Colorado beer in Time magazine

Thanks to my sister (little hopster?) for the tip-off:

The latest Time online edition has an article from Joel Stein on brewery touring in and around Denver, CO.  It’s one more sign that brew love is spreading. 

Sure, there were sentences that tore at the heart of a beer enthusiast:

The best place for brewery-touring is Denver, partly because of its water, partly because it’s the home of Coors and partly because skier, mountain-biker and hiker dudes love them some beer.

Sorry, Joel, I’m interested in the home of Coors on insofar as it might have encouraged craft breweries to spring up in the same neighborhood.  With so many fun, quirky craft breweries, why go out of your way to tour a corporate monstrosity?  I haven’t done my research here, but even as far as macro brewers go, I doubt Coors has the Sky Bar of Guinness or the hokey Disneyland-ish rides of Heineken (I particularly like the old school Star Tours-like “what it’s like to be a Heineken bottle” ‘ride’, which involved watching a movie while seated on a platform that shook and tipped to simulate going down a conveyor belt.  It distracted from the absence of good beer).

San Diego may have a more innovative beer scene–guys experimenting with huge alcohol and huge bitterness–but it has only 28 breweries, and the intensity of the beer will freak out anyone who grew up on Bud.

Since when is the phrase “28 breweries” in one city ever preceded by only?  I mean, how many breweries can you visit in a weekend?  We’re not talking about picking up and moving there, we’re talking about sampling beer.  I can tell you, I just about reached my limit touring 11 breweries in 4 days, at a maximum of 4 breweries per day and up to 10 or even 20 brews per brewery. 

And isn’t freaking out the Bud drinkers the point?  As in, “whoa, this is really freaking good!!!” I think Joel might not give his readers enough credit.  My favorite story of converting macro drinkers is a pair of my friends, a couple, who love Coors Light.  We had a beer tasting at my house and I expected to maybe be able to win them over with some more traditional lagers, or a hefeweizen.  Nope, they didn’t like or dislike those too much, but they loved the barleywines!  And all kinds of Belgians! I learned my lesson that day: (A) that I had been pretty patronizing, and (B) that macro drinkers don’t necessarily prefer that taste to all the other tastes out there, sometimes it’s just that you don’t know what’s out there until you try it!

Still, the article has its high points, including a visit to Avery Brewing and the final line:

I don’t know if there are any studies on this, but I think this beer-drinking thing may be addictive.