Avery Brewing Company hits a home run

We didn't just pick this brewery because we wanted to ride on the coattails of our tenuous Avery family connections (none of which are *actually* connections to the Avery Brewing Company). We'd heard of them before: a craft brewery that has successfully enlarged, enlarged again, and then again, and has been able to keep their same vision of high quality beers and niche marketed seasonal brews.

 Toward the back of a bunch of warehouses in the industrial outskirts of Boulder is the Avery Tap Room. Driving in, it seems as though we have taken a wrong turn somehow, but magically the dead-end business park opens up into outdoor seating for the pub's restaurant which are filled to the brim with 20 and 30 something day-trippers braving the mid-summer heat.
Inside, the tables are high, intimate - there is a wall full of board games to bust out with your beermates, and a friendly, casual atmosphere. Best of all, the bar is backed with an impressive line-up of 20 beers on tap.
I ordered Ellie's, a brown ale - one of their flagship beers - which had a smooth, smoky flavor, a nice mouthfeel and a nutty, roasted aftertaste. This was a really solid brown ale that both Jeff and I enjoyed.
I also had their Joe's Pilsner, a hand-drawn, unfiltered pilsner, naturally carbonated which Avery concocted in order to give its clientele - an apparently (in the old days) un-beer educated crowd - the best example of a Pilsner they could offer. It's another of their most popular, with a great floral nose, firm hop-bitterness up front, but very clean tasting. It had beautiful color and was very refreshing. I tried it with the hummus appetizer: a great pair!
Next, we had their 18th anniversary Rye Saison which did not display a typical saison nose or color. Instead, it has a nice copper tone, a spicy rye flavor to balance out the smooth body, a 5 blend yeast which makes it taste more like an abbey ale than a saison. It finished nicely with a dry completion. Very enjoyable.
Jeff also tasted the Eremita, a sour ale which had been aged in Cab and Zin barrels. With a bubble gum nose and a nice, tangy sour flavor, it hit the spot.
Honestly, every beer we tasted from Avery was solid, enjoyable, a home run. I guess that's what you get from 18 years of dedication to a specific craft, keeping your same vision even as you expand as a business. We were very impressed.
The only thing that was not a home run, in my opinion, was the Avery logo, which brought to mind more of a sports team - even the banal red on the A made me think of baseball instead of these pristine and exquisite beers they were turning out. However, if the only unimaginative thing about this place was the logo, I'm good with that. Their beers certainly left nothing to be desired.
With so many great beer choices, it was hard to leave, but we had to slow down, considering the three little ladies had exhausted all of the table games we brought and were now floating freely in the mini-van -windows down - as disdainful 20 somethings looked their direction (probably wondering what kind of idiot parents were inside).



Well, the idiot parents were having a great time, and 15 minutes later, after we had found an absolutely amazing park in downtown Boulder, complete with rushing river and wading areas, all 5 of us agreed that Boulder and the Avery Brewing Company were a double header worth another visit.