Kansas City

Went out to Kansas City to visit my good friend Aric and his gal Mindy. We had a blast! We did so many things, but I'll just highlight those that relate to BEER.

First, straight from the airport, we stopped at McCoy's Public House. A popular brew pub, they have a great outdoor deck, good food, and their beer is delicious. The Hog Pound Brown is clean and wonderful. As a bonus, they were actually brewing while we were there. The (bad cellphone) picture is the mash tun, door open and spent grains in view. It smelled awesome.

Next was visiting Boulevard Brewing. They are a local staple and seem to have complete penetration in the KC bars. Every single pub we visited that weekend (and there were many) had at least the Pale Ale on tap, and most had the wheat as well. Often, the Boulevard was the only alternative to A. Busch or Miller/Coors. The Pale Ale is a favorite of Aric's, so between the stock in his fridge and its ubiquity out on the town, we drank a ton of it. Whoever is doing the local marketing/selling for this company is really kicking ass. You can't go a block in KC without seeing Boulevard's name.

We took the tour and it is quite clear that the brewery expects to grow in the coming years. They just opened a second brewhouse - all completely new and very shiny. They are also installing a brand new bottling line which can handle several times the volume of their current line, nicknamed The Crusher due to its propensity to smash bottles instead of capping them.

The tour ends in the tap room of course. I tasted many of their beers and, like Flying Dog, all were good even if some were not to my exact tastes. If you're in the Midwest, look for Boulevard beer and give it a try. Their Saison grew on me big time, the wheat is clean and light, and the Pale Ale is great.

Saturday afternoon, we went to Grinders. I honestly cant put in to words how much I loved this place. If I lived in KC, I would make sure I lived within walking distance.

The mushroom pizza we had was indescribably good. We also got a big-ass basket of tater-tots covered in Cheese Whiz. CHEESE WHIZ!

And the beer. Oh the beer. Check out the beer list on their site and you can see that these people are serious. Any time I see a beer list organized by style I know I'm in for a treat. About 80 to choose from with 20 on tap. Add to that the fact that Grinders' back yard is now a concert venue and we watched The Mighty Mighty Bosstone's people setting up and sound checking for that nights show while lounging in the sun with good friends and the local dog (pictured above) curled up at our feet and the best pizza I've ever had and a very friendly waitress and F-18s flying overhead (big airshow in town - ROCK) and a beer list fit for a king... I could go on for hours. Just perfect.

Sunday Aric whipped up some homebrew! It was cool watching another person's routine. Aric has brewed hundreds of batches but, of course, he was out of beer when I visited. UNACCEPTABLE! Actually he had a batch all ready, but his tap line popped off the tap and the whole five gallon keg ended up on his basement floor about a week before I arrived. Horror of horrors!

I can't wait to go back to KC and take the whole family. It's a great town.