A TRIP TO THE WALNUT BREWERY

So we went out to Denver for the Thanksgiving holidays, ostensibly to see my brother-in-law and to introduce my son to his first snow, but the ulterior motive, harbored deep within my cranium, was to enjoy some of Colorado’s finest beers. When I took my eye-opening “beer class” a couple years ago, the beer professor opined that Colorado, not California nor Michigan nor Oregon, was the place to be in the USA if you want to drink the finest beer. “Whatever”. We headed up to Boulder last Wednesday, the day that three inches of snow dumped on the region and temperatures dropped into the 20s. Our search for a compatible restaurant (my wife’s perplexing near-vegetarianism, my son’s rabid desire for french fries, my ravenous desire for great beer) led the family to WALNUT BREWERY in Boulder. I was unfamiliar with the brewery and its concoctions. I am no longer.

Actually, you’ll probably be disappointed in me, but I only had one lone pint on this bone-chilling day. First, the restaurant. A wide-open, massively high-ceilinged space, with exposed brew tanks and piping – very clean and somewhere between sports bar and high-end. I could see whiling away the better part of an afternoon here, the colder outside the better. Food was salty and satisfying. I ordered an appropriate-for-the-weather DEVIL’S THUMB STOUT, which I ended up being pretty goddamn happy about. A cask ale served “on a nitrogen tap” that was smooth, fresh and ultra-creamy, and surprisingly acidic at times. Obviously it was thin-bodied, and gave me a nice taste of Olde England. I wish I could have stayed longer. We then walked by a “hippie brewery” on Pearl Street – you know, rainbow lettering, obvious tilt toward the organic and the healthy – I subsequently learned that it’s called MOUNTAIN SUN PUB & BREWING. Next trip we’re hitting ‘em both. Oh, and DEVIL’S THUMB STOUT earned a nice 7/10. Give it a go your next time in Boulder.