Tag: Boulevardia

February 7, 2016

Beer Festivals 2016

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.

Click here to see the full list.

We already have plans to attend a few: Big Rip Snake Saturday Party, Crafts & Drafts Presented by The Pitch, Kegs ‘N’ Eggs at the Renaissance Festival, KC Nanobrew Fest, Boulevardia, and the High Plains Brewhoff.

If you don’t want to end up arrested or just plain don’t want to be an asshole this year, here’s our blog post from last year on Beer Festival etiquette.

If you’d like us to come to your event to take pictures and write a review, email beer@kansascitybeer.com.

June 17, 2015

Take a Trip to Boulevardia

Boulevardia is this weekend. The event had its faults last year, but they seemed to have corrected some mistakes to make it a much more fun experience for attendees. Bands will be performing on three stages, beer will be flowing from several locations, handcrafted goods from local artists will be available for purchase, and there will even be a Ferris Wheel!

The app was released last week with the list of beers during the festival and at Taps & Tastes, including their official festival beer, Show-Me Sour.

We’ll be volunteering on Saturday, taking pictures, and handing out buttons.

Here are the pictures from last year:

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May 23, 2015

New Belgium Clips Beer and Film Review & Pictures

A lot of people knew about New Belgium Clips Beer and Film event as evidenced by the amount of people that were there. Combined with the perfect weather, this event was a little too small for the Kansas City crowd. Enough space to put your blanket, but waiting in line for tokens and then beer took up to an hour. Tokens are great, but when there’s only one location to get them it can be frustrating. The timing was too small, as well. With just two hours before the film began, there was a lot to take in. Boulevardia had the right idea by having multiple locations for tokens and spreading their festival over three days.

The event itself was enjoyable. Although a bit too “hipster” for my taste, I get what kind of crowd they were trying to entice and there were a lot of them there. Bicycle valet, food trucks, postcards to send, an old-timey interactive display, a bubble movie set, and beers, of course, were all perks of the event at Theis Park. New Belgium knows how to make beer, so there were no disappointments there. Their Film Noir, a festival only release, was as they described – a Milk Dud in a cup and I like Milk Duds. They were also serving canned beers and sours.

I appreciate the event. It’s something unique to do outside the same, old (yet still fun) beer festivals Kansas City has multiplied in over the last few years. I arrived at 6:50pm, but would recommend getting there even earlier. Cans were being sold to early birds at 6:30pm and it gives you more of an opportunity to check out everything before the crowd arrives.

Here are the pictures:

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May 5, 2015

Boulevard Brewing Releases & Events

Not brand new beers, just new for the year and how it’s distributed, Heavy Lifting and Hibiscus Gose hit kegs this week. Hibiscus Gose was also released in bottles for 2015. First released in 2014, this Gose is a sour, slightly salty beer that receives coriander and sea salt during boiling. Boulevard then steeps dried hibiscus flowers at the end to create a vibrant pink hue. With its beautiful pink color, it’d make a great Mother’s Day gift for the beer-loving mom.

More a fan of their Smokestacks? Barley’s Brewhaus Shawnee will be celebrating American Craft Beer Week all next week and on Thursday, May 14th, they’ll have a Boulevard Smokestack Vertical Night. Saison-Brett 2014 and 2015, Imperial Stout 2013 and 2014, Rye on Rye 2013 and 2014, Foeder Projekt, and Love Child No. 5 will all be served beginning at 5pm.

On Monday, May 18th, Brewbound will be hosting Brew Talks in Boulevard’s Muehlebach Suite. Brew Talks provides craft brewers, distributors, and retailers the opportunity to come together to socialize and discuss the business side of craft beers. Simon Thorpe, president of Duvel Moortgat USA, and John McDonald, founder of Boulevard, will be speaking as well as a few others who have not been announced. It’s a free event, however donations are encouraged and go to The Animal Rescue Alliance (TARA), an all-volunteer organization dedicated to helping homeless pets in the Kansas City Area.

And, of course, Boulevardia is next month. Volunteer opportunities are now open, however Taps & Tastes volunteer opportunities are not open to the public. When you volunteer with Boulevardia, you receive a free t-shirt, free admission on the day of volunteering, a free ticket for entry to the festival on another day, and plenty of thanks from a grateful Boulevardia nation. I volunteered last year, and it was one of the better volunteering experiences I’ve had. I highly recommend it.