Brewers Olympics Kicks Off Beer Week in Fort Collins

Local breweries competed in the Brewers Olympics on Saturday, June 20, 2015, to kick off Fort Collins Beer Week. But which brewery went home with the coveted gold cup?

It was a parking lot party at Go West T-Shirt Co. for the fourth annual Brewers Olympics, which consisted of nine local breweries competing in five different beer-centered events.

The teams: 1933, Black Bottle Brewery, Fort Collins Brewery, Funkwerks, Horse & Dragon Brewing Company, New Belgium, Odell Brewing Company, Pateros Creek, and Zwei Brewing. 

The day began with the opening ceremony, in which teams made their grand entrances and walked a lap around the course, while being judged on their costumes and creativity. Breweries were each assigned a team color that they based their costumes off of.

The first event was an obstacle relay race called the Beer Journey. During this competition, players had to race through the legs of course, which consisted of hopping in a bag, running through tires with a giant hose, navigating a keg through tomato cages and straw bales, and finally all team members meeting back at a table and drinking four beers. The catch– all participants had to have a full beer in one of their hands at all times throughout the course, with points being deducted for spillage.

Following the relay race was the Keg Ring Toss. During this event, teams stood 11 feet back and lobbed hula hoops at three kegs, each one a bit further back than the next, and each worth a different amount of points.

Next up was the Know Your Local Beer competition, in which the teams had to put their real knowledge and expertise of beer to the test. The referees brought out a total of four local beers, and it was up to the breweries to determine which kind of beer they were sipping, and from what brewery it came from, within two minutes. For this event, each brewery enlisted in the help of one audience member, but even that didn't keep several breweries from missing their OWN brews.

The fourth event of the day was the Beer Balloon Toss. During this game, one team member wore a special helmet that had a pitcher screwed on to the top, while three other team members stood 24 feet back, with four water balloons each. The goal was to get as many balloons as possible into your team's pitcher.

Finally, rounding out the day was an epic battle of Collab-O-War. Breweries, along with several crowd members, teamed up and prepared for some tug-o-war, which only became more difficult when each participant was handed a full PBR, that had to stay in their hand the entire time. Once the actual event was over, a few of the breweries competed in some one-on-one tug-o-war action, just for bragging rights.

After all of the events were completed, it was time for the judges to tally the scores. The judges were a mixed group of community members including, Jeff Caloway (Director of CSU Fermentation Sciences), Greta Cornet (FOCO MX, Mama Lenny and the Remedy), Alana Rolfe (The Mishawaka, Spokesbuzz, Stella Luce), Fort Collins Mayor Wade Troxell, and Zach Yendra of Yendra Built and the Bikes and Beer Show on KRFC.

Coming in third place and receiving the bronze cup, was Fort Collins Brewery. In second place, Odell, who happened to be the champions in 2014. And finally, with an impressive 150 points, the first place winners were Horse & Dragon Brewing Company. Not only did they get to go home with the coveted gold cup trophy, but Horse & Dragon also scored an awesome custom bike. The Best Dressed Award went to Pateros Creek for their groovy costume designs.

In between events, guests and participants had all kinds of fun, checking out each of the brewery's tents and beers that they had on tap, indulging in the local food trucks, riding and racing around the lot in the Tadpole Pedicabs, and taking turns in the dunk tank. There was even beer-themed ice cream available, courtesy of Walrus. Goldberg from 99.9 The Point emceed the day, and music was provided from the talented spinning styles of DJ Troubadour Maltings.

The Brewers Olympics were the start to Fort Collins Beer Week, which consists of seven full days of beer dinners, tastings, tours, and other events taking place all over town. Click for a complete schedule of the week and recap the fun-filled day at the Brewers Olympics by checking out the gallery below.