Tri-City Brewing: Beer, more beer, popcorn (usually), crayons (!), well-behaved dogs and canning on the fly

Tri-City Brewing: Beer made here

The hairy guy's report:

Fashioning himself a reverse beer snob in minor protest of all the strange beers flooding the market, the hairy guy often asks for Bud Light.

But he's been rethinking that since reading a book he found at the library downtown. It's the story of Big Beer (Anheuser-Busch and Miller, themselves part of even bigger corporations which have since merged) vs. craft brewers, of mass-produced cheap beers vs. pricier brews that are described like fine wines. The big players eventually bought up some craft brewers -- forcing beer aficionados to declare loyalty either to still-independent brewers or to the beer itself, regardless of ownership.

And during a week when a Supreme Court nominee's longtime love of cold beer played an undisputed role in an otherwise heated and disputed Senate hearing, we sensed a visit was in order to Tri-City Brewing Co., the local craft brewer.

Tri-City Brewing: One of the cleanest places in town

Behind the bar at Tri-City Brewing

Doc’s report:

The two words that come up time after time in descriptions of beer and breweries are “clean” and “water.”

Tap the Rockies, From the Land of Sky Blue Waters, Brewed with Pure Rocky Mountain Spring Water, and so forth. There’s a movement toward listing the ingredients in so-called “clean beers,” meaning they're free of additives.

They say there are two things people should never see made: laws and sausages. But you should see beer made. You’ll be impressed with the craft and the commitment to cleanliness.