Fort Collins' casual alcohol culture has day and night difference

It’s often five o’clock somewhere in Fort Collins. 

At summer family festivals, it's common to find parents pushing strollers with drinks in hand. Area 5K runners are often rewarded with a beer at finish lines.

A casual alcohol culture has emerged in a town that was late to the party — Fort Collins was a dry city 20 years before Prohibition's 1919 institution and 40 years after its 1933 repeal.

There are currently 20 breweries here, one for about every 8,000 residents. Lunch-break beers are generally acceptable. It's a common practice to bring children to a brewery. 

Even Colorado State University is part of the relaxed drinking atmosphere, with a pair of campus bars and its own branded New Belgium beer.

There’s also a busy nightlife scene, with drinks consumed into the early-morning hours.

“On busy late nights we will have 6,000 to 7,000 people downtown, many of which are intoxicated,” Fort Collins Police Lt. Jeremy Yonce said. “We manage that with five to seven officers...it can be challenging and taxing.”

Managing the drinking culture has proven more difficult once the sun sets. The bulk of alcohol-related incidents occur in the late evenings and early mornings.

Substance abuse advocacy group TEAM Wellness & Prevention has launched youth education programs personalized for the area. Businesses and organizations have formed a coalition to help keep people safe. And recent law changes aim to combat some of the recurring issues.'

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“With this being a beer and college town, there’s certainly a lot of alcohol around,” Yonce said. “We have to manage the alcohol culture as much as we can.”

A 2012 study said 67 percent of drinking age adults in Larimer County consume alcohol. That's higher than the state — 63 percent — and national average — 56 percent.

Heavy drinkers — women who drank an average of more than one drink per day and men who drank more than two per day for a month — were on the rise, making up 8.8 percent of Larimer County residents, according to the study. The state average is 9.6 percent and national is 8.2 percent.

Binge drinkers — women who drank four or more drinks and men who drank five or more in one sitting at least once a month — make up 19.4 percent of Larimer County residents. The state average is 20.2 percent and national is 18.3 percent.

“There’s a celebrated beer culture here and we don’t want to take away from that,” said Gordon Coombes, executive director of TEAM Wellness & Prevention. “We just want people to be smart about it.”

Social norms around alcohol

Going to the brewery in Fort Collins is increasingly becoming a family affair.

“Going to a brewery is something fun to do,” said Katie Hess, a 30-year-old Fort Collins native who brings her 6-month-old to breweries. “It’s about enjoying the flavor and socializing...a much different atmosphere than a bar.”

The social norm of family-friendly alcohol consumption is especially popular at the grassy beer garden at New Belgium Brewing, the sun-soaked patio at Odell Brewing and indoor play area at Intersect Brewing.

The annual Colorado Brewers Festival is marketed as a family event. Black Bottle Brewery has a Toddler Tuesday promotion where kids eat at the brewpub for free. And there’s a support group for mom’s called Beers & Boobies — the club that now has several hundred members morphed from a breastfeeding group.

More:New craft beer bar opens at Foothills mall

“This is a really family-oriented part of Colorado,” said Intersect Brewing owner Will Herdick, who moved to the area from Missouri to raise his two children and start the brewery.

“The whole city has adopted breweries as part of the culture and the fabric of this town. It's the thing to do."

Although not everyone believes children have a place at breweries.

"These are adult places with age requirements to drink," said Fort Collins resident Christine Pardee. "There are plenty of family friendly places one can take the kiddos.

"The quality of my visit to any brewery is proportional to how many kids are running around unsupervised while their parents get drunk."

While there’s high exposure to area youth, Larimer County middle- and high schoolers consume alcohol at rates below state and national averages — 15.8 percent drank before age 13 compared to an 18.2 percent statewide and 17.2 percent nationally. Larimer County youth also binge drink at lower rates than the rest of the country — 16.7 percent here compared to 17.7 percent nationally.

TEAM Wellness & Prevention takes a different education approach than many of its colleagues across the country, long ditching the failed D.A.R.E. strategies of the past.

“Kids have a normal inclination to take risks,” Coombes said. “But the more you talk with kids about it, the more informed they will be and the easier it will be for them to make a smarter decision.”

Fort Collins Police said they have some calls every year to breweries, but typically have few incidents.

New Belgium Brewing and Odell Brewing, the Choice City’s largest craft breweries, both fund alcohol education services and close their taprooms by 8 p.m. Most other breweries close well before the mandated 2 a.m. last call.

Larimer County DUI blood alcohol levels are below average, too. The average blood alcohol content from DUIs is 0.156 here, below the national median of .160. The legal limit is .08 across the country.

With beer as the city’s drink of choice, the alcohol content consumed is often less potent than other drinks. A typical 12-ounce beer between 4 and 7 percent ABV has the same amount of alcohol as five ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof liquor.

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Past beer festivals have been plagued by issues, but police have worked to correct the problems.

No tickets were written at the three-day Colorado Brewers Festival in June — a drastic improvement from the 2009 event when 26 summonses were issued and five people were sent to jail.

Police issued a record-low two tickets at last year’s 17th annual New Belgium Tour de Fat costumed bike parade — one for public urination and the other for smoking marijuana in public.

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“We’ve learned that the preemptive part is very important to events,” Yonce said. “You need to have a good plan ahead of time. Good crowd management and having good processes are a huge piece.”

While there has been progress in alcohol responsibility, AspenRidge Recovery CEO Cortland Mathers-Suter warns to be cautious drinking in public and around children.

Alcohol abuse trails only opioid addiction among patients treated at the Fort Collins AspenRidge clinic.

"You have to see alcohol for what it is," Mathers-Suter said. "A good-tasting social lubricant to many and a danger to others."

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The biggest challenges

Fort Collins made national headlines in April for less than desirable reasons.

A video of 22-year-old CSU student Michaella Surat being slammed face-first into the pavement outside of Bondi Beach Bar in the early morning hours by a police officer went viral — far from the first late-night incident at a bar to grab attention.

Planning for the late-night drinking crowd is much more difficult and unpredictable than secured events.

“We work with all of the liquor establishments throughout the year,” Yonce said. “We are training on how to check for fake IDs, preventing overservice and how to report issues.”

A coalition called RAR — Responsible Association of Retailers — works together on the issues. Among group services are secret shoppers making sure IDs are properly checked.

Late-night hangouts Tony's Bar & Rooftop, Trailhead Tavern, Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant, Fuzzy's Taco Shop and CSU's on-campus Ramskeller Pub are among 50 bars and restaurants active in the group. 

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Bondi was previously suspended from the group. The 11 Old Town Square bar and restaurant was reinstated after a peer review determined business practices had changed.

Bondi general manager Nick Gottsacker has overseen a majority of the changes, which include increased security staffing.

"We have a responsibility to serve people responsibly," Gottsacker said. "You always have to be on the top of your game...(RAR) helps you do that and really looks out for the public as well as the business owners."

Thirteen years before the April incident outside Bondi, another viral story changed how CSU and local authorities manage drinking.

Samantha Spady was found dead in a fraternity house after heavily binge drinking in 2004. After the incident, Spady's mother launched a nonprofit advocacy group called the Sam Spady Foundation and CSU established a task force charged with examining the university's programs and policies for dealing with alcohol abuse. 

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New CSU students ages 23 and under are required to complete a two-part online alcohol course before they can register for classes. And there's a stronger attention to spotting fake IDs — the campus reported 213 fake IDs last academic year.

CSU occasionally takes over the Fort Collins Police Services Instagram handle announcing special party patrols on specific streets.

CSU students that commit an alcohol-related offense face a range of disciplinary actions through the university. 

Last year, CSU reported 857 party violations. Also last year, an ordinance punishing hosts of underage drinking house parties was passed at the request of TEAM Wellness & Prevention.

CSU offers a free, non-judgmental shuttle service called RamRide. Coombes said Uber and Lyft arriving in town has also “helped tremendously.”

Safe transportation is a main focus for the late night crowd. Last year, Larimer County had 1,464 DUIs — a total number that has decreased by 30 percent in the past 10 years despite the population growing by about 15 percent in that same span. DUI totals throughout the state have dropped at nearly the same rate in the last decade.

Advocacy group NO DUI Colorado estimates the average DUI in Colorado costs $13,530.

“It is becoming more vogue to find alternative transportation,” Coombes said. “People understand how expensive a DUI is.”

The next challenge for the city's alcohol coalition to tackle will be managing the new CSU football stadium that opens this fall that will allow beer sales and has its own beer porch.

Strict DUI patrols will be out in full force after games, with the coalition also closely monitoring public transportation usage.

“It’s going to be a very different experience than at Hughes Stadium,” Coombes said. “But what remains the same is that the smartest decisions always happen before you go out.”

Follow Jacob Laxen on Twitter and Instagram @jacoblaxen

DUIs in major Colorado counties

County; Number of DUIs; Average blood alcohol content

Larimer: 1,464; 0.156

Boulder: 1,067; 0.157

Weld: 1,057; 0.162

Adams: 2,312; 0.163

Arapahoe: 2,520; 0.164

Denver: 2,612; 0.164

El Paso: 2,220; 0.168

Jefferson: 1,892; 0.174

Fort Collins DUI totals the past 10 years

2007: 2,086

2008: 2,387

2009: 2,173

2010: 2,008

2011: 1,656

2012: 1,623

2013: 1,811

2014: 1,778

2015: 1,539

2016: 1,464

Larimer County youth health survey

Percentages based on polled middle- and high schoolers in 2015.

Students who drank alcohol within past 30 days:

Larimer: 29.1

State: 30.2

National: 32.8

Students who binge drank (5 or more drinks in a row):

Larimer: 16.7

State: 16.6

National: 17.7

Students who drank before age of 13:

Larimer: 15.8

State: 18.2

National: 17.2

Students who have never had alcohol:

Larimer: 57.2

State: 59.2

National: 63.3