Tag: Crane

August 29, 2016

Festival of the Lost Township

Let the Beet drop – Beet Beer that is. Since the Festival of the Lost Township is hosted by Crane Brewing, you can expect a lot of exciting beers from them as well as other breweries. The one about which we’re most excited is their Beet Weiss which will be officially debuting at the festival.

The Beet Weiss, once known as Magenta because of its color, is a much-anticipated addition to their unique lineup. Michael Crane, owner of Crane Brewing, has been making the beer for several years and has been pouring it at local events including 2014’s Parkville Microbrew Fest. It will be available first at the Festival of the Lost Township and then in bottles throughout their territories the following week.

Speaking of beets, well…beats, Festival of the Lost Township will feature a live band, Favorite Daze, that will serenade you as you try beers from local breweries, national breweries, and homebrewers. In its second year, this festival has combined with Brewtopia and offers homebrewers the opportunity to brew with Crane Brewing. As an attendee of the festival, you will get to try as many beers as you want and there will also be food trucks and a merchandise tent, so bring money. If you snag a VIP ticket, you get in an hour early not only to get a head start on the beer sampling, but you’ll also get to try several Kansas City Chefs pairings of food with unique beer.

What’s with the long, kind of odd name? Raytown is a lost township. In the early 1800s, when a large area of Jackson County was put up for sale, Township 49 (Raytown) was accidentally left out. It was eventually sold with squatters becoming landowners. So, it’s a Festival for the Lost Township now known as Raytown, celebrating a unique fact about a unique city. Full story here.

Go to www.festivalofthelosttownship.org for full details. The festival will be at Raytown Rd & E 62nd St, Raytown, MO 64133, on Saturday, September 17th, beginning at noon for VIP and 1pm for General Admission. Tickets are $100 for VIP and $35 for GA. Designated Drivers get in the general admission area for free, but will not be allowed to drink any beer or liquor samples. IDs will be checked as everyone is required to be 21 years and older.

We’ll be there taking pictures, doing live interviews (contact us if you want to be interviewed), and taking notes for those who can’t make it but want to see what it’s all about.

Here’s a list of brewers:

Crane Brewing Raytown, MO	Cinder Block Brewery North Kansas City, MO	Red Crow Brewing Spring Hill, KS
Martin City Brewing Martin City, MO	Logboat Brewing Columbia, MO	Stockyards Brewing Kansas City, MO
Free State Brewing Lawrence, KS	Torn Label Brewing Kansas City, MO	Tallgrass Brewing Manhattan, KS
Central Standard Brewing Wichita, KS	Miami Creek Brewing Drexel, MO	Green Room Burgers & Beer Kansas City, MO
Colony Espresso & Beer North Kansas City, MO	Bur Oak Brewing Columbia, MO	Rock & Run Brewery Liberty & Kearney, MO
KC Bier Co Kansas City, MO	23rd Street Brewery Lawrencce, KS	Big Rip Brewing North Kansas City, MO
Calibration Brewery North Kansas City, MO	McCoy’s Public House Kansas City, MO	Radius Brewing Emporia, KS
Urban Chestnut Brewing St. Louis, MO	Mark Twain Brewery Hannibal, MO	Third Base Brewery Cedar Rapis, IA
Zipline Brewing Lincoln, NE	Earthbound Beer St. Louis, MO	Exit 6 Brewery Cottleville, MO
Core Brewing Springdale, AR	Ozark Beer Co Rogers, AR	Roughtail Brewing Midwest City, OK
Nebraska Brewing Company Papillion, NE	Destihl Brewery Bloomington, IL	Stone Brewing Escondido, CA
Toolbox Brewing Vista, CA	Fossil Cove Brewing Fayetteville, AR	Marto Brewing Co Onawa, IA
Kolibri Ale Works Tulsa, OK	Six Mile Bridge Maryland Heights, MO	Piney River Brewing Bucyrus, MO
Mikerphone Brewing Chicago, IL	Infusion Brewing Benson, NE	Avery Brewing Boulder, CO
Lagunitas Brewing Petaluma, CA	2nd Shift Brewing New Haven, MO	Perennial Artisan Ales St. Louis, MO
Oskar Blues Brewery Longmont, CO	Riparian Ales St. Louis, MO	Brickstone Brewery Bourbonnais, IL
Odell Brewing Fort Collins, CO	Blue Blood Brewing Lincoln, NE	Schlafly St. Louis, MO
Modern Brewery St. Louis, MO	Defiance Hays, KS	Farnam House Brewing Omaha, NE
Anthem Brewing Oklahoma City, OK	Founders Brewing Grand Rapids, MI	O’Fallon Brewery Maryland Heights, MO
Narrow Gauge Brewing Florissant, MO	Summit Brewing St. Paul, MN	Rockwell Beer Company St. Louis, MO
Ballast Point San Diego, CA	Alpha Brewing Company St. Louis, MO	Evil Twin Brewing Denmark
Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales Dexter, MI	Left Hand Brewing Longmont, CO	White River Brewing Springfield, MO
Argus Brewery Chicago, IL	Shmaltz Brewing Clifton Park, NY	Crooked Stave Denver, CO
Mikkeller Denmark	Mother’s Brewing Springfield, MO	North Peak Brewing Traverse City, MI
Prairie Artisan Ales Tulsa, OK

List of distilleries, wineries, and artisan friends:

Kansas City, MO

J. Rieger & Co Kansas City, MO	Tom’s Town Kansas City, MO	Amigoni Urban Winery Kansas City, MO
Leaky Roof Meadery Buffalo, MO	Union Horse Distilling Lenexa, KS	Restless Spirits Distilling North Kansas City, MO
The Brewkery Kansas City, MO	Hugo Tea North Kansas City, MO	Benetti’s Coffee Raytown, MO
KANbucha Lawrence, KS	Alchemy Coffee & Bake Lawrence, KS	Second Best Coffee Kansas City, MO
Blip Roasters Kansas City, MO

List of food trucks:

Taste of Home KC	Wilma’s Good Food	Greg-Co BBQ
Lutfi’s Mobile	Poppy’s Ice Cream

September 22, 2015

High Plains BrewHoff 2015 Recap

One of the many great events from this past Saturday was the High Plains BrewHoff in Brew Lab‘s Old Downtown Overland Park parking lot. I had planned on attending more events during the day, but I had a small injury in the morning and could only get to the BrewHoff. Below you’ll find a quick recap and some pictures from the event.

It was a good time overall with a lot of great, unique beers. It had the same bad/good things as last year. Bad: kids, event space too small/too many people. Good: the beers, free snacks, water stations, good bands, it was free. See my review for last year here.

They did try to expedite the entry by having a VIP line and letting people in 30 minutes early Although a line didn’t start to form until about 12:45pm, by 2pm there was still quite a line. They did also try to discourage children (and Broncos apparel) by posting on their Facebook, but there were still quite a few kids (and one Broncos hat).

I love the spirit of the homebrewers. There’s so much creativity and passion that goes into each beer and it’s
refreshing to be at the type of event where the server knows what they’re talking about. Many tents had entertaining setups, from a Craftsmen toolbox keezer to a group of Fuzzy Helmets.

There weren’t as many homebrewers that were in the process of going legit as last year. Crane, Red Crow, Torn Label, and Double Shift all had a tent last year and are either already open or within a month of opening. BVH Brewery (Twitter, Facebook, Untappd) will be spending 2016 promoting their beers at several events while working on getting a permanent location. Mount Anderson Brewery (Untappd) is in talks with Missouri Hy-Vees to start selling 22oz bottles of their beer. They’ll be brewing and bottling just outside of Peculiar, MO.

Speaking of Mount Anderson, their beers and brewery did really well as far as voting went at the event. They took first for Best Beer with their Vanilla Milkshake Porter (well deserved). Click here to see all the winners on High Plains BrewHoff’s Facebook.

High Plains BrewHoff will hold their third BrewHoff next year on Saturday, September 17.

High Plains BrewHoff

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November 2, 2014

The Pitch’s Crafts & Drafts Pictures and Review

Some of the best breweries and crafters were all packed into the Uptown Shoppes on Saturday. Starting at 11am, you were able knock out some of your Christmas shopping or splurge on something for yourself in an Etsy-in-real-life setting, while drinking some fantastic drinks from Crane Brewing, Boulevard, 4 Hands, KC Bier Co, Tallgrass, Urban Chesnut, Cooper’s Hawk Winery, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, and Crown Royal.

The event was planned really well, although I didn’t see a lot of advertising for it, which kept the crowd down. Even when I left at 2:30pm, there were still enough parking spaces to accommodate the vendors and attendees. I appreciate it was a free event, but before going I was unsure if the beer would be free and/or if I should bring my own glass. When I arrived, the bar was set up for $6 a beer, so I figured I would walk around a little bit, take a few pictures, and head out. When I got back around to the beer area, the breweries had set up and started to serve their beers for free. They provided small, plastic taster cups that were tossed away in a trash bin. It would have been nice to have some recycle bins set up. Bridging the Gap often provides these at events for a small fee. The floor plan of the event was perfect. Enough room for lines at the brewery tables, aisles were big enough to easily get through, and even a lounge area set up with couches, tables, a DJ, and college football on TV.

The beers were amazing and were drinkable with little-to-no wait. Crane Brewing was the best with their Orange, Peach, and Braun Weiss beers that were a dream to any sour beer lover. It was nice to watch as patrons excitingly inquired about their location, when they are going to open, where they could buy bottles. Although a bit out of the way in Raytown, they will be the brewery to check out whether you’re a Kansas City native or just a visitor.

The other breweries brought good beers and mostly good attitudes. The people working the Boulevard and Urban Chestnut booths seemed like they didn’t want to be there at first, but warmed up a little as the day went on. While this is a beer blog, I did indulge in some wine and Whisky. Cooper’s Hawk Winery‘s table had several wines from Sangria to a Cabernet Zinfandel and a well setup booth. The gentlemen at the booth were friendly and enthusiastic. Crown Royal was giving away their new Regal Apple along with some few other favorites.

Great, free event with plentiful parking, an upbeat crowd, enough space to chill out, and the crafters were amazing. 9 out of 10. Can’t wait for next year!

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October 23, 2014

Beer Me!

Beerfests, special tappings, networking, swap meets. Here’s where you can say, “Beer me!” this week.

Thursday, October 23

Martin City Brewing Company is having a Fundraising Event for Parker Adams tonight from 6pm until 8pm. Parker Adams was recently diagnosed with a rare form of cancer (stage four Neuroblastoma) so help support the Parker family and raise awareness for childhood cancer. Join them at the brewery for pizza and beer. They will be collecting donations at the door for dinner and drink tickets.

Friday, October 24

Royals play at 7:07pm. Several bars, breweries, and restaurants will have specials to celebrate the Royals.

Saturday, October 25

Grain to Glass is holding a Homebrewing for Beginners class. Beginning at 3pm attendees will learn the critical part of boiling, adding hops, chilling, sanitizing, and pitching yeast. You will also learn how to bottle a 5 gallon batch of beer. Each participant takes home beers for bottle conditioning at home. $50 for 3 hour class, supplies, and a $10 discount on equipment purchase at the end of class.
Rock & Run has their inaugural Rot and Ruin Dark Ale and Spirits Festival from 3pm until 10pm. Some great breweries, meaderies, and distilleries will be serving their products until 8pm. Screenland Armour will be bringing out their inflatable screen to show the Royals World Series Game 4. $55 for VIP tickets, $40 for regular tickets, and $5 food vouchers.
Big Rip Brewing Company hosts their second annual Ripper Halloween Party. Tickets have been sold out for a few weeks and for good reason – it’s the best Halloween Party in Kansas City! What better place to celebrate Halloween than in a place that celebrates it all year? There will be an open bar including liquor, wine, and their brews. They will be releasing their first ever Amber Ale that night. Cafe Italia will be catering with a Macaroni and Cheese bar with bacon, pulled chicken, sauteed onions, and other goodies. It’s a laid back atmosphere with games like Flip Cup, Beer Pong, and a Foosball table. They will also have the Royals Game 4 playing on the TVs in their taproom.

Saturday seems to be the party day. Luckily, each party will be showing Game 4 of the Royals.

Beer Me! is a weekly event post where we let you know what’s going on beerwise in the Kansas City area. If there’s something we missed, please comment below or email us and we’ll add it to the list. Get home safe and get a taxi or have a designated driver!