Road Dogs

A 5-star tour experience might not be what you'd expect from a former Washington Public Accounting Auditor, but it's exactly what you get. Dustin Boast (left) began visiting breweries in Washington while attending the University of Washington (young male UW student drinking beer, okay, that we expected) and loved all the different craft beers being made.

After graduation, he got a job in his field, but always thought about running his own company. He left the corporate world to get into the travel industry, primarily golf related. As his 30^th birthday approached, he decided he wanted to celebrate with a brewery tour. He talked with his friends but, no surprise here, no one wanted to be the designated driver. "After that epic day, I kept thinking ‘there's got to be a better way.' I decided to go with the idea of brewery tours," says Dustin. He started the company without partners and with one van. For the first year, he did every tour himself. He now has two vans and 4-5 tour guides; he still does tours as well. "I started the company 18 months ago, and it's been a really cool experience. Depending on how you count, Washington has the second/third most breweries in the nation. It's the Wild Wild West of beer. There are over 150 breweries in the state now with more coming."

He rotates 20 breweries in Seattle for the tours, using some more often than others based on customer feedback and what makes sense route-wise. "Each brewery is unique and there's a great story behind all of them. Some are in residential areas, some in warehouse districts. I love the romance of the story. You hear all the time that nothing is made in the U.S. anymore, but going to a brewery and meeting the brew master is old school. They're making something, maybe on their own or with friends or it might be a family business."

Dustin's worked to create relationships with the brewers/breweries and the tours offer exclusive access to them. Guests find out what's involved in making great beer and get to sample some of those great beers. "There's a definite art to making beer and our guests get to know the different styles of craft beer. Our guides are well trained and know far more than you want to know about beer! You'll leave the tour a beer expert, or at least thinking you're a beer expert," laughs Dustin. Tours include transportation and visits to three breweries, craft beer samples, a Rod Dog's T-shirt and a Road Dog'' souvenir pint glass. "Our tours are normally from 2-14 people, but we do a lot of corporate parties and contract with a firm that has larger vehicles. We can take up to 50 people. We did a project celebration party recently for a tech company and do lots of bachelor/bachelorette parties and birthday parties. But it's a really fun thing to do on your own or with a friend."

Road Dogs has gotten a lot of great reviews from people who've gone on tours. They sign up again to do different breweries. Social media sites have had glowing reviews and the company has been written up by Trip Advisor and Yahoo Travel. Forbes actually listed them as #7 on a top ten list of best breweries ("why choose one when you can go to three?"). "I travel a lot and hate cheesy tours. I wanted to do something really great. Our tours are interactive and people aren't herded around. There's an art to creating a top-notch customer experience. I love it when we get feedback that says it was the best tour someone's been on or that it was the best part of the time someone spent in Seattle."

With all the time Dustin spends on Road Dogs, he says he doesn't spend a single hour working. "It's a great thing to love what you do so much. I get to go behind the scenes and see things you wouldn't normally see and hear the stories. Thirty percent of people in Washington drink craft beer; it's 10% nationwide. I don't want to grow too fast; we'll take it a month at a time. There's really no reason not to have more tours. Nine million people visit Washington each year and we want to show them a good time. After all, there's no bad time to drink beer!"

Connie Adams/November 2012