Equinox Brewing (Fort Collins, CO)

 After a brief reunion with friends at Funk Werks, it was time to check off yet another brewery and tack on another.  We mounted our nimble aluminum steads and set off into the setting sun to find the acclaimed Equinox brewery.  Fortunately, you don’t need to go too far.

Equinox isn’t much to look at as a brewery goes, but the over all ambiance and image that make it into more of a modern café than brew pub is as refreshing and comforting as its brew.  A little comforting was exactly what we needed as we set out to sample the two cosmological flights of beer we had ordered.  Seeing that few if any of these beers had any abv% below a 5 or 5.5 (I’d put the average more at 6.5) and IBU levels up around the troposphere, I could not help a foreboding sense of imminent revelry coming on. 

Ali's enthusiasm is striking

Imperial Heffeweisen:  Sweet, thick, potent…even a little erotic.  Seriously, you could probably sue this beer for sexual harassment it’s so good.

Atom Smasher Wee Heavy:  “If you were a giant and attacked a village and drank a brew house, this is what it would taste like.”  Ali’s keen observations on the subtle tastes of beers are always note worthy.  And in some regards, this beer kinda does taste like if you were to eat a brew house.  Maple syrupy goodness, malty and thick…this beer might come off as a bit much, but than again, you did just eat an entire house.

Eclipse Brown Ale:  Toast, walnuts, brown sugar.  Like drinking pancakes. 

Add caption

Event Horizon IPA:  Goose bumps were an immediate reaction for the both of us.  Sweet yet powerful, packing a 140 IBU’s (!).  One might think that that amount of hops would surely crush your taste buds and induce vomiting…but instead you feel somehow pulled into a new reality of an IPA, almost feel reality being crushed around you.  Pretty good.

Galaxy IPA:  And just as you feel as if the limits of beer reality can’t be breached further, that the very laws of physics will not…can not…permit it, well, you’re right.  They can’t.  At least not with this beer.  Good, fruity, refreshing if you’re good with IPAs, but Ali just couldn’t hang.  Hey, everyone’s got their own palate to satisfy.

Rating:  458.47000001211 out of pi.