Fort Collins Beer: A History of Brewing on the Front Range

Although alcohol arrived with the first settlers in Fort Collins, Prohibition lingered until 1969. But the city was one of the first to latch onto the burgeoning craft beer movement. In 1989, Old Colorado Brewing Company paved the way as the city’s first microbrewery. And with the inception of breweries like Odell and New Belgium, local beer soon saw a strong resurgence followed by popularity nationwide. By 2010, a new generation of breweries, like Funkwerks and Equinox Brewing, emerged. Brea D. Hoffman divulges the history of Fort Collins’s evolving beer scene.