Headed to Boulder for the Avery Brewing 21st Anniversary and Invitational festival.
8am, Tea with Tajikistan
Named as an international sister city in the late 1980s, Dushanbe, Tajikistan, presented Boulder with a stunning hand-crafted teahouse. It was constructed—without power tools—by local artisans, shipped overseas and reassembled in Boulder close to the downtown area.
Its menu is as elegant as the building, featuring a central Asian-themed breakfast/brunch and a classic afternoon tea service.
10am, On the front range
With absolutely idyllic weather, the nearest Rocky is a local historic recreational area called Chautauqua Park. The park is the gateway to an uplifted geologic formation with manicured hiking trails named The Flatirons, providing stunning scenery better suited to a fantasy novel.
Noon, Lunch on Pearl Street
The main attraction of downtown Boulder is the Pearl Street Mall, roughly ten blocks of a manicured pedestrian-only area of boutique shops, restaurants, bars, brewpubs and public art.
Centered around the Boulder city hall (itself an art piece), the area makes for great browsing and people-watching. Lunch was at The Post Brewing Company, a classic American brewpub with a focus on southern fried chicken (hot and otherwise).
3pm, Exploring area breweries
Tucked away in a modern business park in the northern part of Boulder is Asher Brewing, Colorado’s first certified USDA organic brewery. They feature a lineup of very good organic ales, including a great coffee-infused kölsch.
Making my way back towards the city center, I stumbled across Kettle & Spoke Brewing in a rough industrial park while searching for another brewery (and waiting out a flash rainstorm). Along with bicycle sales and repair, this tiny brewery makes several solid basic styles that are “gluten-reduced” via enzyme with no affect on flavor.
7pm, Dinner at a Bohemian bierhall
I circled back to the Pearl Street Mall for dinner at Bohemian Biergarten (right next to The Post Brewing Company), styled as an Old World bierhall. With liter steins of mostly classic German taps and a mixed European menu, I enjoyed my first semi-authentic spicy currywurst.
Not far away was West Flanders Brewing, a Belgium-themed brewpub with a decent lineup of genuinely representative beer styles plus a few with modern American influences. I ended the night at the odd Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery, a bright diner-style place with good beers and organized as an employee-owned co-op (cash only).
8am, Tea touring at the factory
Found a great breakfast place downtown just a few blocks from Pearl Street at a café named Foolish Craig’s, featuring some original, unique crepes and other standards.
Boulder is also the headquarters of Celestial Seasonings, which includes their manufacturing and shipping and a tea tasting room with a free tour and gift shop. Stacked warehouse-high with spices, the highlight of the facility was the throat-burning peppermint room, but with no interior photos permitted (citing “tea spies”).
Noon, Avery Brewing Invitational
The afternoon quickly became a blur of activity with local friends at the Avery Brewing 21st Anniversary and Invitational, their merged effort of brewery anniversary and annual semi-pro brewing competition. The entire brewery was open including two taprooms, a full kitchen and gift shop, self-directed tours, industry seminars and four large outdoor beer tents with rare and limited beers. With a listing that included 251 beers for sampling, this marked not only the largest brewery I’ve ever visited but also the largest craft beer event I’ve attended.
I held my own afterparty at Finkel & Garf Brewing, a much smaller place located just a few blocks north. Solid beers, and a great whimsical logo and imagery (including a pixelated can wall) from an owner that used to operate a toy catalog.
7pm, Dinner at a local fave
My last stop in Boulder was only blocks from my hotel at Backcountry Pizza & Tap House. This local stop is well-worn over the decades with amazing food and 68 select craft beer taps that rotate often, attracting brewery crowds and tourists alike. This would easily be my regular haunt if I lived nearby. C48
City Forty-Eight 