And lovers of culinary delights, and outdoor enthusiasts!  Kim and I welcome you to the Brewpub Tour Card in 2011.  Our intent is not to duplicate the informative websites of each brewpub and microbrewery, but to enhance and add our own insights to the U. S.  brewpub culture as we invite you to tour with us from waterhole to waterhole.  Owners of a  Brewpub Tour Card can travel throughout the states, saving money on beer, food, lodging, activities and transportation.  Drink a soon to be new favorite ale and pair a beer with a new place.  “Now’s the time, and now’s the hour, go forth on a brewpub tour and beer shall be free.” (sometimes) 

   

    When was the last time you did something for the first time?  Ever taken a road trip to Southwestern Colorado?  Talk about waterholes for good beer.  Or connect the dots in the rest of the Colorado and the West?  Recreation, scenery, life experiences.  Why not?  I used to say to myself -‘one of these days I am going to stop there and do this,’ but I realized that the expression ‘one of these days’ means NEVER until you plan it.  That same day I ran the Double Arch trail in the Kolob Canyon of Zion National Park.  Wow!  And to match that experience I paired it with a Polygamy Porter from the Wasatch Brewing Co.  Perfect.

    How about being in Chicago and finding your way to the new Haymarket Pub and Brewery?  Or Eugene Oregon at the Flying Duck and having a Sasquatch Strong? Perhaps, one of the best beverages I have ever tasted.  Or, find yourself in Waterbury VT at The Alchemist, or right in the center of the US at the Lb Brewery and Gella’s Diner in Hays Kansas.  Start your Brewpub Tour now!

WEBSITE HIGHLIGHTS - This website is about good beer, good food, experiential living and finding these things in exciting new places  Essentially, a brewpub tour starts by exploring your passions.   Look for Benefit updates each week as we add participating businesses into the program network across the US.

BREWPUB PROFILES - We will feature stories about brewpubs which Kim and I have visited as well as stories from our writers/brewpub members from around the country.   Become one!  

ON TOUR -  Suggested Brewpub Tours for Day, Weekend, Week, and longer for locations and seasons around the country.  Send your suggestions to dave@brewpubtourcard.com.

TRAILS, ALES, ADVENTUROUS TALES - My friend Jim declares “We need to do our own trail runs, we have enough T-shirts.”  That said, we began our annual autumn runs with the following parameters - 12 - 25 miles, nothing short of an intense grind and there needed to be a brewpub nearby to quench our thirst, satisfy our hunger and rest our aching quads.  Adventures!  Lightning, driving rain, snowstorms, rattlesnakes, mud, sunstroke, sunsets, forest fires, bears, elk, *blowdown zones, alpine lakes...

BREWPUB TOUR CARD -This will be your ID for savings where brewpubs are found.  We have arranged discounts with the brewpubs to encourage you to seek out and walk into their friendly confines.  Win win.  In some cases - Free beer! - plus an ongoing discount such as happy hour prices all the time in case you cannot crawl out of a canyon or get off the golf course early enough in the day.  Nearby will be a motel or lodge who are offering lower priced rooms for Card holders to help stretch your vacation dollars and keep you on tour longer.  Activity discounts will include bike shops, jeep rental/tour companies, golf courses and river rafting companies to name a few.  Transportation options will also be listed if the motel is over a half mile from the  brewpub.   Look for added benefits and bonus benefits to pop up on the updates in the “Brewpub Weekly.”

   

    MEMBER BENEFITS will be listed on the STATE AND CITY INDEX pages along with the other participating businesses.  Some offers will be a one time benefit while others will be repeat offers.  Abusers of the one time offers will be excommunicated from the BREWPUB TOUR CARD program and be asked to drink really nasty warm 30 packs for 45 days. 

    Look for ordering information on the WHERE/HOW TO BUY page - presently in the works.  People who purchase their card in 2011 will receive the bonus months through the end of the Mayan Calendar on 12/21/12.  If the world continues after that and good beer can still be found, the BREWPUB TOUR CARD will be an annual renewal.

    BEER AND MUSIC  - Craft beer is our soul in liquid form. Okay maybe not,  but how about - craft beer is beautiful music in liquid form.  Being a rock and roller from way back I love the best of the obscure guitar driven rock, the melodies, lyrics, and vocals that create an ecstasy of balance within.  Why not pair the best of rock with the best of beers?   Look for hyperlinks and suggestions paired with really good beer.      To stimulate the senses for instance, try pouring a dark beer and listening to Captain Beyond’s - As the Moon Speaks to the Sea.  Find the version with all the artwork from album covers and it will take the sixth sense to incorporate the five we have when the first sip is encountered.  Try a well balanced pale ale to Ambrosia’s Nice, Nice, Very Nice (wendeljones100 version) on youtube and celebrate our planet of life.  These two, and hundreds more, await your sipping and listening pleasure.  Thank god for youtube.com as it has rescued us from today’s music the same as craft beer has rescued us from, well, I won’t mention any names.

BEER AND ACTIVITIES - What craft beer goes with what?  Fly fishing?  Running?  Mountain biking?  Four Wheeling?  Hiking? Bowhunting? Skiing?  Golfing?  Questions that need to be answered.

GROWLER GATHERINGS - Starting in the fall of 2011, camping trips to locations where ice chests full of growlers will be consumed are in the planning phases.  Good stories, good people and sustainable beer drinking under the autumn night skies...

 

Kim and Dave having a Red and an IPA at the Aspen Brewery discussing the Brewpub Tour Card benefits.

Tour Card art from Stu Langrehr - beer styles matching mother nature’s colors on the Dallas Divide on Hwy 62 outside of Ridgway Colorado.

Haymarket Pub and Brewery.  Chicago’s newest.  Peter Crowley brewmeister.

   Artwork from my beer can collection - Crystal Colorado, Ski Country Premium, and Colorado Gold Label - 3 of over 800 in my collection from the 1930s to the 1970s. Art like beautiful album covers.

The contents?  Questionable...

Greetings Craft Beer drinkers!!