Fossil Cove Brewing Co. | Fayetteville, AR
Beer Trip: Fossil Cove Brewing Company in Fayetteville, Arkansas
Chris here! I often travel to/from Arkansas for work. With only a limited amount of time passing through the Fayetteville area, Fossil Cove Brewing was conveniently located just a couple of minutes off of I-49 and was an easy stop for me.
Fun bar area with a great view of the equipment!
The Brewery
Exterior of Fossil Cove
The location of Fossil Cove is in an industrial area that you can nearly miss if you aren’t paying attention; however, the area is slow and quiet if you need to turn around or reorient. Walking in the front door you are immediately greeted with their dinosaur themed artwork and logo. The bar is definitely the focal point of the brewery and encompasses fun, bone-shaped tap handles. While the majority of the seating is located indoors, they did have a good-sized tent up in the driveway that likely provides additional seating for the spring and summer.
The Beer
Having visited once before, it was nice during the revisit to see that they continually rotate their beer menu. Fossil Cove maintains their flagships such as the IPA #3, Birch Ave. Blonde, and La Brea Brown, but had a total of 14 beers on tap. The different draft styles offered made it difficult to choose what I wanted to try since so many fell into categories I enjoy - cream ales, browns, and ambers (yum)!
On this recent visit, the beer flavor was hit or miss for my liking. With that said, everything was definitely drinkable and they do a stellar job at packing their options with the perfect amount of flavor. One example is their Blackberry Cream - while it didn’t provide me the true lactose creaminess I like, the blackberry notes were spot on. Perhaps my favorite drink they have on tap is the La Brea Brown, which is a sweet brown ale with a perfect, roasty finish.
Tons of options to choose from!
Food & Merch
Perhaps the best “extra” that is offered at Fossil Cove is that they are also a coffee shop with an extensive menu. The presence of coffee onsite really seemed to enhance their coffee-flavored brews, too! In addition to coffee, they also have wood-fired pizza available that looked delicious.
Fun, bright merchandise area
As far as merchandise goes, they had many choices of hats, shirts, glassware, coffee mugs, and even frisbees. Fossil Cove cans and distributes most of their flagship beers, so they had plenty of to-go beer available (including make-your-own 6-packs).
Fayetteville has a multitude of breweries to visit, but if you’re seeking solid beer with a fun atmosphere then Fossil Cove should be one of your stops. Having visited multiple times, it’s clearly been a worthwhile one for me.
Cheers!
