Doug ODell's passion for crafting great beer started in his kitchen in Seattle. After the demand for his home-brew grew, Doug (along with his wife Wynne) searched for a good location to take Doug's passion commercial. They moved to Fort Collins to be closer to Doug's sister, Corkie, who quickly joined forces with them in opening the brewery in 1989.

After brewing and kegging his beer, Doug would deliver it, pick up empties, and make sales calls out of his old mustard colored Datsun pickup. The original brewery was located in an old grain elevator built in 1915, and was the second microbrewery to open in the state of Colorado. This brewery employed four floor levels to gravity-feed its beer from a 15-barrel brew kettle into open fermentation tanks, through cellaring and into draft kegs -- the only package then offered.

During its first five years, the popularity of the hand-crafted ales grew so much that a larger facility was needed to meet the increasing demand. Thus a whole new brewery, with the current 50-barrel brewhouse, was built in 1994. After a six-year commitment to an all-draft product, the beer bottling began.

90 Shilling

90 Shilling was introduced as a flagship beer in 1989. It's an irresistably smooth and delicious medium-bodied amber ale. The name 90 Shilling comes from the Scottish method of taxing beer. Only the highest quality beers were taxed 90 shillings. A shilling was a British coin used from 1549 to 1982.

5 Barrel Pale Ale

The distinctive hop character of the 5 Barrel Pale Ale is due to the extraction of essential oils from select hops. 5 Barrel Pale Ale is treated to an infusion of fresh whole hop flowers in the Hop Back and the Fermentor, as well as four hop additions during the kettle boil. This gives the beer a fresh, lively flavor and aroma.

India Pale Ale

Odell took the traditional IPA, originally shipped from England to India in the 1700's, and made it bolder and more flavorful -- American Style. New varieties of highly aromatic American hops were added to create a distinctive bitterness profile and an incredible hop character.
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Easy Street Wheat

Light and refreshing, Easy Street Wheat is an unfiltered American style wheat beer. Leaving in the yeast gives the beer a nice, smooth finish and a slightly citrusy flavor. Easy Street Wheat gets its name by brewers "taking it easy" and not filtering the beer. However, for ultimate enjoyment, it is recommended that you work just a little harder in pouring it: just pour 2/3 of the beer into a glass, swirl what's left to stir up the yeast, then pour the rest and enjoy.