Beer snobbery in Boulder: Top-5 beer-friendly restaurants

Are you a beer snob? You should be.

1. Backcountry Pizza & Tap House

50 beers on tap! 25 are static, and Backcountry frequently serves Russian River Blind Pig IPA, which is reason enough to go there nearly every day. The other 25 are rotating taps, and this is one of the few Colorado eateries that carries Pliny the Elder and, extremely rarely, Pliny the Younger. Top it off with $2 pizza slices, and this is win-win all over the place.

2. Rueben’s Burger Bistro

This place has so many Belgian beers, it created a separate Belgian beer menu just for you. Rueben’s also has the best burger in Boulder, in my opinion. Order the Abt 12 on draft at happy hour for $5 – definitely a steal.

3. West End Tavern

West End used to have one of the best rooftop views in Boulder, then some jokers erected a building just west of it and bogarted half their view. The good news is, West End now shows a variety of movies on the monstrosity of a wall constructed just to its west. Anyway, the important thing is: they have great pub food, two levels of restaurant & bar, and a staff that knows their way around hops, malt, yeast, and other buzzy beer terms. I recommend ordering anything spirit-barrel aged and starting your meal with sweet-potato chips and house-made guacamole. Yum.

4. The Med

I’ll just say that I’ve always loved The Med. Even before I moved to Colorado, I wanted to be a local at The Med. Best tapas around, consistently great food, awesome happy hour specials, $5 pizza… what more could you want? Well, apparently, I could want to buy bombers at around a dollar or two above retail store cost. I’m not sure how they do it, but The Med sells (gasp) reasonably priced bombers of very good beer: Dogfish Head, Russian River, Bear Republic, Lost Abbey, Firestone-Walker… I’m impressed. Get there early!

5. Avery Brewing Co.

Here’s all you need to know: Avery has 4-oz tasters for $2-ish each. Yeah. Sign us up. They also serve pizza, sandwiches, etc. from a gourmet catering shop across the parking lot. Get a designated driver!

Bonus round:

Lucky Pie Pizza and Tap House

For those of you Denver types who aren’t interested in driving all the way to Boulder — just go to Louisville (Colorado – not Kentucky). Lucky Pie has a couple dozen microbrews on tap, phenomenal pizza, and a little appetizer known as Joe’s Nuts that’s fun to order, particularly if you used to watch Beavis and Butthead.