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 the first five years, the popularity of Odell's hand-crafted ales caught on. In fact, they became so popular that a larger facility was needed to handle the increasing demand. Thus a whole new brewery, with the current 50-barrel brewhouse, was built in 1994.
After a 6 year commitment to an all-draft product, the brewery began bottling beers in 1996. A 10,500 square foot addition was needed to accommodate the addition of the new Krones bottling line. In 1997, the 5-barrel pilot system (one tenth the size of our commercial brewing vessels) was introduced for experimentation. The Odell brewers formulate new recipes, try out different yeasts and practice new production techniques on this system, with the best results ending up on tap in the Tasting Room. Demand continued to increase, so in 2000, convenient 12-packs of 90 Shilling and Easy Street were added.
The brewery currently produces at an annual rate of almost 40,000 barrels. Odell beers are available in bars, restaurants, and liquor stores throughout Colorado, and in Wyoming, South Dakota, Kansas, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Missouri.
Today, Odell Brewing Co. also offers five different keg sizes and half-gallon draft jugs (available only at the brewery). Come visit us anytime, on Lincoln Avenue just three quarters of a mile east of downtown Fort Collins.