A Trip To Pateros Creek Brewing

This was a super Sunday Funday! The party bus was a blast. I had a lot of fun playing games and getting to know some new Elites. The brewery was so kind to us, providing us with a flight and a pint. I enjoyed the tour and sampling the brews The I t Ethiopian Shim Sham, a coffee maple brown ale, was my favorite. I also thought the red was fantastic. The burritos were the perfect touch, because I couldn’t fill up on Pringles and Cheez-it’s on the way up!
Thanks to everyone who made this day trip possible! It was much needed and much appreciated.

What’s not to love about a bus trip to beer?! I had a great time meeting new Unilocalers and playing games on the dream shuttle. The tour of Pateros was fun; the brewmaster was good at explaining the process. We enjoyed the beers and even bought some to take home. The only downside was that the afternoon flew by! Oh, and Cheez-​Its on the bus ride home? Don’t mind if I do!
Thanks once again to France for bringing this event together.

So… still being pretty new to Colorado, this was my first Unilocal event since relocating and it was fantastic! We had a great time on our ride to Fort Collins… Dream Shuttles got us there safely and in style. Many thanks to Vinnie and Frances for the snacks and libations for the ride up and back.
We arrived at Pateros Creek to a warm welcome from brewmaster Steve who introduced us to 4 different tasters, all of which were tasty though the Cache la Porter was my personal favorite. Pateros Creek seems like a warm, friendly place (in addition to brewing some pretty great beer) and we will definitely venture back on our next trip to Fort Collins to try more of their offerings.
The yummy burritos from Matador and opportunity to meet some cool new people were the icing on the cake of a really great afternoon. Thanks, Unilocal,for introducing us to a place we may not have found on our own.

This was a great day-​trip to Fort Collins!
Dream Shuttles was awesome! The shuttle was basically a party bus inside, complete with drinks and snacks (thanks Frances)– perfect for a drive up to FoCo.
We arrived to tables nicely set up with four beer tasters at each seat. Then, Pateros did a great presentation about their brewery and their beers, and explained each one as we were tasting them. This was one of the best group tastings I’ve ever done. I liked all four of the beer tasters: Car 21, Cache la Porter, Rattlesnake Jack, and the Capitol Peak IPA. Then, we got to go on a tour of the brewery, a small, but efficient set-​up in the back. Complete with the jovial anecdotes of our tour guide, Brad, and more information about the brewery, this was a great tour.
After the tour, we tucked into burritos courtesy of Matador, a great pairing and welcome nosh with all the beer. They even provided a potato option for the veg-​heads!
Overall, a delightful Sunday trip with great food, new friends, and above all– Beer!

What an awesome, awesome event! Getting a chauffeured trip up to Ft. Collins to drink beer? How could this not be amazing?
The party bus was awesome and Vinny, our driver, was super friendly and fun from the start. He even provided us with beer for our trip. Pair that with the plethora of snacks that Frances brought for us and we were set for a killer mini-​road trip.
After arriving at Pateros Creek, we started with a really great bunch of beers in a flight that the head brewer/​owner, Steve, walked us through and told us about. Not a beer in the flight that I didn’t like, but Rattlesnake Jack (their blackberry chipotle ale) was by far my fave. So many things happening in that beer, yet it had such a smooth, tart flavor. Yum. We then took a tour of their pretty small, but smartly used brewery. Then we were treated to another free pint of our choice. I tried their Ethiopian Shim Sham, a coffee maple brown ale, that was super yummy. Coffee notes, maple at the finish – it tasted like breakfast!
Thanks again, Frances and Unilocal,for such a fun Sunday afternoon activity. It was really fun getting to meet some new Unilocalers and try some great beer!

I’m just too cool to give this event five stars.
I give five stars to the socializing and to getting free food and beer and treated like I’m specialer than other guests at PCBC on that day. That was rad. More please. I got to hang out with Lauren B., a fellow trumpet player in Mile High Mood Swings Big Band, and her +1 Ryan. I met Karen H. and David K. Karen was the first strangerish person to ever hold my baby. Speaking of, Frances was the second and even gave my little Daisy some kisses (see pictures). We played Cards Against Humanity and I laughed at myself a lot. Actually, David was the f_​cking hilarious one. What a guy. You should read his reviews:
Anyway, for the sake of maintaining some sense of objectivity and for trying too hard to appear not to be drinking the Unilocal punch, let’s be honest. Bigger, cooler events in bigger, cooler cities are just that, and once you go bigger and cooler, you don’t go back. Beer and burritos at Pateros, or eggs benedict, roast beef, crab, bottomless champagne, and bloody marys at a swank restaurant right on the bay in San Francisco? It’s hard to live up to that. Colorado, where my bayfront restaurants at? I just had to compare it to the last 5-​star event I attended.
Pateros Creek Brewing — Beer has gone from just another local brewery to making pretty good beers in just the last year. I really liked the Car 21 special bitter. The Rattlesnake jack was novel. I love spicy food and I love creative beer, but I don’t like spicy beer that much.
Matador Burritos — I thought that «P» was for pork. «P» weren’t for pork, but potatoes, and the potatoes were perfect. What’s the recipe for potatoes? I was impressed that the hot sauce was hot enough to give me hiccups. My baby mama got the ground beef burrito and rated it not as good as something thrown together at home, and she no burrito pro either.
Dream Shuttles — I didn’t ride, but I heard they served Budweiser and Coors. Every Unilocaler I talked to, thankfully, had more discerning tastes.

Firstly, a big woo-​hoo to Frances for bringing Unilocal events to Fort Collins! Pateros Creek was a great choice of venue to kick off the Fort Collins City Spotlight events, with its just-​north-​of-​Old Town location and some creative brews. Don’t know if any of the Denverites got to wander around to take in Old Town’s charms, but we locals love it here.
So for the event, founder/​owner/​brewmaster Steve Jones led us through a tasting of 4 brews — Car 21 (English style bitter), Cache la Porter, Rattlesnake Jack (blackberry chipotle ale), and Capitol Peak IPA. I found them all to be quite drinkable, and that almost never happens to me (there is always at least one beer on my taster trays that I just … don’t … like). I think that what it comes down to is that none of them were particularly extreme for their style, so they didn’t elicit a love it or hate it reaction.
Actually, that’s not true. I did love the Rattlesnake Jack, but describing it as a «blackberry chipotle ale» just doesn’t do it justice. It had beautiful fruit on the nose, a bit of brettanomyces funk, and the chile’s heat on the finish. Definitely the most complex of the beers we tasted. I say if you have an adventurous palate, give it a try.
We also heard a bit of the brewery’s history (around for about 3 years, family owned and operated, Cache was their first beer, and Steve’s son aptly named Porter was born the day they brewed the first batch …) and took a brief tour before getting our pints and Matador burritos for a nice little nosh. I love me some Matador burritos, but perhaps they weren’t shown off in their best light warmed in chafing dishes and with just 3 sauces to choose from. If you happen to be visiting Ft. Collins from Denver, be sure to give Matador a try — they are not too far off of the Harmony exit and in my opinion are among our best burritos in town. I recommend getting a «make your own» with pork, sweet potatoes, black beans, and their mango-​habanero sauce.
All in all, a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Thank you, thank you, thank you to Unilocal & Frances, Pateros Creek Brewing, and Matador!