Tour bus’ next stop: More beer

At NoCo Short Bus Tours, the tours aren’t short. The bus is.

It’s just a 14-passenger converted airport shuttle, and that’s the way owner Mechelle Martz-Mayfield of Loveland and her customers like it.

“It’s a little more intimate,” she said. “People get to face each other and talk instead of just facing the front like a regular bus.”

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Besides, the points of interest where the tour bus stops – tasting rooms at the burgeoning array of Northern Colorado craft breweries – don’t tend to be very big.

“We stop at three breweries on the three-and-a-half to four-hour tour,” Martz-Mayfield said, “and the $65 price is all inclusive. They get to sample a flight of about four beers at each location. The nice thing is, you don’t have to drink all of it. You may not enjoy every one, but you can find your favorites – and it’s a great way to promote our breweries. We have 50 craft breweries in a 30-mile radius of Loveland.”

Through her public-relations experience, Martz-Mayfield got to know the Loveland business community – especially the folks at Grimm Brothers Brewery, who encouraged her to run with her idea of providing a “designated driver” for visitors and locals alike to experience the local craft beer and distillery scene, which has become a tourist attraction all its own. Since October 2013 she’s been the whole company – driver, tour guide, event arranger, bookkeeper and negotiator with the breweries for discounts.

Her public tours run on Saturdays and Sundays – with Thursdays and Fridays added for spring and summer – and hit a rotating list of tasting rooms in Loveland, Windsor and Berthoud. Her private tours can go anywhere from Fort Collins to Greeley, Longmont and Boulder. A special “My Big Date” on Valentine’s Day weekend featured a coffee tasting at LoCo Artisan Coffee Co., a brunch-and-brew at Loveland Ale Works, and a cupcake-and-beer pairing at Crow Hop Brewing.

Tours leave at 1 p.m. from the Centerra area, she said, “where there’s lots of restaurants so people can eat first and don’t end up trying all those beers on an empty stomach.”