By Spenser Hanson
Photograph by Janelle Kienast/Journalism 210
Fort Collins, Colo. — Just as the buildings are getting smaller, on the other side of the train tracks, stands a picture out of a rural farm town. Only it isn’t in the Great Plains of America, the picturesque red barn is on the outskirts of downtown Fort Collins. As the building gets closer, the on the country feel beings to dissipate because of the over bearing egg-colored silos that look as if they are growing out of the building. These canisters have a large maroon leaf on their side in the shape of a hop. This is where Doug Odell crafts his masterpieces.
Doug Odell, owner of Odell Brewing Company, is no ordinary man despite the average Joe look that his blue denim jeans and casual black button-up shirt might suggest. He presents himself humbly, and is quick to apologize for his slight lisp from the fake tooth he just had put in, but is unapparent to anyone but himself. His mouth and beard move in harmony as he discusses his favorite brew that he invented, which happens to be Odell’s India Pale Ale. The strength and ambiance of the hops reflect his passion and knowledge for the technique he uses when he makes his form of art. This form of art, which is the beer that he brews, is extraordinary in taste and quality, winning awards year after year.
“We get most of our hops from Washington state. Some are grown in Oregon, and we used to get some from England.”
When asked how someone knows a good hop from a bad hop, Odell simply replies, “You Like it a lot”
While extending on his answer he says, “ For instance, Centennial has a combination of a floral and a citrusy characteristic. And not too unbalanced on one of those.”
Odell is excited to explain how he got his beginnings. It’s a coming of age story. There’s adversity and there were times he thought about quitting. Yet in all of his time, he is still just as eager to share what makes a great beer.
He goes into the characteristics of hops and their oils. He is emphatic with his gestures, moving his hands across the entire copper table. His favorite, the India Pale Ale, has the most hops of the beers that he brews.
As the conversation moves from questions about day-to-day operations to broadening the horizons of the company, he begins to have a willingness and confidence in his words. He is giddy, it may seem to transfer the dialogue into the actual brewery. As he swiftly makes his way through the bar atmosphere that instantly flashes by, Odell bursts through the doors that separate the laboring machines from the finished product that is fresh on tap.
Photograph by Janelle Kenast/ Journalism 210
"The floor is wet. The dankness of the
atmosphere is almost resonant
to the south"
It’s loud. It’s pungent. The aroma of hops and barley musk around in the factory setting that creates over 9,000 gallons of beer each day. The floor is wet. The dankness of the atmosphere is almost resonant to the south, where moisture is so thick in the air that you don’t get dry out of a shower, only here the humidity is that of beer. Beer that he brews; beer that he is showing go from a dry form of cereal looking barley, to an almost oatmeal, to a liquid form that is stored and chilled in over-sized silver fermentation tanks, to a brown bottle with a green cap. They’re making a local favorite, Isolation Ale, the winter ale featured by Doug and his crew.
The next ingredient Odell wants to discuss is the malted barley. The barley is what gives the beer its color and body.
“All malting is, for the pale malt, is soaking the barley for about forty-eight hours."
The entire time he explains this process, he is showing off the grain. Each one has a different color. The crystal malt has a pale hue, the chocolate malt is brown. Odell shares these small rice looking seeds that are edible. When eaten they crunch around. They’re hard. Almost like a cereal that has been left on the shelf for too long, far too long.
“The chocolate one gives our stouts their darker color, and even has a slight taste of coffee in it.”
Which is true. It’s dry and hard, practically just as harsh as an espresso bean. But after days of being worked upon, will be turned into a rich dark beer, best enjoyed with a rich dessert.
The final ingredient that he chooses to illustrate is the yeast. Live yeast. That means the yeast is alive. Literally, alive. The fact that the yeast is alive is crucial to the brewing process however. Without this, the sugars in gigantic fermentation tanks wouldn’t get digested. This process allows for the beer to become a finished and drinkable product. Doug explains all of this, while standing causally upon a machine that he goes into further detail with.
“During high fermentation there is an unbelievable amount of yeast in suspension that is eating all the sugar. There can be 60 million cells per milliliter of yeast.”
“What’s higher than trillions? That’s how many cells there are.”
After the cooling process of the newly formed liquid, there can be as many as eight million cells per milliliter still. This is what the machine he is leaned against is used for. The filtering machine is a complex device that has the beer go through multiple tubes that work to gather the live yeast. After the new product is completed, Doug is going to show where the beer gets pumped into kegs and bottles.
But before he can go into the next room, he has to show off his prized possession, the pilot system. This contraption is basically a small brewery that could fit into a common living room of a house. The fermentation tanks are about a tenth of the size, but so are the batches. This is where he and all of his colleagues devise new beers. Sometimes twice a week will they be down in this area to develop something new and exciting from Odell’s. These pilot beers are only served back in the bar setting though. Not many people ever get to taste what he comes up with on a regular basis, which is what makes this brewery a “small operation” according to Doug.
" His mouth and beard move in harmony as he discusses his favorite brew that he invented, which happens to be Odell’s India Pale Ale."
Once the smirk on his face that of his miniature brewery, he walks through a set of double doors into a large room stock piled with kegs and machines to fill them. The ceiling is probably thirty feet high, with kegs reaching all the way up to try and escape it seems.
The machines on this side of the room clean, rinse, clean, power wash, rinse, clean, and rinse the kegs. This is how clean he has to have everything that leaves his plant to be. Doug takes a certain pride in his brewery. This is not to be confused with hubris however, because Odell’s brewery has won awards year after year because of their ethics, philanthropy, and most recently, their environmentalism.
As the process is shown with little effort and much enthusiasm, Doug finishes the circle of life that is his brewery by waltzing back into the tap room. This bar was once seen as just a meeting place for the founder of the Odell Brewing Company. It now is a comfortable setting that opens at 11:00 am every day besides Sunday. This comfortable setting is made so by the now friend named Doug Odell, who is as passionate about beer as a Bavarian brew master. Doug makes what may look like a seemingly ordinary barn, grain, or even man, into a top of the line brewery, a warming beer, and even a friend to all that steps foot into his abode.
Video by Joi Dandridge /Journalism 210
Joi Dandridge and Janelle Kienast contributed reporting to this story from Fort Collins.
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