Double Shift Brewing Company has announced they will be opening on Saturday, July 11th. You can’t open a brewery without a little help, though, and that’s why Aaron Ogilvie, founder and head brewer, needs some people who are interested in the beer industry. Double Shift is now hiring for an Assistant Brewer, a Taproom Manager, and Servers to help with their brewery in the Crossroads. Send your resume to aaron@doubleshiftbrewing.com.
When Double Shift opens in July, they’ll open with a pretty solid selection of beers perfect for the hot, summer day. Hayloft Saison is their traditional take on the classic farmhouse style, Heavy Weight Double IPA will be knocking you out with 127 IBUs and a 10.7% ABV, and a midwest twist on American Pale Ale – 18th Street Pale Ale is brewed with a heavy dose of Kansas Wheat. They’ll have space in their facility to add barrels to barrel-age and sour beers, but that will be further down the road.
For more information on Double Shift Brewing Company, visit their website or follow them on social media: Twitter or Facebook.
Ogilvie spoke at the Brewbound Brew Talks event on Monday at Boulevard Brewing Company. Other speakers include Michael Crane and Steven Hood with Crane Brewing, Jon Poteet with Central States Beverage, and Simon Thorpe with Duval Moortgat USA. The event was intended for people in the beer industry, but was open to anyone. It was a great way to socialize, learn, and make new connections. Pictures are below and visit our YouTube page to see videos of the whole thing.
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.
The next Missouri Mashers meeting will be a dream come true for Sour fanatics. Michael Crane and Crane Brewing Company will be presenting on their approach to Sour and Brett beers at the meeting to be held at Grain to Glass on Thursday, March 26, at 7pm.
If you are a said fanatic of Sours, you may already know of Crane Brewing Company. They are not open yet, however they have been planning for several years and are now in the process of renovating a building in Raytown to open this Summer or Fall. Their beers have wowed people at several events, including High Plains Brewhoff, The Pitch’s Crafts & Drafts, and Parkville Microbrew Fest. You can tell they’ve been working hard to get the brewery ready by the lack of social media updates and absence at events lately.
Michael Crane has a lot of experience in business. He’s dabbled in photography, carpentry, furniture making, and now brewing. In the building that used to house his furniture making business, Crane plans to build a brewery, tap room, and install a bottling line. He definitely has the right idea starting off big – people love his beers as proven by his 80 medals awarded in competitions all over the country. A few of his great beers should be making an appearance at the meeting, so if you haven’t tried them, this is a great opportunity.
Missouri Mashers is a Northland homebrew club that meets once a month and hosts/participates in several events throughout the year. Meetings are held on the fourth Thursday of each month at Grain to Glass in North Kansas City and are open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to bring and share beers that fit the theme of each meeting.
The inaugural High Plains BrewHoff was yesterday at Brew Lab in Old Downtown Overland Park. While it had a few hiccups, overall it was a terrific event. About 500 beer enthusiasts packed into the Brew Lab parking lot to get a sampling of the best homebrews in Kansas City. With brews like Strawberry Basil Saison, Sour Cherry Porter, and Sour Black Saison, this is one of the more unique beer events in Kansas City. Red Crow Brewing Company won Best of Show for Isabelle, a Belgian Blonde.
Some bad things about the event:
Babies. I saw at least ten babies, most of them with strollers. It was a small event space, so every person’s presence was felt. This is an adult event and organizers should not have allowed anyone under 21 to enter.
Small event space or too many people. 500 people was quite a bit to fit in the location it was held. After two hours, it did start thinning out, so it wasn’t too bad.
Line processing. My group showed up at 12:45pm and didn’t get in until 1:30pm. The end of the line didn’t get in until about 3pm. They had three stations that everyone had to go through. With so many volunteers, there easily could have been a few lines checking people in.
The glass. I bought one and so did everyone else in my group and I knew about it beforehand. A lot of people did not know about the cost of the glass until they got there. Yes, they did have little plastic cups you could have used, but with the quality of the beer that was being served, you need to use glass.
Some good things about the event:
Water stations at every booth.
Pretzels and other snacks at most of the booths.
Enough tables to stand/sit.
Rarely a line at any of the booths.
It was free.
The musician played great songs and played them well.
A great variety of quality beer.
Each booth had beer that lasted through the event even though the pours were pretty big.
Breweries in the making got to show off their selection of beers and give a short speech about their company.
Red Crow says they are looking for a location in Johnson County, but are having some trouble with laws and regulations. Currently, 30% or more of gross sales need to be derived from food sales. They hope the laws will change soon so they can concentrate on making great beer.
Double Shift Brewing expects a Spring 2015 opening in the Crossroads and are committed to making a great product and having a relaxed atmosphere in their tap room. I had Double Shift’s Summer Session IPA at the event and it is exactly that – a summer session that’s easy to drink when it’s 85° out.
Another Crossroads brewery set to open is Torn Label Brewing Company. They’re brewing system is in place to brew three year-round beers and many experimental beers. I tried their Grasping at Straws Wheat Wine, which has an ABV of 9%, but was surprisingly light. They also let me try their Tongue Lash, a sour that wasn’t brewed like a regular sour. They expect to open in a few months.
Crane Brewing Company has been making a name for themselves in the beer industry. They were pouring some of the most creative beers at the event, such as a cream ale brewed with beets and a Belgian Saison brewed with black tea. They will be opening up 18,000 square feet of beer and food space in Raytown in Spring 2015. They intend to stand out from other local breweries by bottling beers for distribution right off the bat and offering sour and wild styles beers.
All of the upcoming breweries had spectacular beers so there’s no doubt that they will all succeed. Kansas City is quickly becoming a great city to get your beer fix.
Overall, I would give this event an 8.5 out of 10 and look forward to next year!
When Double Shift opens in July, they’ll open with a pretty solid selection of beers perfect for the hot, summer day. Hayloft Saison is their traditional take on the classic farmhouse style, Heavy Weight Double IPA will be knocking you out with 127 IBUs and a 10.7% ABV, and a midwest twist on American Pale Ale – 18th Street Pale Ale is brewed with a heavy dose of Kansas Wheat. They’ll have space in their facility to add barrels to barrel-age and sour beers, but that will be further down the road.
Ogilvie spoke at the Brewbound Brew Talks event on Monday at Boulevard Brewing Company. Other speakers include Michael Crane and Steven Hood with Crane Brewing, Jon Poteet with Central States Beverage, and Simon Thorpe with Duval Moortgat USA. The event was intended for people in the beer industry, but was open to anyone. It was a great way to socialize, learn, and make new connections. Pictures are below and visit our YouTube page to see videos of the whole thing.
