West Flanders is in this bold new group of breweries that’s making a specialty out of a particular style. While the recent addition to Boulder’s beer scene does produce an IPA, a stout, a pale ale and a few other standards, it’s all about the Belgians here. When we stop by for a Monday lunch, there are four Belgian styles on tap, along with actual Belgians from actual Belgium in bottles and on a guest tap.]]> New Belgium has ridden its Fat Tire to distribution in 29 states, and you can grab a Dale’s Pale Ale in 30 states. In short, the formula for growth is: Get a flagship beer and ride it across the country.]]> Much is made of Boulder County, and particularly the city, being different from the rest of the country. I can’t speak to that as a whole, but I can say it’s pretty different from my hometown in Northeast Ohio. And nowhere was that more apparent than Shine Restaurant & Gathering Place.]]> It’s easy enough to name the most obvious trends in Boulder County brewing. Three breweries are planning to open this summer in Lafayette; Boulder loves beer that’s heavy on the hops; barrel-aging is big.]]> Ten minutes into our visit to BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse, our tour of Boulder County breweries becomes a roller coaster.]]> Clark, one of Boulder’s biggest beer nerds, needs a bigger, more beer-centric stage for a nanobrewery that should be ranked among the state’s best.]]> We didn’t have much hope for food in Gravity Brewing’s Louisville warehouse. They’ve got a billionfoot-long bar and pool and pingpong tables, but there’s no sign of dining until we smell someone else’s fries.]]> But when Baile came by, we couldn’t help but ask whether the Cucumber Cream Ale was ready. Soon it was sitting in front of us, and I was, as I said, filled with fear, dread and doubt. And you thought writing about beer trips was all fun and games.]]> A strong ale will solve it. That was the mantra as I more or less fled the Boulder Weekly office for Asher Brewing Company in Gunbarrel the afternoon of Jan. 3.]]> We have a tendency here to be fascinated with the new. Uh, we’re journalists. This whole beer tour was inspired by the explosion of new breweries in the county in the last few years. But celebrating Boulder’s beer is just as much about the long-standing as the new, and we’re certainly not ignorant of history.]]> At some point, I think we all lost the ability to identify beer flavors.]]> I am sorry for not liking Oskar Blues. I am sorry to you, the reader, and to the beer itself.]]> There’s a lot of sharing on our beer tour. When I describe six of a brewery’s beers in this column, I didn’t order six beers. I just brought five people. We pass everything around, and even trade or give away beers we don’t care for.]]> The beer tour launched its Longmont leg last week, heading up the Diagonal to longtime standout Left Hand. For the next two weeks East County is our home, as we hit Oskar Blues this week and the Pumphouse the next.]]> Savor, dear readers, the rare industry that doesn’t require constant branding and marketing. There are tons of opportunity for branding in the craft beer industry, of course, but there isn’t a pathological need for it like with cars or cookies or coffee or most everything you can think of.]]> Weeks before we even conceived of a tour of Boulder County’s breweries, I made an uncomfortable discovery: When the Boulder Weekly staff goes out to eat — which is pretty often as we’re all wealthy and have tons of time — we’re the loud table.]]> In Northeast Ohio, where I’m from, Great Lakes Brewing Company is pretty much the beginning and the end of the craft beer conversation.]]> Boulder breweries have a gender problem. From the brewers to the bartenders to the beer drinkers themselves, craft breweries are dominated by males. My estimate on the crowd at Niwot’s Bootstrap Brewing on Jan. 24 was 90 percent male.]]> Yo, America: Stop making beer worse.]]>