerns (for example, after responding to a call and taking care of an emergency, firefighters emptied their wallets to collect money to buy a family disposable diapers; on another occasion they used their own funds to buy an infant car seat for a family).

On a call when firefighters had no cash on hand, Rick Vander Velde (“Vandy”), Operations Division Chief for the Poudre Fire Authority, recognized the potential benefit of responders having access to a petty cash fund on their trucks which would allow them to provide necessities to families in need. The Firefighter Community Compassion Fund was born. Poudre Fire Authority, Longmont Fire Department, and Loveland Fire Rescue Authority are all involved.

“Firefighter Community Compassion Fund is a local 501c3 raising money for members of the community that have fallen on hard times. FCCF aims to give temporary assistance and provide charitable and humanitarian activities that serve our citizens. The vision of the Firefighter Community Compassion Fund is to give the firefighters the resources to deliver those small daily things that can make a big difference in the lives of the citizens within our community.”

TimCo has long been aware of the debt we owe to firefighters and the pivotal role they play in our communities. His grandfather, Lambert Cochran, was a captain in the Cincinnati (OH) Fire Department. Tim wanted to name a beer that would both thank his grandfather for his example and commemorate the life-changing work that firefighters perform for us. When Linsey created a delicious and thirst-quenching Irish-style red ale, Tim knew we had a brew that could make a difference: Fire Captain Irish Red Ale.

If you’d like more information or you would like to make a contribution, Vandy can be contacted through the Firefighter Community Compassion Fund Facebook page.

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Craft Beer Folk Is Good Folk

7/15/2014

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In the Google page for "bad blogging technique" I am surely currently featured. The last time we posted was just after Earth Day in April. Since then a lot has happened, including, but not limited to: we opened. May 1 was the day; since then it's been a tad tornadoish in our lives. As an example of where we are in the tornado, I keep finding notes on my desk saying things like (these are real-live examples): “Sean, ½ bbl, phone #XXX-XXXX,” and, “SAM! First hop t-shirt!” No idea. I hope I haven’t left Sean in the lurch and Sam surely deserved a Facebook posting with that tshirt on. There are also disturbing letters from the CO Dep’t of Labor saying we owe them $1.07. How they know that our latest payment of unemployment insurance is $1.07 off is beyond me, but I guess I'm getting the checkbook out.

Before we get into random ramblings about life at Horse & Dragon, let's talk beer. We're playing some with it, which is, as you might imagine, fun. Linsey brewed up a Dusseldorf altbier with Ryan Kopp of Pueblo's Steel City Brewers club for a pro-am entry at GABF this year.

Ryan brewed a batch that Linsey thought was terrific for a homebrewing competition and the two of them have worked their magic to replicate this delicious German amber. It's bubbling away happily in a fermenter right now (making a noise which I still avow is one of the best in the world):

We'll be serving that in the taproom come mid-August and it'll be served at GABF, too, so stay tuned. [On the topic of GABF -- if you want tickets this year, be on-line to to try to buy them at 9:59 am on July 30 -- July 29 if you are an AHA or BA member!]

There're a couple of new brews in process and a pin and firkin in the big 'fridge with interesting ingredients that should provide a flavor sensation or two. We'll be announcing on our FB page when we're tapping those, but for sure mark your calendars for July 23, 12-6, when one will be making an appearance on the dragon bar in the taproom for our First Annual Habitation Day Celebration.

Now to the rambling.

Meeting people in the taproom and around town at the great craft beer bars & restaurants of FoCo has been terrific. The number of people beercationing through Fort Collins who manage to find us tucked away back here on the airpark is a bit astounding. Although most afternoons 12-4 looks like this:

In the taproom, we've had fascinating conversations with a high school social studies teacher who is clearly inspiring but seemingly unimpressed by that and with technicians who do all manner of things I could never even begin to master. A couple who just moved to Fort Collins delivered crab and ¼” thick bacon the day after we met them, and a family shared their craft beer treasures from a roadtrip with us just because they borrowed a growler from TimCo’s office one night. Two people pointed out to us that our quote attributed to Plato (a Greek) is in Latin. [We were aware of this and still attributed the phrase to Plato, but one of these folks has convinced us to take down the attribution and allow Anonymous the credit.] We've talked with folks who are getting married and folks who are on their first date. (Our daughters can tell you how fun it would be to have us in on the convo on your first date.) A couple left $100 toward the next many pints in the taproom, and one day the "pay it forward" tip went on back through about 30 customers. All of this adds up to the same thing:

CRAFT BEER FOLK IS GOOD FOLK.

As well, craft beer taprooms can be pretty magical places.

We've had some brewers and brewing teams stop in, which we love. e.g.: a couple of Left Hand Brewing Co. sets (missed a photo of the brew team -- sorry!):

They have -- how cool is this? -- a stretch limo with a major bike rack on the back.

The brewing team from Odell (to which we are forever indebted, as you probably know) also came by. It's awesome to see brewers relax over a beer.

The Liquid Poets Society had a meeting, which was pretty inspiring, in the taproom.

And some long-time friends from previous lives (Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, Colombia, Colorado, Canada -- good, beer-drinking folk all) have stopped in.

Around town we've gotten the chance to check out some pretty darned amazing FoCo restaurants and bars. In so doing I managed to kick our own keg -- twice -- at The Colorado Room.

Hopefully if you're a photo-type you took a look at the opening weekend and first couple of weeks of albums on FB. Since those, we've gotten some new fermenters in -- woot,

Those are still being piped, but soon we'll be able to experiment with a few more brews. So the tank forest is looking a bit more populated these days, though there's still plenty of empty space left to fill:

[Foresting the brewery.]

We co-hosted a breakfast stop for FoCo's Bike to Work Day. Seeing all those bikers was muy fun, and we hope to be in the same spot next time.

We also had good times at the Colorado Brewers' Festival (or at least: those of us who weren't in the ICU that weekend -- ahem, TimCo -- had good times), where we loved seeing some people sporting H&D gear:

We might have watched some World Cup games in the brewery.

Jim Hogan, the fellow from Knotty Ginger who made our taproom furniture, and his wife welcomed a baby girl into their family. We expect to see a lot of her on the throne chair at the big table in the coming years.

Linsey did this:

...but that's a whole 'nother story.

We sold out of growlers for a minute there -- big no-no for those of us who love the growler culture -- and got some more in; we received some other fun merchandise that included Silipints -- awesome silicone pint "glasses" that travel anywhere, are almost indestructible, will hold your coffee in the morning and your #freshtastycraft beer in the afternoon (keeping it shaded so as not to let it skunk), and that really do keep your beer colder – but only if it takes you an hour to drink a beer (?!).

We tested two pints for temperature at 1 minute, 15 minutes, and an hour. At one minute they were the same temp, at 15 minutes the Silipint's beer was a degree colder, and at an hour the Silipint's beer was 8 degrees colder. So if you're a slow sipper, run on out here and get you some. But wait a couple of weeks, because we're temporarily sold out of those, too. Whoever is doing our supply chain management for merch is clearly weak.

Next up: commissioning those 30 bbl fermenters, heading to Beer Camp Across America (Rocky Mountain Region) on July 25, a beer dinner or two, celebrating Habitation Day, and trying to keep our feet under us.

We'll do laundry next year.

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