Fort Collins

Zwei, Horse & Dragon, and Funkwerks. You can walk to Funkwerks from Odell and NB, but H&D and Zwei are a bit further. Uber and Lyft are quick and readily available in FoCo, though.

 

Not a brewery, but I recommend Tap and Handle. ^ Also the walk to Funkwerks from Odell isn't terrible, but to be fair H&D is basically the same distance. Also honorable mention to Snowbank and Jessup Farm Barrel House. And hit up Craft Beer Cellar for your bottles to send home

 

As mentioned above, I'd do the NB, Odell, Funkwerks, Horse and Dragon loop.

Plus for Tap and Handle as they have an incredible beer selection, plus it's in town by food option.

Plus for Jessup Barrel house. It's a few minutes from the others, but there's a great coffee roaster next door in Bindle if you want some coffee/ breakfast.

 

I would skip Horse and Dragon myself- (although it is close by) - they only have 1 beer that impressed me. However Funkwerks is awesome. I also recommend Black Bottle as kind of a dark horse candidate, they make some really good/interesting beers.

 

I honestly don't get your love for BBB, @Dan_K , and I typically find your opinions of beers to be quite similar to mine. Carlos is great, but otherwise I can't recommend anything from them... plus their food is beat/expensive.


Equinox and Zwei are easily my two favorite breweries (big or small) in town. Intersect is my 'dark horse' as no one seems to know about them at all, yet everything I've had there has been good to great.

I'm a shameless Tap and Handle fanboi. Its my Cheers and they are certainly the best beer bar in town... sorry, not sorry Mayor.

 

Is tap and handle pricy?

 

Its quite reasonable

 

I like Tap & Handle's half price half pours.

 

Granted I've only been there 3 times, but some of the beers that have been great include Static Age, Liquid Metal, and the Last Unicorn. Probably a few others I can't remember. I also really like the taproom, it's kind of fun after every other new brewery pretty much does the same thing.

The one time I went to Equinox they had a good sour on tap, and a good stout, but I didn't like their IPAs. Still absolutely worth a visit as well.
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Too late for OP, but Loveland has some breweries worth visiting as well, and only ~20 minutes south of Fort Collins. My two top picks for Loveland right now are Loveland Ale Works and Verboten. Grimm Brothers is also worth a trip if you've never checked it out.