By Steve Graham

Beer and bourbon are a classic combination, but not because it offers a quick buzz. The flavors in liquor and beer can complement and even enhance each other when paired properly. Fort Collins is known as the Napa Valley of beer, but it also has great distilleries. Why not try both?

We asked three Fort Collins distillers for their favorite beer and liquor pairings. We’ve thrown in a bonus pairing from a Loveland distillery and Denver brewery to round out the taste palate. We recommend slowly savoring the drinks side by side and alternating sips of each full-flavored craft beverage.

Feisty Spirits Rye Whiskey with Horse & Dragon Sad Panda

Sad Panda coffee stout, from Fort Collins’ Horse and Dragon, is a favorite for pairing with a wide variety of spirits from coffee liqueurs to the Feisty Spirits rye whiskey.

“The spice of the rye with its caramel notes blends well with the sweetness of Sad Panda and its coffee and chocolate notes,” said Joan Eurich, part owner of Feisty, the first craft distillery in Fort Collins.

Eurich said the rye whiskey nicely pairs with many sweet, heavy stouts or porters. Feisty also makes a cinnamon oat whiskey that pairs well with other dark beers.

“The maple and cinnamon add sweetness to drier stouts and porters to balance out the chocolate malts and tone down any roast bitterness,” she said.

Elevation 5003 Gin with New Belgium Snapshot

Perhaps a typical dry gin pairs best with tonic water, but Elevation 5003 makes an international style gin that is “lighter and citrusy-er” than its London-style cousins, according to owner and head distiller Loren Matthews.

“I have a feeling it would go well with a wheat, like one of the more citrus-style beers,” Matthews said. Snapshot, a lemony tart wheat from New Belgium, came immediately to mind.

Elevation 5003 opened last year in Fort Collins and makes corn whiskey, vodka, gin and coffee liqueur. If you want to take their beer-and-liquor pairings to the next level, the Moot House restaurant in Fort Collins makes the Colorado Gold Rush cocktail, blending Elevation 5003 corn whiskey with Odell 90 Shilling amber ale, sour mix and maple syrup.

Coppermuse Honey Dill Vodka with High Hops’ The Honeyed One

Kristie Dehn, tasting room manager at Coppermuse Distillery in Fort Collins, likes to infuse her vodkas with flowers, cucumbers and even bacon. One of her favorites incorporates fresh dill and local honey, and would pair well with The Honeyed One, a red ale from High Hops in neighboring Windsor.

“It is a subtle, savory flavor that would nicely accompany this American Red,” Dehn said. “The honey and the honey malts in these two gives the pallet a sense of connection. The dill in the vodka is a nice rounded flavor for the bitterness of the hops to play off.”

She also suggests pairing her lavender-infused vodka with the Raspberry Provincial, a Belgian-style fruit ale from Funkwerks in Fort Collins.

“The floral aspect is paired best with tart and lemon aspects to help balance the floral flavors,” she said. “The sweetness of the raspberries make the Raspberry Provincial a perfect pair for the mental imagery of a crisp summer day full of flowers and fruits.”

Bonus pairing

Dancing Pines gin and Titan IPA

Cameron Rogers, regional manager at Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, serves more than 90 whiskeys and 30 beers at his bar just north of Union Station, so he knows a little about both beer and liquor. He can offer no shortage of whiskey and beer pairings, but one of his favorite combinations is the classic Titan IPA from Denver’s Great Divide and an award-winning gin from Dancing Pines distillery in Loveland.

“The botanicals found in this as well as other gins play nicely with the hop varieties found in an IPA, since they both bring a floral quality to the aroma and palate,” Rogers said. “Plus, it is a nice change of pace to be able to pair something besides whiskey or Scotch with a beer.”