On the Colorado Beer Trail

Who needs Napa? Colorado offers fans of craft brews their own playland of tours and tasting bars

David Bowman for TIME

Breckenridge Brewery and Pub

Touring wineries can make you feel like a jerk. Not just from saying that yes, you do totally taste the gooseberry in that merlot but also because the chemistry of oenology makes you feel stupid, the picking and crushing of grapes makes you feel wimpy, and the giant estates make you feel poor.

Luckily, the growth of the craft-beer industry has spurred the proletariat-friendly beer tour. Sure, there are downsides to brewery-touring: because barley and hops ship well, breweries are traditionally far from pastoral farms and close to ugly, industrial areas, and because artisanal-beer makers tend to be hippies, you're going...

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