BRU is relatively new as a brewplace in Boulder. For me, it is, anyway. I spend lots of time away from the town of my birth, and new brewing ventures pop up all the time. I went to see this place in August with my mom.
We went for Happy Hour, and it was nice. In fact, a little too nice. The servers all wear long aprons and black, like it’s a fine dining place. The kitchen is open and there are wood-fired pizzas. The food we tried was fine, not fine (get it?). Why can’ta brewpub just be a brewpub and not try to be fancy?
To me, it seems like someone moved to Boulder from elsewhere and opened a place that would be more suited to San Francisco or New York. That said, maybe they are trying something different because of the wide variety of casual beery places in the county and the state. Still, it wasn’t quite right somehow.
The beers were tasty, if a little odd. The Red Rice in the ‘Merica lager doesn’t seem to add much complexity (it’s just a normal American Lager). The Citrum IPA tastes more like an English IPA than one from the USA, which is interesting. It think it has East Kent Goldings hops in there, making it a little earthy. The Rigley Rye is sweet for an IPA, but then rye has never been my grain. My favourite was the award-winning Loch Ale. It tasted like the wort one would make for later distillation of whisky.
Bru’s an OK beer place, but it’s not my style.
Reverse Retrograde 