Boulder brewpub advice needed

Tomorrow I am off to attend the National Organic Symposium in Boulder, CO. I expect it to be a superb time.

As is my custom, when I travel, I like to visit local brewpubs and sample their wares. I'm going to go out a limb here and guess that Boulder might have some brewpubs (yup, a few).

I'm looking for suggestions from my highly experienced readership. Where should I go? I will have about 3-4 chances to get out and experience the local brews. So, I need several suggestions of which brewpubs to visit.

I know what you (at least one of you) are thinking. Drive up to Fort Collins and visit Fat Tire world. That possibility is still on the tentative agenda. The NOS lineup is superb, as usual, and I don't plan on skipping any talks. OK, maybe one or two. But that's it. I just might drive to Fort Collins.

Or, I could drive down to Golden and have them bottle some of my piss.... I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. They have enough piss. They don't need mine.

Please, submit all suggestions. Danke!!!!

A great day in the history of me finding things I lost

I was digging through a pile of old poster board piece I used at an ACS conference back in 2002±1 and look what I found:


My long-lost autographed photo of E.J. Corey.

So far this week, I have found many things I have been missing for a while including my 5/16 and 1/4 inch socket, and a hex wrench. Now, I've found this picture. Awesome.

E.J. and Roald will have to wait

One of my goals of the ACS was to get an autograph from E.J. Corey and Roald Hoffmann. I got neither. I was stricken with guilt when the time of their appearances coincided with a couple of talks I really wanted and needed to go to. I gave in to my guilt and went to the talks.

The registration fee for the ACS convention is a rather steep $385. Throw in a hotel for 4 nights for at least $800, travel at about $200 (from MN) and food etc... The final total can end up close to $2000. Granted, my employer picks up the tab, but for my small school, $2000 is a significant amount of money. I could use that $2000 in a lot of different ways (like research).

The bottom line is that, I couldn't squander the (expensive) opportunity to learn and advance myself as a teacher, just to get a few autographs. The autographs would be really cool, but in the end, they are just ink on paper. I chose knowledge in my head over that.

Boston brewpub review #3

Finally, I get to the last one. The school year starts tomorrow. I will be very busy. Hopefully, posting will not decrease too much, but don't be worried if I am not as active until oh....May :)

The final brewpud I went to was Boston Beer Works. There are three locations in Boston. I went to the Fenway location. It is (depending on the time of day and year) in the shadows of Fenway Park.

I may have chosen the wrong location. Because at the Fenway location, the service SUCKED. Really, it was terrible. I sat at the bar and haven't been this ignored since my senior prom in high school. And it's not like the bartenders were busy. Besides, I was ordering (or trying to) beer. Beer is a very easy drink to make.

In the 2+ hours I was there, I was only able to enjoy 2 beers. Both were fine. One was an oatmeal stout, the other was an IPA (cask conditioned). To be honest, the IPA was very good. Sure wish I could have had another.....

The ONLY redeeming value of Boston Beer Works is that they only sell beer and wine. Not only that, they ONLY sell their own beer. No Miller Lite here. That I think is a very good thing. In smaller cities, brewpubs can't get away with that. They often need to sell Miller Lite to survive.

So, what can I say about Boston Beer Works? Not much. The service sucked. I am usually a very good tipper. For me, the default tip is 20%. I would have given a 0% tip, but that goes against my core principles (though it has happened on occasion). I think I gave a 5% tip. But even at 5% they could have made some money if they would have allowed me to spend more money at their restaurant.

I hope this was an anomaly. All I know is I will never go back.

Boston brewpub review #2

Cambridge Brewing Company (CBC).

CBC is a fine brewing company. They brew beer that is excellent and make food that is very good. If ever in the Boston area, I suggest stopping by.

When I got to the brewpub, I was worried because there was a mass of people around the bar and nary one bar stool open. When I am out on my own I prefer to sit at the bar. It's just a personal preference. I did discover one seat open and grabbed it. I found the large group was apparently there to celebrate the graduation from MIT of an individual in some financial/economics area.

What intrigued me more about the CBC was that beer was served not just in pitchers but in towers! These 3 liter towers of happiness were hard to miss. While I was there the graduation group ordered at least 8 of these towers. I was impressed.


At first, I was really annoyed because the service was AWFULLLL. Seriously, it took almost an hour for me to order one beer and food. I will give the bartender a break since she was the only one behind the bar with a million people in the bar. As the evening unfolded, it became obvious she was not a total jerk, and in fact not a jerk in the least (just over worked).

First the food: I ordered the blackened pub steak. This was awesome. I wish I could have this everyday. It was excellent. I ordered medium rare but it came out medium, but that's the only criticism. The creme brulee I had for desert was tops. From my experience, the food at CBC is unsurpassed.

Now, the beer:
I first ordered one of their special brews. This was called something like "le amour de jour." I wrote the name of the beer in the copy of C&EN I was reading at the time[1], but I cannot find where I wrote it!!!! I must rely on my worthless memory. Anyways, it was Belgium styled beer that did not interest me at all. I didn't like it. I was not a typical brewpub style, but the brewers didn't pretend that it was. In the beer menu they indicated that it was something of an unusual beer. I agree. It was a quality product, but one I didn't really prefer.

I next tried the porter. This was excellent. This was a bit of a departure from the traditional porter. It didn't have the same bite, but I liked it.. a lot. A very good beer. The steak I ate was covered in a sauce made from a porter reduction. Very good.

I also tried the barelywine. I only had a sample of this 13% ABV drink, but it was very yummy.

The seasonal IPA they had was excellent as well. I could drink this all night.

In the end, the CBC proved to be an excellent provider of beer and food. The service was lousy at first, but improved as the demands on the bartender lessened.

If you are ever in Boston (especially the MIT or Harvard area) check this place out.

[1] Remember, I am a nerd and I read Chemical and Engineering News at bars when I am waiting for food.

Boston brewpub review #1

RockBottom Brewery

OK, it is not a home-grown brewpub unique to Boston. But, it was within walking distance of my hotel, I had just flown in, and I had about 2 hours of "airplane" sleep during the last 48 hours. I didn't want to put too much effort into it.

I plopped myself at the bar in front of a widescreen HDTV and watched the Yankees game that was on. If you want a fun time, watch a Yankees game at a bar in Boston. It was even better because Clemens was pitching. Boston fans do not like the Yankees and it shows.

Anyways, I ordered beer. With most brewpubs, the beer is almost always good. Rarely have I had a beer I would call bad. There are types of beer I prefer and some I don't.

The beer at Rock Bottom is pretty dang good.

They had a cask conditioned Irish Stout. Superb. Very delicious and served at the perfect stout temperature. They also had the Irish Stout on tap. Good, but too cold to really enjoy what a stout is all about.
I sampled the cask conditioned IPA also. Delicious. Cascade and centennial hops were evident.
The Munich Gold was a wonderful Saaz hop experience.

The food and service were both great. After 4 beers and in the state I was in, I headed back to my hotel room and was asleep by 9PM. No big night on the town for me.

What's wrong with the following?

I saw this on a poster in the Organic division. I'm not going to tell you what number or who it was by to protect the guilty.

What is wrong with this:

Any student in the first two weeks of sophomore level organic should be able to ID what is wrong. And this was on a poster displayed at the ACS convention!!!! The structure was simple too. It's not like she was trying to draw a very complex structure. Only when a complicated 3D structure is being drawn can things like this occur.

Little things like this annoy me. There's no excuse for putting this on your poster, even if you are cute. Sorry.

More ACS review

This is going to be short.

Today I went to a number of talks. I went to the Cope award lectures today and heard the fastest talk ever. Andre Charette said more English words in 40 minutes than I even know. I've never heard someone talk so fast during a lecture. I'm familiar enough with his work to know what he was talking about (mostly), but wow, did he cover a lot in a little amount of time.

I also caught the lectures by MacMillan, MacGillivray and Frechet. All were good, but the nature of these talks is that they essentially review many things they (i.e. their grad students) have done. It is hard to get any detail out of them. The really good stuff is to be found in the 20 minute sessions in the smaller rooms. I'm visiting those tomorrow.

Tonight I met up with Paul (Chembark) and one of his frequent commenters, Eugene. We had a few drinks and shared a few laughs and talked shop. It was nice to have met them.

I have yet to post my brewpub review. Time is surprisingly limited. I have been to three of them in Boston (Rockbottom [actually a macro-brewpub], Cambridge Brewing Company, and Boston Beer Works). I will try to get something out ASAP. Now it is time to sleep.