While Budweiser offers immensity and an impressive production, Odell presents a different side of beer.
How It All Began
The founder of Odell Brewing Co, Doug Odell, found his passion for craft beer while working at a brewery in the late 70’s, as well has brewing in his home. While he and his wife were on their hoOdneymoon in the UK, they were inspired by the many small breweries and decided to turn Doug’s passion into a reality.
Because where they lived in Washington was already filled with breweries, they decided to look elsewhere. This landed them in Fort Collins, not only because it was a college town that was growing, but also because his sister currently lived there. So, the three of them joined together and opened up the brewery in 1989. The original location was in a 1915 grain elevator, only a few blocks from where the current brewery is. Odell’s Golden Ale was their first beer released, with 90 Shilling not long after, which as remained a top selling flagship.
The Brewing Process
Odell Brewing Co has always worked to develop new and innovative brewing techniques and beer styles, from studying hopping techniques to analyzing historic beers. Their 125 barrel Brewhouse from Braukon was custom built in Germany, and can provide approximately 300,000 barrels of future brewing capacity.
Another way they have been new and creative is their use of wood barrels. It started as an experiment, but now is used for full production and they have a dedicated barrel room filled with their beers. To be sure there is just the right amount of bubbles, they also inject the beer with a good dose of CO2.
They rinse and fill about 120 bottles per minute, which adds up to roughly 130,000 craft beers a day!
Sustainability
Bettering their community and environment is a passion at Odell Brewery. They make it a priority to reduce waste, reuse when they can and cut down on energy costs. They have cut down their use of water as much as possible, have over 11,000 sq. feet of solar panels, and make it a goal to be zero landfill by 2020.
They also use the spent grains from their brewing process to send to a local dairy farm to be used as cattle feed, another way of reducing their waste. You will also find an electric car charging station at their brewery that is free for public use.
Visit Odell Brewing
Odell Brewing Co has two different taprooms, one in Fort Collins and one in Denver. The Fort Collins location features a very wide range of their beers on draft, and is also open to tours of the facility. They also host a different local food truck everyday at the facility, so if you are hungry, they have you covered!
Their Denver location is in the RiNo neighborhood, so although they don’t have food at their facility, there are great options for food in the neighborhood and outside food is welcome.
Visit this Colorado brewery and enjoy one of their many unique and delicious beers!