after driving by the cluster chug of new belgium, o'dell's was a welcome pint. the specialty sampler was wild, including a crazy kreik, ruby red and effervescent as well as a nice, black nitro english stout. the real treat for me was a clean pint of the 90 shilling. excellent staff handling a swarm of drinkers with ease surrounded by some of the best artwork i've seen in a brewery. see new belg. and coopersmith's if you must, but spend some quality time at o'dell's for sure.

reviewed on: 2009-10-11 22:46:22

A great stop for Fort Collins. A nice looking tasting room with cool canvases of the labels on the walls looking mighty sharp. Staff was friendly and informative, both in the tasting room and during the tour.

My wife and I tried both the regular tray and the pilot tray, enjoying them all. I love the porter and find the hoppy stuff well done. The nitro versions of the porter and IPA didn't wow me, and the Mystery Beer (a Belgian Golden) was my least favorite, but generally, I'd encourage anyone to drink Odells, and certainly visit the brewery if in the neighborhood.

We were given chips that were good for discounted merch, if over a certain dollar amount (I think $10), or to be donated back to charity, which rotates.

reviewed on: 2009-08-24 14:20:41

Great beer great atmosphere a very, very friendly staff.

This brewery knows what it takes to make good beer. The year round offerings are great, the seasonal are so so and the specials are awesome.

Best beer is the IPA, puts all others to shame in the region and possibly the country.
The 90 shilling is a local favorite.
The house flavor is really nice and goes great with a majority of the brews in town.

BY FAR FORT COLLINS' FAVORITE BREWERY!

reviewed on: 2009-02-22 17:44:07

odell's has a nice tasting room. the service was quick and polite. it was too crowded for my taste but we sat outside. if the weather's not good seating is surely an issue. i bought some merch so i got the discount on the sampler, which is nice. i was disappointed with the pilot tray. i didn't care for three of the four brews. they were well crafted but just didn't appeal to me. it also stinks that the pilot is 4 beers and the standard is 6. i certainly prefer their beer to nbb & buy their ipa every once and a while. i wish i would have selected the other sampler.

reviewed on: 2009-02-01 11:35:11

Another amazing stop on the Fort Collins brew tour. Bring a bike and you might be able to make it to all of them in a day, assuming you have a high tolerance. Odell Brewing has all of the standard genres of English style beers, and sometimes a few seasonal specialties, all of which I thoroughly enjoy. Somehow it's still considered New Belgium's little brother, but this is my favorite beer in the Fort. Go there!

reviewed on: 2008-11-25 21:33:47

5 barrel pale is one of my favorite beers so I was really looking forward to our visit. We ended up getting a couple of sampler trays and tried a variety of beers.

A nitrogen pushed IPA that was excellent and an imperial pilsner that was light and smooth but something like 8% abv.

I was kind of disappointed by the atmosphere. The building is nice but the tasting room had the feel of a Golden Corral. It was quite busy the day we visited. You came in the door waited in line while you passed through the gift shop area. You ordered and payed at a register then moved down the line to pick up your trays as they were being dispensed assembly line style. You then had to find a place to sit. No one was clearing tables so you had to clear your own table of empties from the previous users.

I did love the beer and will continue to purchase and drink.

reviewed on: 2008-11-21 16:18:05

Another fun micro/regional brewery.

They have two types of samplers. We had the traditional one. It costs $4 BUT, $1 goes to a charity (the charity is displayed on the wall and I'm told it changes weekly) and the other 3 can either be donated to the charity or as a $3 discount on merchandise. So, like their neighbor New Belgium, they don't make any money off the samplers.

My wife loves the 90 Shilling. It is also another staple of the Mid-West beer list. The Cutthroat Porter is by far my favorite porter as of yet. Dark, chocolaty, smooth and almost no bitterness. Amazing finish and amazing balance to that porter. If you get a chance you must try it.

reviewed on: 2008-08-13 18:54:37

At Odell’s, the tasting room has tall table seating and a walk up counter (no seating) to select your sample tray or pint/growler brews. As described below, you can have the Classic Tray (standards) or the Pilot Tray (seasonals) or both. When you pay for it, you get a token you can use for a merchandise discount or donate it to charity. I opted for the 4 specialty brews on the Pilot Tray plus a taste of the standard Cutthroat Porter. I enjoyed them all; even the Vikings’ Malt Liquor. The Nitro offerings, IPA and Cutthroat Porter were particularly noteworthy. The outside patio was very popular when we visited with everyone enjoying the sunny spring weather. We lucked out an got a parking space in the small lot out front.

reviewed on: 2008-04-20 12:30:20

Odells is right around the corner from the better known New Belgium but that does not make it a lesser product. Each of the local breweries here in FC have their own identity and personality which is wonderful for the beer consumer.

Odells is a nice size brewery that is growing and trying to keep within its philosophy that smaller batch beer has something to say for itself rather than overloading the beer drinker. The have a constant menu of beers that are available for tasting along with a pilot tray that changes about every month. As other reviewers have mentioned, they are very active in the community with a a way for the customers to support local charities while enjoying their fine products. They had a great small batch variety beerfest last May on their property and I am waiting for the dates for this spring. Nice affair with beer and food at very reasonable costs. Live music made for an afternoon of why Colorado is close to paradise. Music is usually available one day a week at the tasting room. Tours are a couple of hours each day. Staff is very knowledgeable along with degee of friendliness that they are known for. Pretty nice to live here in FC where there are an abundance of breweries and brewpubs that compete with one another but at the same time support each other and get along fairly well. Give Odells a try and you will not be disappointed. Only issue ever is with parking since their front lot is limited, but I see now that they are encouraging parking on the dirt lot right behind the brewery. Well, there has to be some room for improvement.

reviewed on: 2008-03-09 15:06:57

A great place. Great beer and getting better. A must if doing a tour of Ft. Collins. Try a sampler for $3. Donate to the local charity by buying the sampler. If you've been before, try the pilot tray. Always experimenting and thus comes out with fantastic brews. Visit earlier in the day if you want the full experience. Has a patio for nice days. If you plan correctly, do a bicycle tour of the breweries and beer bars of Ft. Collins.

reviewed on: 2007-12-30 21:49:57

another fun ft. collins brewery, under the shadow of NB. if you're doing one, you might as well do the other, because they're spitting distance.

the beer samplers cost a couple bucks, but you could choose to donate that money to the charity of the month, or trade it in on merch discount (unfortunately not a discount on beer).

this place was empty when the wife and i went, so we were attended to very quickly by the beer dude.

if you can get ahold of it, their ipa is amazing. ask about how many different hops, and hop processes it goes through to give it that amazing aroma.

gotta love the hops that they were growing outside.

reviewed on: 2007-09-27 23:06:34