As organizer of the annual Beer Bloggers Conference and the European Beer Bloggers Conference, I am lucky enough to make friends with beer-loving folks from all over the world. Last week I met up with a third European beer blogger who was visiting Boulder and took him to my go-to location when I need to entertain guests: Avery Brewing.
Don’t get me wrong, I visit a lot of Boulder’s breweries including Upslope, Boulder Beer Company, Oskar Blues, and those near me in central Boulder: Walnut Brewery, Mountain Sun, West Flanders, etc. But for a true-beer loving visitor to Boulder, I find Avery Brewing to be the best.
The actual ambiance of the current tap room just off Arapahoe at 57th is friendly and inviting. During nice weather, they have an outdoor seating area. The tap room is almost always full but rarely too packed to find a seat. But the real reasons to entertain visitors at Avery are the beer and the service.
The Beer
I love the beer at Avery for three reasons: variety, flavor, and balance.
- Variety: Avery has a huge menu of 20 beers in the tap room. And just to be clear, we are talking about tap beers, not bottled. Many of these beers are only available in the tap room. The beers are listed more or less by alcohol content, which is fantastic since most people at the Tap Room arrive by car and need to pay attention to their consumption. Anyone and everyone can find a beer they like.
- Flavor: The amazing thing about Avery’s beers is that almost all of them are flavorful. And the range of flavors varies dramatically, from the tea-infused Chai Brown Ale to the Hog Heaven Dry-Hopped Barleywine Style Ale to the Out of Bounds Stout.
- Balance: However, what I think makes Avery’s beers different from most other breweries is they have balance. All too often in recent years breweries fall in love with hops and their entire line of beers comes out somewhat bitter. At Avery, it seems every beer is well-balanced, with plenty of flavor but not too much bite.
The Service
The way to entertain at Avery is to sit down, tell the server you would like a variety of tastings, and let the server choose them for you. I did that last week with my friend from the UK, we each ordered four tasting glasses, and the server brought us eight of his favorite beers. He then laid them out in the order we should taste, described each one, and even wrote them down on a piece of paper so we could go back and refer to the beers as we were trying them.
Avery truly puts the beers and service together and makes for a fantastic place to entertain your beer-loving friends or family visiting Boulder.
