FORT COLLINS, COLORADO
Opened 1989, just months after initial Colorado brewpub, Wynkoop, began operations in Denver, COOPERSMITHS PUB is located in the heart of Fort Collins. A key watering hole for Colorado State University students and business professionals, this side-entranced grain silo-marked archway-accessed brewpub-restaurant spreads across two adjacent locations. Wood bar furnishings, windowed brew tanks, and back dining bedeck left side locale while opposing Coopersmiths Poolside housed a billiard hall serving pizza-calzones (instead of full wood-fired pizza/ dinner menu across the alley). Brewmeister Dwight Hall’s diversified libations were fully appreciated during August ’07 afternoon jaunt.
Banana-clove-vanilla-receded toffee-sweet wheat-grassy lemon-wedged Mountain Avenue Wheat, cereal-grained pumpernickel-dried orange-bruised grapefruit-teased Rye P.A., and cherry-tart orange-soured peach-pied wheat-cracked witbier Mellow Fellow Cherry Ale please with ease. Silken nitro-injected chocolate-walnut-dried espresso-creamed oat-toasted Horsetooth Stout and mild hop-fizzed, chipotle-jalapeno-burnt, salami-smoked, rye-dried Sigda’s Green Chili thrill adventurers. Soft fungi-vegetal wafts splotch piney Cascade-hopped fig-date-tinged Cask Punjabi Pale Ale.
Lighter, less interesting mainstream fare included maize-dried popcorn-like lager yeast-warmed Bud Lite-knockoff Columbine Kolsch and putrescent corn-dried grape-soured hop-sharp rye-breaded peppercorn-dotted Modela Negra-shirked Cerveza Del Verano. Acetous cranberry-tart, green grape-parched, grassy-hopped Raspberry Mead suits honeyed wine lovers.
