Month: July 2015

July 30, 2015

Milwaukee Bound

Sometimes you just need a change of pace and that’s what this weekend will entail for KansasCityBeer.com.  We’ll be road tripping to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, tomorrow and staying in America’s Dairyland until Monday.

MKE

Milwaukee Brewing Company Tour

Milwaukee is known for its brewing traditions, so it’s a perfect beercation for any beer lover.  We’ll get to try beers we can normally drink from a bottle in KC, straight from the tap and try new Wisconsin beers that aren’t even available here.  We’ll tour facilities to learn if and how the brewing process differs from breweries here.

We’ll also get to drink some non-Wisconsin, non-Kansas City beers that aren’t available in KC such as Alaskan Brewing Co, The Bruery, Clown Shoes, Dogfish Head, Flying Dog, Three Floyds, and Victory Brewing Company.

Expected stops include Horny Goat Brewing Co, Milwaukee Brewing Co, Great Lakes Distillery, Lakefront Brewing, Water Street Brewery, Karben4, and New Glarus Brewing Co.

If you have any suggestions, let us know.  We’ll be posting all weekend on social media including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, so be sure to follow us!

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July 30, 2015

Updated Beer Festival List

Summer is almost over and school is about to be back in session, so it’s time for some fall beer festivals.  Grab your jackets and hats and read through to pick the ones you’ll be attending.  This list is also available on the 2015 Festivals page.

Saturday, August 01

  • 11am-6pm – City Market Free Beer Festival, City Market, Kansas City.   The Pitch hosts the first City Market Beer Fest with 100 beers available for purchase.  $10 for 4 beers or $20 for 10 beers.

Saturday, August 15

  • 1pm-5pm – Zona Rosa Microbrew Fest, Zona Rosa, Kansas City.   Lots of great beers and Missouri Mashers will be doing a competition as a part of the festival.
  • 2pm-6pm – 75th Street Summer Beer Fest, 520 W 75th Street, Kansas City, MO, $35.   A lot of local breweries are listed to be at the Summer Fest in 75th Street’s Alley.

Friday, August 21

Saturday, August 22

Saturday, August 29

  • 1pm-4:30pm – Midwest Microfest, 800 The Midway, Salina, KS, $35 GA, $60 VIP.  If you’ll be in the middle of Kansas on August 29, then this will be a good fest to attend.  Over 20 breweries are set to pour their beer at the event, including Red Crow, Radius Brewing, Goose Island, and River North.  There will also be live music.

Saturday, September 5

  • Festival of the Lost Township, Raytown, MO, $35 ($40 at the door) GA, $100 VIP.  Hosted by Crane Brewing Company, this beer festival also includes meet and greets with local beer celebrities.

Saturday, September 12

  • 2pm-6pm – Tour of Brews, 3365 SW Fascination Drive, Lee’s Summit.  Formerly TKC Real Ale Fest, this beer fest will have one of a kind firkins, live music, and beer demonstrations.  This event is in the middle of a fun-filled weekend in Lee’s Summit that includes a Tour of Towns on Friday, Small Biz Showcase on Saturday, and a community day with an adult scavenger hunt on Sunday.
  • 1pm-6pm – Brewtopia, 4380 S Noland Road, Independence, MO, $30.  Apex Brew and BBQ Supplies hosts their first festival.  Taste a wide variety of beers from over 40 homebrewers and local breweries.  Live music, food, and more.

Saturday, September 19

  • 1pm-5pm –  High Plains Brewhoff, Overland Park, free by invitation.  This fun event that puts you in the judge’s seat asks you to prepare your liver.  Celebrity brewers and homebrewers will be judged by you!  Tickets are now available at Brew Lab.
  • 1:30pm-6pm – KC Beer Fest, Power & Light District, Kansas City, MO, $35 GA, $60 VIP.  This fest has been around for a while, so they’ve got it pretty well organized.  Over 200 craft beers from around the world, rare keg tappings, live music, and food trucks will be spread across two blocks in downtown Kansas City.
  • 5pm-10pm – Village West Wine Fest & Beer, 9400 State Avenue, Kansas City, KS, $75 GA, $150 VIP.  That’s a hefty price tag, but this fest at Schlitterbahn will showcase over 200 wines and 100 beers from around the world, food from over 30 of KC’s finest restaurants, fireworks at 9pm, and dancing from 9pm until midnight.  Limited to 2,000 attendees.

Saturday, October 17

  • 12pm-7pm – KC Brew Fest Fall Edition, Union Station, 30 W Pershing Rd, Kansas City, MO, $40.  Split between two sessions (12pm-3pm & 4pm-7pm), this fest will include tastings from over 50 breweries.
  • 6pm-9pm – Brew at the Zoo, Kansas City Zoo, 6800 Zoo Drive, Kansas City, MO, $35-$45.  Appetizers, music, beer, and wine samples as well as two drink tickets included in your ticket at this event.  Breweries include KC Bier Co, Big Rip, Boston Beer, Crane Brewing, and more.  In the Valley Below will be performing.

Saturday, October 24

  • 1:30pm-5pm – Beerfest at the Ballpark, 1800 Village West Parkway, Kansas City, KS, $36.  I’ll be honest, you should skip this one.  The venue is great, but the beers and crowd were less than stellar, especially for the price.  If you really want to go, they do have over 200 domestic, microbrewed, and international craft beers while a DJ will be playing.

 

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July 29, 2015

Screenland Armour Arts & Crafts Beer Festival

Screenland’s Crossroads location may get more attention lately, but the Armour location has an ace up its sleeve.  Winner of the Best Beer Festival 2014 from The Pitch Weekly, Arts & Crafts Festival is a two day festival that will take place on August 21st and 22nd at Screenland’s North Kansas City location on Armour.  They promise the most rare craft beers, the best live local music, great local artists, film premieres, and more.

Along with being the sponsor of the event, 4 Hands Brewing Company will also host a Short Film Competition in conjunction with Kansas City Film Festival and Screenland Theatres.  The top ten films submitted will be chosen by a panel of experts and will be screened at the festival on August 22.  The winner will be chosen by a live panel during the screening and will get to work with 4 Hands and Screenland to create a unique short film advertising the brewery to be played at Screenland Theatres for no less than six months.  The film must feature craft beer in some way.  If you enjoy film making and beer, this would be a fun project.

I attended last year and it was a more cultured event than typical beer festivals.  I was able to enjoy documentaries, indie films, exclusive and rare beers, local artist and bands, an industry Q & A, and food vendors.  At the start of each day, the space was too small to accommodate the crowd.  Their lobby should only hold about a third of the people who attended, but as events and screening opened up, the lobby opened up quite a bit.  At the actual beer tasting on Saturday the live music was too loud for the space, but the beer was easy to get to.  Some of the servers weren’t very knowledgeable of the beer, but most were actually from the brewery in which they were representing.

A portion of this year’s ticket sales will go to help support KC Pet Project.

Tickets are still available on their website, but will surely sell out as they are limiting it to 300 per day.

Get more information from the Arts & Crafts Festival website by clicking here.

2014 Arts & Crafts Festival (Not the best pictures I’ve taken)
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