KC Beer Blog

New Belgium Clips Week

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:03:00 +0000

American Craft Beer Week may be over, but we've got another week of events coming up shortly that celebrates not only beer, but also film and bike riding. New Belgium is bringing their Clips Beer and Film Festival to Kansas City again, with a number of cool events leading up to the big show on Thursday, June 6th. Check out what's on the agenda:

Monday June 3

Beer Kitchen - 6:30pm - Lips of Faith Beer Dinner

This isn't your average beer dinner; TEN Lips of Faith beers will be featured during this event, paired with ten cheese, dinner and dessert courses. Beer lineup includes Paardebloem, Lost Abbey Brett, Prickly Pear Saison, Cascara Quad, Biere De Mars, Pluot, Peach Porch Lounger, Imperial Coffee Chocolate Stout, Heavenly Feijoa Tripel and Biere De Garde. $65 per person, flyer with food pairing details is at the bottom of this post.

Tuesday June 4

Bier Station - 4pm - Tap Takeover and Slow Bike Ride

Bike ride begins at 4. Tap takeover will include Shift, Pluot, Paardeblum, Biere De Mars, Imperial Chocalate Coffee Stout, Peach Porch Lounger and Heavenly Feijoa Tripel.

A 2013 New Belgium bike will be raffled with all proceeds benefiting BikeWalkKC.

Wednesday June 5

Flying Saucer - 7pm - New Belgium Artful Glass Giveaway

This will be the only only chance to get a 2013 special edition New Belgium globe glass (a new glass is made each year). Biere De Mars, Hop Kitchen Series Hoppy Bock, Peach Porch Lounger, and Paardeblum will be tapped as options to fill your glass.

Thursday June 6

Riot Room - 5pm - Clips pre-party

Bring your bike and meet at 5. The party will get started early at The Riot Room and everyone will cruise from there to the Clips Festival. There will be New Belgium features and giveaways.

Theis Park - 7pm - Clips Beer and Film Festival

Clips films begin at dusk, with numerous New Belgium beers available for purchase, featuring the Lips of Faith series. Food will be served from All Star Pizza and The Farmhouse. Note that credit cards will be accepted for beer, but cash is required for everything else. Also, outside food IS okay (outside beer is not, sorry). You can also buy tickets for a chance to win a New Belgium Cruiser Bike. All proceeds from the event benefit BikeWalkKC.

Central States and Santa Fe To Brew Collaboration Beer

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Wed, 15 May 2013 03:16:00 +0000

Local distributor Central States Beverage started American Craft Beer Week off with a bang by announcing a project that is the first of its kind. The Kansas City company will join forces with New Mexico's Santa Fe Brewing Company (who began distributing in KC back in November 2012) to brew the first ever brewer/distributor collaboration beer. Certainly a unique idea in and of itself, it gets better; the resulting, draft only beer will be available exclusively in the Kansas City market.

To accomplish the task, Central States is assembling a committee (supergroup? task force?) of locals to come along for the brewing ride, including 3 Certified Cicerones, 2 Certified Beer Servers, 2-3 local homebrewers and a chef. Two specific names have already been announced as part of this team. The American Restaurant's Josh Eans will be filling the chef spot, while Corey Wood will be snagging one of the coveted local homebrewer spots. For those homebrewers that are interested in vying for one of the remaining spots on the team, keep an eye out for future announcements, as it sounds like there will be some type of contest or competition where those will be awarded.

Details on the what the beer may be have yet to be released, but we will be sure to keep an eye out and post any details as this project progresses.

My Big Fat American Craft Beer Week List

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:51:00 +0000

As we begin the countdown to American Craft Beer Week in Kansas City, various local bars and restaurants have been posting their flyers and event information on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Trying to keep track of it all is no easy task, so I decided to consolidate everything into one giant freaking list for people to have access to before and during the week. It's certainly not a brief read, but it allows you to view everything at a day by day, bar by bar glance and plan accordingly. I'm still waiting on some specific timing information, but I plan to make this a living, breathing list, so if you see anything I may have missed, please let me know and I will update.

Happy drinking, and I'm sure I'll see many of you out next week!

Monday, May 13

23rd Street Brewery (Lawrence)

Collaboration beer tappings - 23rd Street will be tapping a keg of Smoke on the Wheat (based on 14th century Polish Gratzer ale), their collaboration beer with Free State and Blind Tiger, as well as LGB Collaboration No. 2 (Belgian-style IPA), a collaboration beer with the Lawrence Brewers Guild.

Barley's 119th

Sierra Nevada Beer School - 6pm - Featuring Summerfest, Pale Ale, Hoptimum, Bigfoot, Brux 2012 and Torpedo, plus a Spiegelau IPA glass that you keep. $15/person.

Barley's Midland

Schlafly Night - - Gary from Schlafly will be on hand to pour samples of Schlafly Reserve Imperial Stout and Barley's will roll out their new beer menu.

Bier Station

Forefathers of Craft Beer - 5pm - Taps will pay homage to breweries that helped pave the way for the craft beer scene. Beers from Sam Adams (Dark Depths, Third Voyage, Verloren, New World Tripel, Boston Lager), Rogue (Old Crustacean Barleywine, Dead Guy Ale), Goose Island (Sofie), Sierra Nevada (Pale Ale), Red Hook (ESB), Anchor (Steam). Assorted brewery swag will also be given out, including Sam Adams Perfect Pint and tulip glasses.

Foundry/McCoy's

Randyl Monday - All Day - Two Randyl'd beers being tapped; Ginger Shandy with mangos and chili peppers and Lunch Pale Ale with strawberries and basil.

Flying Saucer

Tutored Tasting with Master Cicerone Neil Witte - 7pm - Neil will lead small tasting groups where he'll describe basic guidelines of food and beer pairings. $10 gets you 5 small pours of Boulevard beers and 1-bite food pairings. Time slots are limited, reserve in store. A keg of Boulevard Tripel Julep will also be tapped.

Tuesday, May 14

75th Street Brewery

Farm to Table Beer Dinner - 6:30pm - Beer dinner that will pair four courses of local, fresh ingredients with Nebraska Brewing Company Apricot Au Poivre, Schlafly Hefeweizen, 75th Street Easy ESB and 75th Street Uniquity. Tickets are $45 or $40 for Mug Club members.

Barley's 119th

Bigger Is Better tap takeover - - Beers hitting the taps include Avery Hog Heaven, Avery Mephistopheles, Goose Island Big John, Goose Island Bourbon County, Green Flash Green Bullet, Green Flash Palate Wrecker, Left Hand Beer Week Sauce Porter, North Coast Old Rasputin XV, Odell Tree Shaker, Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine and a TBD Empyrean firkin.

Barley's Midland

Table Top Tuesday - Select a $10 bomber, pick your ingredients, and Barley's will Randall your beer right at your table.

Bier Station

West Coast Tap Takeover - 5pm - Beers hitting the taps include Lagunitas Waldo Double IPA, Lagunitas WTF, Stone IPA, Stone Oak Smoked Old Guardian and more TBA.

Foundry/McCoy's

McCoy's Maibock release party - 4pm - Foundry and McCoy's will both have Maibock on tap, $7 gets you a pour and a commemorative mug.

Flying Saucer

American Pint Night - All American draft beers are $3 all day. Both trivia games that evening will be beer-themed.

Grinders

Aaron Sanchez (Mestizo)/McCoy's Taste Beering - 7pm - Chef Aaron Sanchez of Food Network fame is in the house at Grinders to pair four dishes with McCoy's Ginger Shandy, Maibock, Lunch Pale Ale and Blackberry Tart. McCoy's Gose will be served as a reception beer. Tickets currently sold out, but stay tuned in case spots open up.

Port Fonda

Free State Beer Dinner - 5-9pm - Port Fonda will pair 5 courses with Free State's Brightwater Saison, Cloud Hopper Imperial IPA, Brinkley's Maibock, Stormchaser IPA, and Iron Man Imperial Stout. $55/person, reservations required. Contact michaela@portfondakc.com.

Wednesday, May 15

75th Street Brewery

Summer Kick-off Party - Free koozies and a special selection of canned craft beer will be available in The Alley, with live music from Backfat starting at 8pm.

Barley's 119th

Tallgrass Ethos IPA release party - - Tallgrass rep Kelly Lohrmeyer will be on hand to help celebrate the release of Tallgrass Ethos IPA. There will also be a firkin of Halcyon with Centennial hops and watermelon.

Barley's Midland

Tallgrass Ethos IPA release party - - Kelly Lohrmeyer will be pulling double duty for Barley's on Wednesday, and also making an appearance at Midland, where she'll be doing patio Randalling to celebrate the launch of Ethos.

Bier Station

Deschutes River Ale launch party - 5pm - Bier Station will tap KC's first keg of River Ale and have tabletop Randall ingredients available with Deschutes beers in mind. Also hitting the tap wall will be Chainbreaker, Obsidian Nitro, and an in-line Randall TBD.

Burger Stand (Lawrence)

Free State tap takeover - 6pm - Beers being tapped include Ad Astra, Copperhead, Wheat State Golden, Hoptic Nerve, Brightwater Saison, Old Backus Barleywine, Cloud Hopper Imperial IPA, and Storm Chaser IPA.

Foundry

Boulevard autograph session - 6-8:30pm - Boulevard founder John McDonald, brewmaster Steven Pauwels, and long-time legendary employee Trip Hogue will be on hand to sign bottles (you can purchase there or bring your own).

Flying Saucer

Sierra Nevada Night - 7pm - Sierra Nevada/Dogfish Head Spiegelau IPA glasses for sale, beers include Hoptimum and Torpedo.

Thursday, May 16

Barleys 119th

Mug Club Mini Sausage Fest - Mug Club members will have access to an exclusive sausage fest, plus Matt Shadid from Odell will be in the house with a special Tree Shaker promotion. There will also be a New Belgium Ranger firkin tapping, with pints for only $3.

Barley's Midland

Mug Club Mini Sausage Fest - Mug Club members will have access to an exclusive sausage fest as well as $2.50 mugs of Rogue Roguenbier Rye.

Bier Station

East Coast tap takeover - 5pm - Breweries/beers hitting the tap wall include Ommegang (Iron Throne, Fleur de Houblon, Gnomegang), Southern Tier (Oak Aged Unearthly, more TBA), and Shmaltz (He'Brew Lenny's RIPA, Rejewvenator 2013).

Foundry/McCoy's

Pints and Pretzels Night - Choose from 4 different beer and pretzel pairings at either McCoy's or the Foundry (or, of course, choose all 4).

Flying Saucer

Firestone Walker Anniversay Vertical night - 7pm - Firestone Walker Anniversary Ales XIII-XVI will be available in a vertical. XIV and XV will be on draft for individual pours, but XIII and XVI are limited to pours from bottles and are ONLY available by ordering the full vertical. Tickets for vertical flights will go on sale at 6pm.

Friday, May 17

23rd Street Brewery (Lawrence)

Firkin Friday - 6pm - Tapping a firkin of the LGB Collaboration No. 2 with orange peel.

75th Street Brewery

TGI-Firkin Friday - 5pm - 75th Street will tap a firkin of their Good Hope IPA with Cascade hops.

Barley's 119th

Schlafly Keep the Snifter night - Gary from Schlafly will be on hand, order a Schlafly Reserve Imperial Stout and get a snifter glass that you can keep.

Barley's Midland

Firkin Friday - A firkin of Empyrean Dark Side Vanilla Porter with cherries and chocolate will be tapped.

Bier Station

Tallgrass Customer Built and Brewer's Choice casks - 5pm - A customer-voted cask of 8-Bit Pale Ale with strawberries, juniper berries and Galaxy hops will be tapped. There will also be a Brewer's Choice cask being tapped, Psycho Oasis; Oasis Imperial ESB with candy cap mushrooms. Also hitting the tap wall will be Ethos, Buffalo Sweat, and Velvet Rooster, with Tallgrass tulip glasses being given away while they last.

Flying Saucer

Special tappings - 7pm - Saucer has held on to a few special kegs to tap just for Craft Beer Week, including Odell Deconstruction, Founders Imperial Stout, Bell's Batch 10,000 and possibly more surprises.

Saturday, May 18

75th Street Brewery

HopFest After Party - $3 pints for HopFest attendees all night long.

Barley's 119th

Abita firkin tapping - A firkin of Abita ESB will be tapped, and canned beers are $2.50 all day.

Barley's Midland

"Shankin It Up" - Avery Maharaja, Avery The Czar and Ommegang Gnomegang will be tapped, accompanied by live music from The Shanks.

Bier Station

Craft Beer Week Wrap Party - 5pm - Regional-focused party will feature brewery reps from across the Midwest and a number of Midwest beers hitting the tap wall, including Free State Stormchaser Summer IPA, Mother's MILF, Perennial 17, Boulevard Coffee Ale, Nebraska Brewing Company Barrel-Aged Fathead, Schlafly Black IPA, a 4 Hands cask and more.

The Well

3rd Annual HopFest - 2-6pm - 50+ breweries will be pouring in the parking lot of The Well, accompanied by a number of beer industry speakers and the crowning of the 2013 HopFest Homebrewery of the Year. Tickets still available, $35 GA and $55 VIP.

Sunday, May 19

Big Rip Brewing Company

Big Rip Brewing Company grand opening - What a way to end American Craft Beer Week in KC! The newest local brewery will be opening up their doors to the public for the first time on Sunday. They'll be open from dawn to dusk, so head up north and be one of the first to try Big Rip's beers in their taproom.

A Doozy of a tap takeover

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:26:00 +0000

This Friday, May 10th, Lew's is taking advantage of their recently expanded draft system by hosting a Mother's Brewing Company tap takeover. The event will feature year rounders Three Blind Mice and Lil' Helper, seasonals Sandy and Spring Batch, and the latest addition to the 'Mother's Others' lineup; Doozy Double IPA. Beers are getting tapped first thing in the morning, so if you just can't wait to try their new offering, go grab yourself a lunch beer.

If you haven't heard about Doozy yet, Mother's essentially, for lack of a better word, assaulted the beer with Citra hops during the brewing process. Hopped at 5 different stages (see below for a nice visual representation of this ridiculousness), Doozy ends up at 9% ABV and 80 IBUs. The tap takeover at Lew's is actually the first time anyone will be able to try this beer in Kansas City, as it doesn't hit retail until next week.

In addition to trying Mother's new Double IPA, the tap takeover will also present an opportunity to take a trip to Mother's Brewing Company on Central States Beverage's dime. You've surely seen Central States posting on Facebook and tweeting about the 'Bus to Mother's', which is, well, literally a bus that will be traveling down to Springfield and carting a lucky group of Kansas Citians along for the ride to take a tour of the brewery.

There will be a Mother's Brewing Company display at Lew's, and in order to enter the contest, you need to take a creative picture in front of it and share on the Central States Facebook page or tweet the photo, tagging @csbev. Central States will be selecting their favorites, and those winners will earn a spot on the Bus to Mother's. Good luck to all who enter!

CIB Brewery arrives in KC

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

You may have noticed some interesting waxed, large format bottles popping up in stores and bars around town that feature semi-erotic cartoon women on the label. Though the combination of wax and sexytime graphics might seem like something that should be at Cirilla's instead of a liquor store, these bottles are actually the product of a Midwest brewery making their distribution debut in Kansas City.

CIB (aka Chefs in Black) Brewery, which opened in December 2011, might sound like a familiar name. Though this is the first time their packaged products have been available in Kansas City for purchase, they were present at last year's Parkville Microfest, where I dubbed them 'Most Adventurous Brewery' in my post-festival review. And adventurous they certainly are. As the nanobrewery states, they are a farmhouse style brewery that uses "proprietary yeast blends including Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and other wild yeasts." According to their website, all of these wild yeasts are harvested and cultured at the brewery in Carson, Iowa.

Cartoon Boobs

Through Parkville Microfest and beer hauls from Omaha, I've had the chance to try a number of CIB beers, and the results have ben mixed. I think one of the problems may be that they apply style names to their beers that ultimately become somewhat useless once wild yeast takes a hold of the beer and does its thing. For example, one of their beers, DethHanger, is referred to as a quadruple brown. However, it's not a quad, but also not really a brown. It ends up being an odd marriage of slight tartness, booze and smoke (they actually use the phrase 'meat drippings' to describe the flavor).

The first three CIB beers that are available for purchase in the KC area are the DethHanger, Morningwood Breakfast Stout and Yola's Artisan Ale (an "Imperial Amber"). I certainly wouldn't discourage anyone from trying CIB, but I would suggest that when going into their beer, completely ignoring the style names and keeping an open mind. They are attempting some really unique stuff (as some people in this town might say, they really take some chances), and while they may have a miss here and there, they can in fact produce a hit. The barrel-aged wild ale they brewed for the Omaha Barley's Angels chapter was great.

Look for CIB Brewery's beers, which are being distributed by North Kansas City, in stores and bars on the Missouri side. They won't be hard to miss, just keep an eye out for a giant set of cartoon boobs.

You can find CIB Brewery on both Facebook and Twitter.

Boulevard Pilsner gets a charitable makeover

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Tue, 07 May 2013 02:29:00 +0000

You might have noticed a bit of a kerfuffle (yeah, I just used kerfuffle) over the past week or two, as Boulevard announced that it was changing the name and packaging of their Boulevard Pilsner. Long gone are the longneck bottles and not-so-subtle artistic nod to the historic Muehlebach Pilsener, as we were introduced to a slick new label featuring the name 'KC Pils', attached to a new, shorter bottle that matches those used for other Boulevard year-round staples like Unfiltered Wheat, 80 Acre and Pale Ale.

At first, it seemed wholly obvious that the move was made for brand, marketing and cost purposes. There was a noticeable response from consumers that decried the new look and were worried that the packaging change was going to be accompanied by a change for the worse in terms of beer quality (Boulevard notes that other than subtle changes in the hop character, the recipe is largely unchanged). However, new details have emerged today regarding KC Pils that make the makeover a little bit more palatable.

The introduction of KC Pils comes in conjunction with the introduction of the '10% for KC' program, which will see 10% of the sales of KC Pils donated to local charities in the greater Kansas City area. But the distribution of the money isn't decided solely by Boulevard. It will be a crowdsourced effort that, each quarter, asks the general public to nominate deserving, local organizations. The public then votes on the nominated charities and the top three vote-getters receive 60%, 20% and 20% of the funds, respectively.

Over the next few weeks, look for the new KC Pils packaging and redesigned tap handle to start showing up in stores and bars around town. And if you'd like to get in on the charity nomination action, keep an eye on the new website that was developed for the program. Nomination information will be coming soon, and on June 1st, you'll be able to see the first three nominees:

http://www.boulevard.com/we-love-KC

What do you think about the packaging change?

Flying Saucer Fifth Anniversary Party

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:21:00 +0000

Forget the Dos Equis and margarita specials that other bars will have on Cinco de Mayo. This year, white people's favorite Mexican celebration happens to coincide with Flying Saucer's fifth anniversary, and the downtown beer bar has a nice lineup of beers they are breaking out to mark the occasion.

The theme of the day is Firkin 5th Anniversary, so as you can probably infer (unless you've recently had a lobotomy), there will be a number of firkins getting tapped, along with some limited and special regular kegs.

One beer will be tapped each hour, on the hour, starting at noon and ending at 9pm. Plus, they may throw in some additional surprises throughout the day. Below is the list of all the confirmed beers. Some have tapping times that have already been announced, and for those that are still 'TBD', keep an eye on the Flying Saucer Twitter account where they will be releasing that information (I will also update here).

Firkins:
Perennial Imperial Milk Stout - 12pm
Mother's Lil Helper with blood orange and jalapenos - 1pm
Empyrean Chocolate & Lactose Infused Dark Side Vanilla Porter - 6pm
4 Hands Bona Fide Imperial Stout - 4pm

Regular Kegs:
Evil Twin Ryan & The Beaster Bunny - TBD
Evil Twin Bikini Beer - 5pm
Founders Doom - 7pm
Widmer Kill Devil - 3pm
Green Flash Hop Odyssey Imperial Red Rye IPA - 2pm
Firestone Walker Double DBA - TBD

A-Festing We Will Go

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Wed, 01 May 2013 15:28:00 +0000

Last weekend, Parkville Microfest officially launched Kansas City into beer festival season. However, as we move forward into Spring and Summer, it's important to remember that opportunities for beer festivals don't just lie in the center of town. There are plenty of upcoming festivals in areas that may be outside your usual stomping grounds, or make for an easy day/weekend trip. Here's a list of some of the upcoming regional beer festivals you may want to keep on your radar, including the usual local suspects.

May 3rd-4th - St. Louis Microfest - St. Louis, MO

Given how quickly this one is approaching, it may be hard to pull off for some, but those that have a free weekend may want to gas up and make the trip down I-70 to St. Louis for Microfest. Though many of the participating breweries are ones you'd see at festivals here in KC, you'll also get the opportunity to try beer from a number of recently opened and soon-to-open breweries in St. Louis, like Alpha Brewing Company, Heavy Riff Brewing, and Scratch Brewing Company. Tickets to the festival are available in various sessions over the weekend, so check out that information as well as the full list of participating breweries and other details on the STL Microfest website below.

Cost: $30-54, depending on session time and GA vs VIP

Tickets: http://stlmicrofest.org/tickets/

STL Microfest website

May 18th - HopFest - Kansas City, MO (The Well Parking Lot)

HopFest is back for the third year in a row, giving us a festival with over 50 breweries pouring plus the second year of the HopFest Homebrewing Competition. There will also be a number of notable speakers at the festival, including John McDonald and Steven Pauwels from Boulevard, and brewers from Free State, Mother's, Tallgrass and Samuel Adams. At the bottom of this post is a flyer with some of the participating breweries listed and other festival details.

Cost: $35 General Admission, $55 VIP

Tickets: http://waldowell.tix.com/Schedule.aspx?OrgNum=4009

HopFest on Facebook

Central States Beverage on Facebook (likely the best place for updates/details)

Central States Beverage on Twitter

May 18th - Mother's Day Festival - Springfield, MO

Maybe not so much a festival as it is an amped backyard party, Mother's Brewing Company will ring in their third anniversary on the same day as HopFest. The event, located at the brewery, will highlight local beer, music, food and art. Mother's will be releasing their anniversary beer, Love Factory, which will only be available at the Mother's Day Festival. Though the details behind Love Factory are mostly a mystery, the label shows that it will be in 22 ounce bottles, ringing in at 10.5% ABV and 50 IBUs. If the quality of the beer is anything like some of their recent limited releases (MILF, Single Barrel Foggy Notion), I'm sure it will be excellent. Plus, after the Mother's Day Festival, the brewery will throw an after party at nearby Patton Alley Pub with an event they are calling "The Mother of All Tap Takeovers."

Cost: $5 at the gate, kids 15 and under get in free

Mother's Day Festival website

June 7th-8th - Omaha Beer Fest - Omaha, NE

The third annual Omaha Beer Fest offers up two days worth of beer tasting and educational Beer Academy sessions. Nebraska has seen a bit of a boom in breweries over the past couple years, and Omaha Beer Fest will give you the chance to try beers from some of these new names like Benson Brewery (Omaha), Infusion Brewing (Omaha), and Zipline Brewing (Lincoln) among many others.

Cost: $30 Advance General Admission ($35 at door), $50 Advance VIP ($60 at door) *note that ticket prices are per day*

Tickets: http://www.showclix.com/event/3735156/listing

Omaha Beer Fest on Facebook

Omaha Beer Fest website

June 15th - BeerKC Summer Beer Festival - Kansas City, MO (Penn. Ave, in front of McCoy's)

Presented by Sporting KC and benefiting AIDS Walk Kansas City, BeerKC's Summer Beer Festival is returning this year with over 30 breweries from around the world pouring lighter, thirst-quenching styles that are perfect for the summer heat. Plus, many of the brewers and brewery reps will be on hand to answer your questions about their creations.

Cost: $25 in advance, $30 at the door

Tickets: http://www.etix.com/ticket/online/performanceSearch.jsp?performance_id=1718889

Summer Beer Festival website

June 22nd - KC Real Ale Fest - Lee's Summit, MO (The Shops at Longview)

KC Real Ale Fest is a new addition to the Kansas City beer festival lineup, but certainly sounds like it will be an interesting one. Obviously, given the name, one of the main focuses of the beer festival will be celebrating cask beer. Right now, a number of breweries have committed to bringing casks to the festival, including Green Flash, Southern Tier, Perennial, Empyrean and Summit. In addition to the casks that are available, there will also be breweries pouring bottles (Boulevard, for example), and a block party later in the afternoon.

Cost: $15 General Admission, $25 VIP

Tickets: http://kcrealalefest.eventbrite.com/

KC Real Ale Fest on Facebook

KC Real Ale Fest website

July 13th - Beertopia Sunfest - Omaha, NE

Stopping at Beertopia, Omaha's original craft beer bottle shop, is always an agenda item for me when I make visits up to Omaha. Their Sunfest has been around for 6 years, and when I've attended in the past, it has been a great time. Sunfest is held at Beer Corner, where Beertopia is located along with Crescent Moon Alehouse, Huber Haus German Bier Hall and Max & Joe's Belgian Beer Tavern. For those that want to make a beer road trip and not worry about any driving once they get to their destination, this is the perfect setup because you can easily move from festival to bar, and then stop at the bottle shop to purchase your haul to take back home. The full list of breweries is available on the Sunfest website below.

Cost: $27 in advance, $32 at the door

Beertopia Sunfest website

Beertopia on Facebook

August 24th - Great Nebraska Beer Fest - Papillion, NE

Great Nebraska Beer Fest may be the king of Omaha area beer festivals. I talked about the festival last year and how Nebraska Brewing Company's Paul Kavulak was able to persuade the Nebraska legislature to allow for temporary brewery licenses. This allows for out-of-market breweries to send beer to the festival for pouring. Last year saw a presence from breweries like Cigar City, Victory and Crooked Stave, among others. Though no big reveals have been made yet for this year's festival, I think it's a safe bet that there will be some exciting stuff available.

Cost: $40 General Admission, $60 VIP

Tickets: http://www.etix.com/ticket/online/venueSearch.jsp?venue_id=6514&cobrand=nebraskabrewingco

Great Nebraska Beer Fest on Facebook

Great Nebraska Beer Fest website

Fall 2013 - Northtowne Brewfest - North Kansas City, MO

Unfortunately, I really can't tell you much of anything about this festival just yet. When I visited Cinder Block recently, brewer and founder Bryce Schaffter hinted that it was being developed, and a Facebook page recently went live for the event. Beyond that, though, there's really no information to pass along. However, with the upcoming openings of both Big Rip and Cinder Block in North Kansas City, there will certainly be plenty to celebrate, and what better way to do it than with another beer festival? Stay tuned.

Northtowne Brewfest on Facebook

Northtowne Brewfest on Twitter

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A third Love Child is born

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:45:00 +0000

Today marks the release of Boulevard's Love Child No. 3, the third beer produced in their series of barrel-aged wild ales, and second in the series to be sold and distributed to the general public. According to Boulevard, this version of Love Child features a blend of beers that were aged anywhere from 16 months to six YEARS, employing oak barrels for aging. Additionally, a portion of the beer spent 11 months in stainless steel tanks with Lactobacillus to bring you that sour funk we all crave.

As was the case with the No. 2 release, Love Child No. 3 will only be available for purchase in 750 ml bottles. Last year's version seemed to linger in stores for a while and Kansas City will be getting more of No. 3 than No. 2, so if you are interested in grabbing a bottle, I don't think you'll need to hydroplane through traffic on your lunch break to secure one. No word yet on exactly what the price point will be, but I imagine retailers will be marking it in the $17-20 price tag range that the previous version had.

To celebrate the launch of Love Child No. 3, Boulevard is also doing something unique and holding two live online Q&A sessions today. Question topics don't have to be restricted to Love Child, so if there's something you'd like to have answered by a Boulevard brewer, send your questions by 2pm to ontap@boulevard.com, or send them to Boulevard via Facebook or Twitter. Then tune in at 3pm and 7pm CST by visiting boulevard.com/live. Plus, if you submit a question, you are entered for a chance to win a pair of Sporting KC tickets. If you need question ideas, I would suggest asking Jeremy Danner about goats, his fear of birds, or the 'craft vs. crafty' debate.

Finally, on a somewhat related note, Boulevard, I'm still waiting to see those Love Child maternity shirts go into production. Call me.

Odell Tap Takeover at The Burger Stand

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 17:12:00 +0000

I'm geeking out a little bit, you guys. On Thursday, 4/18 and Friday, 4/19, one of my favorite breweries, Odell, is participating in one of my favorite kind of beer events, a tap takeover. Not only that, but a number of the tapped beers are barrel-aged or wild, and one of them is new and has not been seen in the KC market yet.

So where is this glorious event taking place? Bier Station? The Foundry? Flying Saucer? No, no and no. The Odell Tap Takeover is happening at The Burger Stand in Lawrence, specifically in their Basement Beer Hall. The full list of beers being tapped includes:

Amuste (Wine Barrel-Aged Imperial Porter)
Deconstruction (Wine Barrel-Aged Wild Ale)
Meddler (Oud Bruin)
Red Ale
Shenanigans (Oak-Aged Wild Ale)
Tree Shaker (Imperial Peach IPA)

The takeover events start at 6pm on both Thursday and Friday nights, with a beer flight offering available on Thursday night. I highly recommend going to check out this event, not only because of the great beers being tapped, but also because the food at The Burger Stand is fantastic. They offer burgers topped with stuff like habanero cream cheese and cocoa-chipotle ketchup, plus a variety of fries to send you into heart-clogging fits of joy, like duck fat fries or bourbon bacon cheese fries.

So head to The Burger Stand later this week and indulge in these delicious Cellar Series and seasonal offerings from Odell. If you're there Thursday evening, keep an eye out for me, I'll probably be propped up in the corner struggling to recover from a duck fat and Meddler coma.

Burlesque Lager dances into Minsky's

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:13:00 +0000

On Wednesday evening, a new locally brewed beer was launched under the radar, by none other than..Minsky's Pizza?

In celebration of their 37th anniversary, Minsky's released 'Burlesque Lager', which is now available on draft at all of their locations around the KC metro. Why name it Burlesque? Well, Minsky's itself is named after a turn-of-the-century burlesque club in New York City, so it made perfect sense to tie into historical reference.

As for the beer itself, Minsky's worked with Flying Monkey brewer Robert Eilert to make the beer. Contract brewed at Weston Brewing, Eilert described the beer as an American Light Lager, coming in at 4.4% ABV and brewed with Willamette hops.

I may not be the biggest fan of Flying Monkey/Weston, and a basic light lager certainly isn't anything groundbreaking. But at the very least, I support a place like Minsky's offering their own beer, especially if it can convince people to drink something made locally instead of the light lagers brewed by the likes of Bud, Miller and Coors.

Burlesque is available on draft for $3 a pint or $9 a pitcher.

Lew's Expands Draft System

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:41:00 +0000

Lew's may not be one of the first bars that generally comes to mind when people ask about craft beer in Kansas City, but GM George Clarke is determined to change that. Step-by-step, Clarke is making changes that are proving Lew's isn't just a bar devoted to debaucherous nights downing boots of Bud Light, but also a craft-centric bar with a broad selection of beer. He started with increasing the bottle options. Next, he made a monthly event out of hosting Mother's Brewing Company firkins, which have been a huge hit (and delicious, at that).

But there was one major piece left that Clarke had to tackle, one which was immediately noticeable to beer-drinking customers: the draft choices. Up until a few days ago, Lew's just had 8 total taps. With a few of these dedicated to BMC products, there wasn't much wiggle room in terms of tap rotation or variety. However, last week, Clarke effectively doubled the number of taps at Lew's by installing a brand new draft coffin box. The new box houses 12 taps, while 4 of the previously existing taps will remain.

However, it wasn't just a matter of slapping in a new draft box. Clarke recruited the help of Boulevard's Neil Witte (a good sign in and of itself) to assist in setting up the draft system, which involved installation of the new taps as well as a re-installing the lines for the pre-existing taps. Now, Clarke will have a lot more freedom to rotate and bring in new beers on draft for people to enjoy. Right off the bat, you can find beers like Avery Maharaja, New Belgium Cascara Quad, and Stone Double Bastard on tap and ready to drink. Clarke is also working to get set up with Drafster, so that tap changes will be automatically tweeted and posted on Facebook.

So, the next time you're ready to head out for a beer, think about stopping by Lew's to check out their new setup and see what's on tap. Now the question is, who will be the first person to order a boot full of barleywine?

Barley's Midland Anniversary Week

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Next week, Barley's Brewhaus on Midland Drive is celebrating their 17th anniversary, and to honor the occasion, have set up a series of events that are definitely worth checking out. A number of rare and limited beers will be getting tapped throughout the week, and an interesting Randall-focused beer dinner is taking place that should certainly intrigue taste buds. Below are full details on what's taking place.

Monday, April 15th - 4pm - Sierra Nevada Night

Beers being tapped include:

Ovila Quad
Ovila Quad with Plums
Blindfold Black IPA

Brian from Sierra Nevada will be attending and there will also be a limited number of Spiegelau IPA glasse and Ovila chalices being given away.

Tuesday, April 16th - 4pm - Rather Large Stout Night

Beers being tapped include:

Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout
Goose Island Big John
North Coast Old Rasputin XV
Avery Mephistopheles
Hoppin Frog BORIS

Wednesday, April 17th - 4pm - Local Brewery Night

A number of firkins, casks and limited beers will be brought in from Boulevard, Schlafly, Tallgrass, Free State and Empyrean, with reps from all breweries attending.

Confirmed beers include:

Free State Dirty Kanza RyePA (firkin)
Tallgrass 8-Bit with Columbia hops and fresh raspberries (pin cask)
Empyrean Watchman IPA with Citra hops and mango (pin cask)
Schlafly Black IPA

Schlafly will also be giving away Helles-Style Summer Lager glassware.

Thursday, April 18th - 6:30pm - Flavor Fusion Beer Dinner

One of the more unique beer dinners I've seen recently, the flavor fusion beer dinner is pairing each food course with a beer that has been Randalled through interesting ingredients, like Boulevard Tank 7 with Cilantro and Serrano Peppers. The full menu is pictured below, but if experimentation is in your wheelhouse, this dinner might be worth checking out. $40 for Mug Club members, $45 for non-members.

Friday, April 19th - 4pm - Firkin Friday

A firkin of New Belgium Double Dry-Hopped Ranger will be tapped, along with a set of non-firkin Green Flash beers, including Hop Odyssey Black IPA, Palate Wrecker and Green Bullet.

Saturday, April 20th - 1-4pm - Deschutes Blow-Out

Woody, Deschutes Brewery's mobile, barrel-shaped bar will be camped out at Barley's with a number of different beers getting tapped, including:

Abyss 2012
Armory XPA
Chainbreaker White IPA
Red Chair NWPA
Black Butte Porter
Mirror Pond Pale Ale

Molding a Cinder Block

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 19:55:00 +0000

In Greek mythology, a Phoenix is known for rising from the ashes. After a visit up to North Kansas City last night, it seemed appropriate to modify this concept to say 'A Cinder Block will rise from the dust.' I had the pleasure of taking a glimpse at the proverbial guts of Cinder Block Brewery, an up and coming addition to the rapidly growing Kansas City beer world, and am now very excited to see the end result this Fall. I mentioned Cinder Block back in January when I did a rundown of some of the hopeful breweries in town, and while their status at that time was somewhat up in the air, there's no doubt at this point that they will be serving up beer to thirsty Kansas Citians before the end of the year.

The guys behind Cinder Block have been fairly tight-lipped about their progress, and perhaps for good reason. Let's face it; right now in this town, if you mention you are opening a brewery, people will be grilling you with 1,000 questions before you finish your sentence. And I don't mean that as a bad thing. We are all so eager for a new addition to the local brewery scene, that even the mention of a new spot for beer has us instantly salivating.

But as brewer and founder Bryce Schaffter noted, starting a brewery isn't as simple as throwing your homebrew setup into a building and calling it good; it takes dedication to the fact that you are opening up a business, and there are plenty of painstaking details that have to be worked out in addition to the actual brewing. He noted that, though he hasn't even opened up his doors yet, he's already receiving phone calls asking for advice on starting a brewery, and he first presents them with that rhetorical question: Are you ready to open a business?

As I walked through the developing space that will be Cinder Block and listened to Bryce explain their progress so far, that behind-the-scenes business side of the process was certainly evident. An electrician's drill buzzed behind the framework of the taproom bar, flanked by numerous pieces of tape and chalk lines on the wall marking spots for outlets. A handtruck clunked by, carrying an air conditioning unit. Discussions of recycled gas lines and boiler firing tubes echoed through the air, along with forward-thinking talk about expansion into an outdoor beer garden and extra storage space. They're all aspects of this process that maybe we, as the beer-drinking consumer base, take a bit for granted. These guys are spending nights and weekends monitoring the daily status of various minutiae, all to finally reach the ultimate main goal: brewing great beer so WE can drink it.

Business details aside, I was most impressed with Schaffter's knowledge and passion for beer. He emphasized his mindset that beer is an experiential product, and that to him, finding that perfect beer for a particular moment was of utmost importance. As he spoke more about beer and brewing, his science background also shone through with talks about topics like water treatment, hop breeding and yeast strain development. Quality and innovation are clearly both major priorities for Cinder Block.

So what exactly can you expect from Cinder Block Brewery, in terms of space and actual product offerings? The spot (which is located right next to Neon Wild, and a stone's throw away from Denim and Diamonds) will feature a brand new 15 BBL system from Premier Stainless Systems, development of which has been a near 18-month process. Space has been built for a dedicated grain and milling room. They will have a fermentation tank specifically for brewing wild and sour ales, as well as a barrel aging program, with the barrels prominently featured in the front of the taproom for visitors to see. Schaffter noted that he was being rather particular about what barrels he will purchase and use, going so far as to describe a specific white wine oak barrel that he had been hunting for.

Not everything they brew will lean strictly on the barrel-aged and wild side, though. Schaffter also expressed his appreciation for full-flavored, sessionable brews, especially their ability to serve as a transition/gateway for those who are just starting to explore the craft beer world. The draft wall in the taproom is being built to accommodate up to 20 taps; when asked how many beers would be available when the doors opened, he explained that they expect to have 5 year-round beers, 2 seasonals and (with a simultaneous smirk) "a few surprises." While no beers were available for me to sample at the time, he noted that he'll be running test batches soon and rest assured, I'll be figuring out how to weasel my way into tasting some so I can report back. Cinder Block beer will be draft only to begin with, but Schaffter and the rest of the team are already looking at potential options for future packaging.

Though visually, the space that will become Cinder Block still leans more toward a construction site than a brewery, hearing Schaffter speak about the future helps the dust and bare wood beams transform before your eyes. You can envision the newly installed walk-in cooler filled with kegs, the popcorn machine (thank the electrician for that idea) emptying as people look for sustenance between beers, and conversations drifting through the open, industrial ceilings as Kansas Citians kick back and finally enjoy a new brewery and taproom in the area.

Cinder Block Brewery is expecting to open its doors in September 2013. Stay tuned to the blog for more updates, and also follow Cinder Block on Facebook and Twitter.

Drafster brings KC tap changes to social media

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 15:06:00 +0000

As a growing number of bars, breweries and liquor stores have started using social media to their advantage, beer drinkers are increasingly turning to Facebook and Twitter to get information on their favorite beverages. When Bier Station opened back in a December, they took advantage of this growth by announcing all of their tap changes through their social media sites. While most local beer nerds simply saw this as a nice perk, Scott Harris saw this as an opportunity.

Harris is the creator of a new website, Twitter feed and Facebook page called 'Drafster,' which aggregates tap changes from a number of bars across the city and updates itself accordingly into one simple, consolidated feed. It provides a quick and easy way for locals to see what beers are circulating around town. Currently, the system includes updates from Bier Station, Beer Kitchen, McCoy's, The Foundry, Waldo Pizza and Flying Saucer.

So how does it work? Well, Harris tapped into his coding skills (pun intended) and wrote an app that periodically crawls the websites/Twitter feeds of the aforementioned bars and parses the html to extract a tap list. It then compares that list to the list that was previously pulled, and any changes are recorded in the app's database. Finally, these changes are broadcasted across the various sites associated with the Drafster app.

So will Drafster be including more bars as time goes on? Well, that all depends on bar owners. Since the app is dependent on online draft list data provided by the bars, it can only include those that actively update their website or post tap updates via social media. That being said, if Drafster sounds like a great idea to you, but you don't see your favorite beer bar listed above, start harassing that bar about keeping their online tap list updated. Quite frankly, it seems foolish that any craft-centric bar wouldn't be doing that anyway these days, but sometimes you just need one more reason to prod and make it happen.

Harris considers Drafster to still be in beta mode, but you can check it out via the following links:

Drafster on Twitter
Drafster on Facebook
Drafster website

Keep in mind that, in terms of timing, Drafster updates are dependent on how quickly and how often these bars update their online information. Also, if you happen to notice any bugs or errors, feel free to e-mail Harris and let him know so he can troubleshoot accordingly.

Thanks to Scott for taking the time and effort to make Drafster exist, and here's hoping that more bars will start updating their online information so this can be a comprehensive resource for beer across the city.

Stone Enjoy By 04.20.13 to Missouri

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:29:00 +0000

The idea behind Stone's Enjoy By IPA series was to create buzz, and apparently Missouri buzzed loud enough when we received Enjoy By 12.21.12, because another round is headed our way. Potheads rejoice (or I guess the appropriate pun here would be to say 'STONErs?'), as Stone Enjoy By 04.20.13 IPA is on its way to Missouri liquor stores and bars, and should be available for purchase late this week or early next week.

As was the case with the previous installment of Enjoy By that made it to Kansas City, Stone is measuring the amount of chatter around the beer via social media. This time around, the state of Missouri is part of the 'Central Region', pitted against Colorado and Las Vegas to see who loves their Enjoy By the most. To put us on top, flood your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts with the hashtags #EnjoyBy #MO. You can head over to the official Stone Enjoy By website to see how we are faring (and we are currently getting stomped by Colorado).

For those who didn't have Enjoy By the first time around and are concerned that this is all just a gimmick, I can assure you that the beer was great as well. Hoppy, fresh and clean, I'm excited to try the new batch that's rolling into town. One thing I didn't initially realize about the beer is that it utilizes 11 different kinds of hops in the hops bill; Calypso, Super Galena, Simcoe, Delta, Target, Amarillo, Motueka, Citra, Cascade, New Zealand Nelson Sauvin AND Australian Galaxy. Naturally, the use of this variety of hops brings about a similar expansive variety of flavors and aromas, from fruity and tropical to piney and grassy.

Keep an eye out for Enjoy By 04.20.13 and start flexing your hashtag muscles so we can hopefully see a third round of Enjoy By come to KC in the future.

Commence Coffee Ale chaos

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 21:05:00 +0000

Thanks to the social media efforts of Boulevard, Central States and various retailers over the past few days, most of the city is well aware that Boulevard's newest Smokestack offering, Coffee Ale, will start showing up on liquor store shelves and tap handles tomorrow. The product of a collaboration with The Roasterie, I'm making an educated guess that this will cause a similar level of 'soil-your-pants' excitement and retail bottlenecking (pun intended) that Chocolate Ale has caused in the past with its Boulevard-Christopher Elbow local mass hysteria.

While I tried the beer and wasn't in love with it, it may very well tickle some people's fancies, so I thought I'd throw a post up and allow for a place that people can post where they've found it, for how much, whether there are limits, etc. Now, while last year I was able to frequently update and track Chocolate Ale tappings and store deliveries, my new day job is busier and more time consuming so I won't be able to put that level of effort into the release of Coffee Ale. Sorry guys, daddy's gotta make that paper (and not get fired). Of course, this is all assuming that there is a similar fervor, but go ahead and consider this post a 'just in case' spot in case things get crazy out there.

So if you're out and about to grab a bottle tomorrow, post a quick comment here and let people know how your chase went. I'll come back throughout the day and update a more 'official' list as I see fit so everyone can watch and try to grab a bottle of their own.

In the meantime, check out this video that Boulevard made, with some Coffee Ale tasting notes courtesy of Boulevard employees Nathan and Elizabeth:

2013 HopFest Homebrew Competition

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:22:00 +0000

Saturday, May 18th will bring us the third annual HopFest beer festival, and for the second year in a row, local homebrewers will have their shot at a little bit of glory, as HopFest is holding another homebrew competition. This year's competition is officially sanctioned by the BJCP, and knowing the time crunch that was presented for entries last year, the organizers got me the info as soon as it was finalized so people could start working on submissions. Here are the details:

Final submission day: Wednesday, May 8

Judgment day: Sunday, May 12

Categories to be judged: Based on BJCP guidelines at http://www.bjcp.org/stylecenter.php

6D. American Wheat or Rye beer
10. American Ale (all sub-styles included)
14. IPA (all sub-styles included)
13. Stout (all sub-styles included)
23A. Specialty Beer (specific description of method/ingredients required)

Each category will have a winner and then there will be a HopFest Homebrew Competition Grand Champion.

You can also look for this information to be posted online by early next week, on Lew's website as well as the Central States Beverage and HopFest Facebook pages. More full-fledge details on how and where to submit will be coming as well. Good luck to all who enter!

Burgin' and Bakin' - 2 New JoCo bars reviewed

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 04:04:00 +0000

When I recently heard of two new places in northern Johnson County that opened and were supposedly catering to the craft beer crowd, I was excited. Being an Overland Park resident, I've become all too familiar with the beer barren wasteland that is Johnson County (save for the two Barley's locations), and have spent a significant amount of time driving to Waldo, Westport, Martin City and downtown KC to get my fill of beer. Both places I essentially stumbled across via the internet, and hadn't heard any detailed word-of-mouth reviews, so the other night I decided to make a trek to check out both.

First stop, The Burg and Barrel. Now, admittedly, I approached this new Overland Park "pub" with some skepticism. The PR that I had seen on it said that it was going to have a craft beer focus and even on the website, they make the lofty claim that "...our ever changing 12 taps and 22 bottles of craft beers are guaranteed to excite the biggest of beer geeks." After reviewing the beer lineup on the same site, I wasn't overly impressed, but decided to head in anyway to see if the taps had done any of the aforementioned 'ever changing.'

Unfortunately, my skepticism was justified upon arrival. On entering, the space is nice (it's a remodel of the former Peanut spot at 7042 W. 76th Street) and the shuffleboard table caught my eye (yeah, I'll admit it, I'm a bar game whore). But as I sat down and perused the beer menu, it was like reading an essay on thermodynamics written by an 8-year-old; it didn't make a lot of sense and they clearly didn't know what they were doing.

For starters, the draft list was not anything impressive. 12 taps; PBR, Flying Monkey Amber (why is anyone still putting EITHER of these beers on draft?), Odell 90 Shilling, Rogue Dead Guy, Blue Moon, Leinenkugel Summer Shandy, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and 5 Boulevard taps. Now don't get me wrong, 5 Boulevard taps is great and all, but bars in KC have to understand that having more than 3 Boulevard taps doesn't make you exciting or craft beer focused. I'd venture to say most restaurants, bars and grills out there have at least 3 Boulevard taps anymore.

On to the bottles. Oh. Not doing much better here. For starters, all the craft bottles are listed as 'Imports.' Now, I know this goes back to the unfortunate precedent of bars listing anything that's not a BMC product as an 'Import', but it's a stupid precedent, and again, if you're going to talk about exciting beer geeks, this is not the way to do it. To further the confusion on the bottles list, they list the beers from lightest to darkest. Which may be fine, except they don't list the styles next to the beer and the order was completely out of whack. Somehow Boulevard Grainstorm was smack in the middle, and Coors Batch 19 was listed as the darkest beer. Besides those two beers, the rest of the list wasn't especially impressive. Central States must have hit this place hard, because there is a lot of Boulevard and Lagunitas. The most interesting thing on the list is Rochefort Trappist 6 (one of the three ACTUAL imports on the list, go figure!).

Oh, did I mention there's no pricing on the beer menu? Yeah. None. So, enjoy asking the bartender every time you order how much your beer will be or just plan on embracing the element of surprise when you get your bill.

So I enjoyed my Lagunitas Sucks (which was coincidentally listed on the menu as Brown Shugga, ha, prank's on me!), and ordered food, hoping that the 'Burg' in the place's name would justify the food. Fortunately the meal was the saving grace of this place, otherwise I would have written it off completely. Though my El Diablo burger (jalapenos, pepper jack, hot sauce) didn't have the level of heat I'd look for in a food item bearing the devil's name, itwas still a generously sized burger with some very nicely prepared sweet potato fries on the side. I should also mention that the bartender who served me, Cooper, was an extremely friendly guy and did a great job.

I had high hopes that a true craft beer focused bar was going in just a mile from my home, but unfortunately my dreams did not pan out as hoped at The Burg and Barrel. Would it be a fun place to go on a random night to play shuffleboard and have the luxury of drinking a few non-BMC beers while just a short distance from my home? Sure. But is it a craft beer destination that they seem to be implying in their marketing? Definitely not. And that's what I had my fingers crossed for. Given the odd location (they aren't really visible off Metcalf), they will likely rely on a lot of word-of-mouth advertising, so if a beer crowd is what they want, they might want to tweak a few things.

Slightly saddened by this beer experience and still confused by the random bar stranger who gave me a sticker from Japan and kept saying 'Cool beans', I made my voyage over to Lenexa to visit the next new Johnson County beer bar hopeful; Brewbakers.

I originally heard about Brewbakers on Facebook, when the Kansas Craft Alliance posted about an Odell IPA cask event that they were holding there. The place was completely unfamiliar to me, which in a way made sense, because I don't travel to the 95th and Renner area often and the place just opened in mid January. I've since seen a number of Untappd check-ins from Brewbakers, so I thought I was due for a visit.

Walking in, this place is total sensory overload. Granted, I had just come from a relatively small, quiet bar with all of two tables full, but essentially this place is like Tanner's or Johnny's on beer and sports broadcasting steroids. My overwhelmed ADD couldn't figure out whether to look at the taps on the wall, the giant chalkboard beer list, the raucous families at tables around me, the absurd number of flat screen TV's hanging up for people to watch (I lost count at 36), or the speakers that were inexplicably blasting Blues Traveler like icing onto the pre-existing noise cake. I shook off my confusion and squeezed into one of the only seats available at the bar, parked right in front of the TV showing the Syracuse vs. UConn womens basketball game (*sad trombone*).

In comparison to The Burg and Barrel, Brewbakers is the hands-down winner in terms of beer selection. They have 42 taps overall, 6 for BMC products, 1 Guinness, 7 Boulevard, and the remainder are represented by a variety of craft breweries including Odell (Meddler had just blown), Deschutes, Green Flash (Green Bullet was on), Avery and Mother's, to name a few. I settled on an Odell Lugene (it wasn't served in a chilled shaker pint, hooray!) and sat back, taking a deep breath and trying to soak in the atmosphere.

I'll be blunt; if you're not into a sports bar and grill type of scene, this place is not for you. This was a Monday night around 8, with no major sporting events going on, and I'd venture to say the place was 80% full, if not more. For me, I don't necessarily have a problem with this type of environment. For Christ's sake, I live with a 3-year-old half the time, so my home life is in a constant state of noisy chaos. Plus, like I said, ADD, so a bunch of TV's might be confusing to me, but it's also oddly pleasing. So if you're like me and can tolerate kids here and there, having to overhear strangers do things like 'Two Wild and Crazy Guys' impressions, and awkward sexual tension between bartenders, then the tap list at Brewbakers is worth it, especially if you live close by and don't want to travel to either Barley's location.

In my opinion, Brewbakers is a welcome addition to the Johnson County beer bar world, and I hope they stick around for a while. As I said, I may not make it over that way often, but I'm glad that when I do, there's somewhere to go now. And with a lot of housing developments going up around that area, I don't doubt they'll stay busy. Hopefully they will also continue to have more events like the Odell IPA cask, because that would certainly encourage me to head that way on a more frequent basis.

My quest continues for the perfect craft beer bar to be opened in north Overland Park (around 79th and Antioch would be PERFECT), but until then, I'll just continue my cross-state travels to quench my thirst.

2013 Brew to Brew Race

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 20:27:00 +0000

While many enjoy their beer best when it's paired with a sedentary lifestyle, there are some folks out there that feel compelled to torture themselves with exercise to compensate for their alcohol consumption (guilty as charged). For those of you that fit that latter category, get your running shoes ready and prepare to enter training mode, because the 2013 Brew to Brew race is coming up next month on Saturday, April 6th and Sunday, April 7th.

For those of you that aren't familiar with Brew to Brew, it is an annual, 44.4 mile race for both relay (up to 10 people) and solo runners that starts at Boulevard Brewing Company and finishes at Liberty Hall (next to Free State Brewing) in Lawrence. Given the endpoint and name of the event, you're correct in assuming that participants get to celebrate both the beginning and the completion of the race with beer drinking. Though I've never run in the race myself (I max out at around 2 miles of running before my ADD causes deathly boredom), everyone I know who has participated really enjoyed it. Plus, the race benefits the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, so along with a little exercise and imbibing, you're completing the trifecta and also being charitable.

You can view full event information over on the Brew to Brew website, brewtobrew.com. Some of the rules and details regarding registration and team relay racing are a bit complicated, and I'm not going to even attempt to explain them here. I'm just here for the beer. But if exercise and drinking are both in your wheelhouse, then definitely go check out the race information and get registered if it sounds enticing. There's no specific cutoff date for registration, but they do limit entries to 3200 total runners, so if you are worried about cutting it close you might want to contact the organizers to see how filled the race is (they have a Facebook page as well).

Cheers and good luck to all who participate!

Rimann Liquors 30th Anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (Brad) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 02:57:00 +0000

Rimann Liquors Lenexa's 30th anniversary is this month and they have beer, spirits and wine tastings scheduled all month to celebrate. I've added all the beer tastings to the KC Beer Blog's Google Calender, but you can see the list and who they have involved below. Congrats on 30 years guys!

Lenexa Location:

March 6: Summit Brewing Co. with Gordon Briggs, Central Market Manager

March 9: Free State Brewing Co. with brewery rep Seth Sanchez, 4-7 pm.

March 13: Lagunitas Brewing Co., 4-7 pm.

March 15: Boulevard Brewing Co. with brewer Jeremy Danner, 4-7 pm.

March 20: North Coast Brewing Co. with Bob Swatzell, Regional Sales Manager, 4-7 pm.

March 27: Tallgrass Brewing Co. with brewery rep Kelly Lohrmeyer, 4-7 pm.

March 29: Mother's Brewing Co., 4-7 pm.

Prairie Village Location:

March 12: Free State Brewing Co. with Seth Sanchez, 4:30 to 6:30.

March 19: New Belgium Brewing Co. with Adam Satz, Kansas Beer Ranger, 4:30 to 6:30.

March 26: Boulevard Brewing Co. with brewery rep Phil Merz, 4:30 to 6:30.

Flying Saucer Barleywine Week

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 20:45:00 +0000

Barleywine Week 2013 is already off to a bang at Flying Saucer, with the BarleySwine beer dinner kicking things off Sunday, and tappings of Firestone Walker Sucaba and Perennial Vermillion last night. There are a number of tappings still happening throughout the week, so below is a consolidated list of what you can expect to find throughout the rest of the week. All beers will be tapped at 7pm on their respective nights, so get down to Flying Saucer and gorge yourself on these high ABV delights.

Tuesday, March 5th

Southern Tier Backburner
Southern Tier Bourbon Barrel Aged Backburner

Wednesday, March 6th

Keep the glass: Schlafly Oak Aged Barleywine

Thursday, March 7th

Stone Old Guardian
Stone Oak Smoked Old Guardian

Friday, March 8th

Evil Twin Freudian Slip
Green Flash Barleywine
Bell's Third Coast Ale

Bottles available (all days):

Big Sky Olde Bluehair

2012 Stone Old Guardian

2008 Schlafly Oak Aged Barleywine
2012 Firestone Walker Sucaba

SO MUCH BEER FOR ACTIVITIES

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:04:00 +0000

While we list most, if not all, local beer events in our Google Bar Buzz calendar, sometimes certain events warrant an actual post. Coincidentally, over the next few days, there are a number of unique and interesting events that warrant some special mention. Rather than making it rain on everybody with a bunch of individual posts for each, here's a brief rundown of what's happening. Better clear your schedules!

Friday, March 1st

Helles Angels Recruiting Event - 6pm, Green Room Burgers and Beer

Perennial Artisan Ales, a bunch of kickass local beer-loving women, and charity; sounds like a winning combination to me! Helles Angels is a local women-only club dedicated to drinking and learning about craft beer. This event is serving as an open-door opportunity for new members to come, meet the current members, and enjoy some great beer. Perennial has teamed up with the Angels for this specific event and are bringing a couple special beers to share. And even better, for every pint of Perennial beer sold, $2 will go to the Great Plains SPCA. Guys, I won't discourage you from trying to sneak into this event, but I hold no responsibility if you are physically or verbally assaulted.

Mother Firkin Friday - 7pm, Lew's Grill and Bar

Lew's continues their monthly 'first Friday' ritual of bringing in a firkin from Mother's Brewing Company out of Springfield. This month's firkin will be a Schwarzbier with Meyer lemons and black pepper. This bad boy will get tapped at 7pm, and these Mother's firkins never disappoint, so go check it out!

Saturday, March 2nd

Kansas Craft Brewers Exposition - 4-8pm, Abe and Jake's Landing (Lawrence)

If you didn't get tickets to this already (and most didn't, since they sold out online in 15 minutes), then sadly you are out of luck, but those that were able to secure access to this second annual event should have a great time sampling beer from a number of regional breweries. For a full list of attendees and other information on the event, check out the official KCBE website.

Monday, March 4th

New Belgium Beer School - 6pm, Barley's Brewhaus Overland Park

New Belgium is going big with their beer school event and bringing in 4 brand new beers. The two new Lips of Faith beers sound especially intriguing. The Cascara Quad is brewed with dates and coffee cherries, while the Heavenly Feijoa Tripel is a collaboration with Dieu du Ciel, which sees a tripel brewed with Feijoa, a fruit typically grown in South America and also known as the pineapple guava. Here's the full list of featured beers:

Lips of Faith Cascara Quad

Lips of Faith Heavenly Feijoa Tripel

Rampant Double IPA

Hoppy Maibock

Shift Pale Lager

Tickets are $12, to purchase one either stop by Barley's or give them a call at 913-663-4099.

Tuesday, March 5th

Big Ass Stout Night - TBD, Foundry at McCoy's

Postponed after Kansas City got murked by snow last week, the Foundry's Big Ass Stout Night is, well, a night full of big ass stouts (and some rare and hard to find big ass stouts, at that) taking over the taps. Both full pours and small 6 ounce pours will be available for all of the beers getting tapped, which includes:

Bell's Java Stout

Bell's Expedition

Deschutes Abyss 2012

Deschutes Black Butte Porter XXIV

Founders Imperial Stout

Founders Breakfast Stout

Goose Island Night Stalker

Goose Island Bourbon County Stout

Goose Island Big John

Southern Tier Choklat

Bier Station Bastard Invasion - 5pm, Bier Station

I pretty much made up the name of this event, but it seems appropriate. If stouts just aren't your thing, you might want to go check out Bier Station instead, as Stone Brewing Company is breaking out some special stuff for the Bier Station taps, which will include:

Lukcy Basartd
2012 Double Bastard
Double Dry-Hopped Arrogant Bastard with Southern Cross hops (a New Zealand bittering hop)
Stone IPA with a mystery special twist

And of course, along with all of this, Flying Saucer's Barleywine Week is next week too (full details on THAT coming soon), so basically go ahead and apologize to your liver right now and masterfully plot some sick days at work to accommodate everything that will be going on. Cheers!

Help our friends at JJ's and win

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 21:27:00 +0000

With the events that unfolded for JJ's Restaurant on Tuesday night, Kansas City suffered many losses. Loss of a life; loss of a historic building; loss of a 28-year-old restaurant renowned for its wine list. And for those staff members who worked at JJ's, they experienced loss of their jobs and source of income in an instant. Unfortunately though, bills and expenses don't stop just because you are out of work. We in the beer community should have no lack of appreciation for those in the service industry. Through the events we attend and our general beer-drinking routines, we experience firsthand the hard work of bartenders, servers, chefs and more. Heck, I know for a fact that many readers of the blog work in the service industry. The people affected by the tragic fire at JJ's are our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues. And they need our support.

So, how can we help? That's the question I've asked myself over the past few days. Then, I saw that local chef Terry Mille had started an Indiegogo fundraiser page for the employees and staff of JJ's, and something clicked. I got on the horn (can you still say that if it was via text?) with some of the fantastic people in the Kansas City beer community and within hours, I secured donations for a couple awesome beer-centric prize packages to be part of a raffle. Right now, we are looking at something along these lines:

Prize Package 1
- $100 Flying Saucer gift card
- 4 Hands Brewing Company prize pack, including bottles of No Place Like Home, Chocolate Milk Stout and War Hammer, a hoodie, and a tour and tasting session at the brewery.
- A basic brewers starter kit courtesy of Cowtown Brew Supply
- A set of custom brewery canvas prints (pick from Boulevard, Mother's, Santa Fe or Lagunitas) courtesy of Central States Beverage

Prize Package 2
- Chef's dinner for two at Julian (valued at $100)
- $25 Bier Station gift card and interactive Randalling session
- North Kansas City Beverage prize pack, including a Green Flash cooler, Summit Brewing Co. retro metal cooler, Summit work shirt and Tallgrass Halcyon metal wall sign.
- Stone Anniversary set, including one bottle of Stone 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA and one bottle of Stone 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA.

To enter to win, head over to the Indiegogo fundraiser page (link also listed out at bottom) and make a contribution to help the staff of JJ's. For every $10 you donate, you are entered to win one of the prize packages listed above. There is no limit on entries, so the more you donate, the more entries you have to win. Just forward your donation receipt e-mail to me at pat.j.mullin at gmail dot com and you are entered. It's that simple. And if you've already donated before today, don't worry; you are still eligible. Just forward me your receipt e-mail and I'll get you entered.

The Indiegogo fundraiser page will close at the end of the day on Thursday, March 7th, so I will be keeping this open for entries for that entire period. Good luck to all, and HUGE thank yous to not only everybody who was so quick to generously help me put this raffle together, but also to anyone who donates. We're all in this together, so let's show what Kansas City pride and community is all about.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fundraiser-for-the-employee-s-and-staff-of-jj-s-restaurant?c=home

BarleySwine Beer Dinner

noreply@blogger.com (Pat) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:31:00 +0000

Do you like drinking barleywine? Do you like eating delicious food that incorporates the succulent meat of a pig? If you said yes to both of these questions, then get excited and read on. If you said no to both of these questions, please leave this blog immediately and reevaluate your life decisions up to this point.

Excuse the forwardness, but coming up on March 3rd, Flying Saucer will be hosting a beer dinner that has utter mouth ecstasy written all over it. And this is coming from someone who has grown relatively tired of beer dinners lately, as they all, for the most part, have become fairly trite and overpriced. Chef Josh Eans of The American Restaurant will be collaborating with Founders Brewing co-founder Dave Engbers on a 'BarleySwine' dinner that will kick off the Saucer's Barleywine Week (details on that coming soon). As you probably gathered by the name and my introduction, there will be an emphasis on barleywine and pork. How could this NOT be amazing?

Though menu details and the full beer lineup are still getting finalized, I did get tips from Eans on a few beers that can count on seeing. Founders' recently released (and very hard to get) Bolt Cutter barleywine will be on draft, and the 2009 vintage of Founders Nemesis will also be part of the pairings. As an opening beer, you'll get to try Founders All-Day IPA, which is making an appearance in KC for the first time this year (due to a soft hop harvest, this will originally only released last year to Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina and Chicago).

Those three beers are just the beginning, however, as the dinner will include 6 total courses, each accompanied by a masterfully paired (how fancy did that sound?) Founders beer. Cost is $55 if you are a UFO member, and $65 if not. Word on the street is that tickets are going fast and there is a fairly limited amount left, so get your hocks in motion (see what I did there?) and get yours purchased if you want to go. And trust me, you want to go.