Niwot | Best Boulder restaurants + breweries

Note to self: Jettison corporate job. Open Brewery. Smile.

December 17, 2012 Leave a comment

Add Niwot to Colorado’s expanding Napa Valley of Beer contingent… Bootstrap Brewing, Niwot’s Neighborhood Brewery, is up, running, and awesome.

In October, I shattered the Phenomenal Luck Piñata by landing an invite to the Taste of Niwot – a paired beer and food tasting at Bootstrap Brewing’s tap room. The food was great, the beer was excellent, and founders Leslie and Steve Kaczeus are awesome. Their actual titles are Chief of Stuff and Yeast Whisperer, respectively. Leslie and Steve founded Bootstrap following the discovery that their corporate careers weren’t producing quite enough craft beer, so kudos to them for taking the plunge and chasing the dream.

So… as evidenced here, here, and here – I love beer.

Are you a beer snob? You should be.

I didn’t always love beer, but a few fruitless years on match.com set me straight.

I was introduced to Bootstrap several weeks prior to the Taste of Niwot at the Fall Beer Rave hosted by Boulder Beer Company. Of the 40-ish tap-room-only beers on offer at the Rave, I scored just two brews with a lofty rating of 9/10, and one of those was the Merlot-Aged Boomer Brown Ale from Bootstrap. I can’t adequately do this beer anything approaching justice whilst limiting myself to the confines of prose, so I’ll stop at: It was heavenly fantastic. And as far as I know, it appears to be a seasonal brew, so… maybe start looking for it next summer? I’ll report back on availability following my next visit to Bootstrap, which will be soon.

But back to me getting lucky: As you’ll see below, the Merlot-aged ale was one of the seven Bootstrap beers chefs from local Niwot eateries paired with small plates for tasting that night. They weren’t full courses or beer pours, by the way… if so, they would’ve had to roll us out. Anyway… I feel lucky to have experienced the Merlot-Aged Boomer Brown Ale twice this year, and I’ll be lobbying the folks at Bootstrap’s tap room to see this one again next year, because they have a winner on their hands. More accurately: they have several winners on their hands. The Insane Rush IPA is as good as, or better than, any Colorado craft IPA. Around town, I’ve ordered Bootstrap’s Insane Rush IPA at Backcountry and the Kitchen Next Door. And thanks to this Brewers Association article, I’m going to pair it with some yuppie mac ‘n’ cheese as soon as possible. And to round out the trifecta, Bootstrap’s Mo-Mentus Fresh Hopped Imperial Amber restored my faith in the double amber ale. It’s a sipper, and its best friend is whatever you’re eating for dessert.

I’m looking forward to seeing more Bootstrap beers on tap around town, and I’m virtually high-fiving Leslie and Steve right now. Thanks for sharing your talents via carbonated awesomeness. Cheers!

Bootstrap Brewing’s 1956 Golden Ale paired with French Vietnamese chicken wings from Trepedda’s Italian Ristorante… plus ample glasses of water as we prepared ourselves for the beer tsunami to come.

Bootstrap Brewing’s Oktoberfestbier paired with roasted pumpkin spaetzle from Niwot Market

Bootstrap Brewing’s Merlot-Aged Boomer Brown Ale paired with port-poached pear on toasted ciabatta with prosciutto and blackberry-balsamic reduction from Niwot Tavern… I really hope they brew this beer again.