We will officially kick off the 2016 Beer Festival Season with The Big Chill strong beer and chili tasting at 75th Street Brewery on Saturday, February 13! Over 30 festivals dedicated to the love of beer will take place between now and November. Several different locations, atmospheres, styles, locally organized, nationally organized, homebrew only, some with food, some with live music – whatever your fancy, you’re bound to find at least one to attend.
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
6pm – Screenland Armour’s Arts and Crafts Beer Festival, 408 Armour Road, North Kansas City. Screenland Armour kicks off the event with exclusive film premiers, the best bands, artists, and even more rare beers!
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.
I would say beer festival season kicked off on February 7th, with 75th Street Brewery’s Big Chill Beer & Chili Fest and a few fests between now and then, but the season really revs up this weekend with two big beer festivals and a visit from Woody.
The 12th Annual Parkville Microbrew Festis this Saturday. From 1pm until 5pm, enjoy beers from breweries and even home brewers. This festival is extremely popular with the locals, home brewers, and beer lovers of all sorts. Last year drew 3,300 people. With 75 beer vendors, it’s really not as busy as the attendance would indicate. I went last year and most of the lines were pretty short, but there were a few tables you had to wait a good 10 minutes for a sample.
The festival is in a great location – English Landing Park in Parkville. It’s a pretty laid back event where you’re encouraged to bring chairs, water, and even pets. They’ll be partnering with Harvesters to collect non-perishable foods, so be sure to being some to donate.
A few special events and releases are as follows.
Crane Brewing will be there, but not to serve beer. They will have a scale model of their brewery to show off to the attendees.
Blind Tiger Brewery will be walking around the event with Backpack Beer. While waiting in line, get your glass filled!
75th Street Brewery will have their Homebrew Competition Winner from last year, a French Saison named Battle of the Frontiers.
Sierra Nevada will be serving the first keg of Hoptimum, a whole-cone imperial IPA, in Missouri.
Charleville Vineyard Winery & Microbrewery will be tapping their Box of Chocolate, a Chocolate Belgian Quad, and when that runs out, they will tap their 2014 Barleywine.
Torn Label has three special releases. Leap of Faith, an American IPA, will be tapped at 2pm; Cafe Dubbel, a Belgian dubbel infused with single origin Ethiopian coffee from Thou Mayest, will be tapped at 3pm; and Long Time Comin’, a Russian Imperial Stout, will be tapped at 4pm.
Grain to Glass will be hosting a bottling demonstration at 2:30pm
Martin City Brewing Company will be tapping their From Belgium with Rum, a Belgian Imperial Stout aged in Rum barrels, at 3pm.
If you like unique beers like Boulevard Foeder Projekt #1, Perennial Saison de Lis, and a few fun skeeter pees from the Missouri Mashers, you won’t want to miss this event. Tickets are still available for $30, but go up to $35 on the day of the event. I would suggest getting there early to get good parking, listen to the preshow band, and get a good spot in line. School of Rock will be performing before the event and Amendment 21, Steamboat Bandits, and Three Drink Minimum performing during the event.
Kansas City On Tap Craft Beer Festival is put on by a national company that holds beer festivals in several cities around the country. It is also this Saturday and it runs from 2:30pm until 6pm. It’s very ambitious of them to be competing with a local beer festival that has been around for 12 years. However, tickets are sold out, so I guess there are enough beer lovers in Kansas City for everyone. They have an impressive list of beer vendors, so if you are attending this event rather than Parkville, you won’t be disappointed.
It, too, is in a great location – Richard L Berkeley Riverfront Park. Having not attended the event I can’t attest to the atmosphere, but I assume it will be similar to Parkville in which you can bring chairs and pets. There will be live music from Landrush and food available for purchase.
I do think that Parkville will have a more knowledgeable crowd of people who really know beer, so if you want to learn more or already know a lot, Parkville would be the event for you. If you can’t make it to either event, Deschutes will be visiting Kansas with their Woody T. Barrel on Saturday. From 12pm until 4pm visit them at Barley’s Shawnee and from 6pm until 9pm visit them at Grinders in Lenexa.
Good Friday, everyone! A few newer businesses are showcasing their offerings and a few older businesses are spicing up this Easter holiday with some fun events. From brunches with Cap’n Crunch Chicken Fingers to bottomless cocktails to a Kegs N Eggs event, Kansas City’s beer scene is hopping!
Friday, April 3
Grain to Glass, 1611 Swift, NKC, is hosting two Adult Easter Egg Hunts! Search for plastic eggs throughout their store and parking lot starting at 6pm. The eggs contain Askinosie Itty Chocolate Bars, tickets for swag, and more surprises. After your hard work of hunting for eggs, enjoy a pour of Boulevard Chocolate Ale. Yes, they still have a keg and have tapped it specially for Easter. $15, tickets to be sold at the door.
Saturday, April 4
Grain to Glass holds their second Adult Easter Egg Hunt at 10am with all the perks of the one held on Friday.
Tapcade, 1701 McGee Suite 200, KCMO, will be serving brunch at 11am. This isn’t your grandma’s brunch! The aforementioned Cap’n Crunch Chicken Fingers, Bro-mosas, and Judd Nelson’s Wake N Steak Burrito are just a few of the unique items on the menu. Click here to view the full menu.
If you’re not a morning person, continue Kansas Craft Beer Week with Tallgrass tastings at Schuler’s Liquor, 928 S 55th St, KCK, and Fairway Liquor, 2848 W 47th St, KCK, at 1pm and 3:30pm respectively. Old classics like Buffalo Sweat, Velvet Rooster, and 8-Bit will be making an appearance as well as new classic 16-Bit.
Sunday, April 5 – Easter! You’ve spent the morning with the kids and now they’re off with the grandparents. It’s time to drink!
75th Street Brewery, 520 W 75th St, KCMO, offers a brunch with a $10 bottomless cocktail menu. As they put it, who said brunch couldn’t be boozy?
Screenland Crossroads Tapcade is holding another fun brunch beginning at 11am with the same menu mentioned above.
Rock & Run, 110 E Kansas St, Liberty, will be open normal hours (10am-11pm) and will be hosting brunch. Also, it looks like their website is finally up and running! Check it out.
The Renaissance Festival, 633 N 130th St, Bonner Springs, will make use of their grounds for a Kegs ‘N’ Eggs Event. Tickets include admission to the event, access to the Egg Hunt, one draft Beer, a t-shirt, and some other fun stuff. Upgrade to VIP for all of the regular ticket perks plus a commemorative mug and unlimited beer. Breweries such as Goose Island, River North, Torn Label, North Coast, Breckenridge and more are all scheduled to be there. The event begins at 1pm and goes until 5pm.
