Screenland – Kansas City Beer

A Sweet February for Beer Lovers

Openings and Anniversary Parties are all the rage this month as two new beer places open and three breweries celebrate anniversaries.

First to open will be Screenland’s newest theater featuring a craft beer emporium, restaurant, and arcade games perfectly dubbed the Tapcade. The new Crossroads location will have 48 taps, 50 different bottles and cans of beer, and a cocktail menu featuring Dark Horse Distillery drinks. The biggest draw may be the 30 classic video games, including Pac-Man and Street Fighter II. It will open on Friday, February 20, and is located at 1701 McGee.

Set to open the very next day, Saturday, February 21, Border Brewing Company will be serving up some brews in their Crossroads location. Located less than a quarter mile from the new Screenland location, Border will have on tap Blonde Ale, Patio Extra Pale Ale, Rooftop Red Ale, Imperial IPA, Campfire Porter, and Chocolate Milk Stout. The will be open from 11am until 11pm on Saturday and 11am until 6pm on Sunday at 406 East 18th Street.

On to anniversaries, Martin City Brewing Company‘s Pizza & Taproom celebrated their first with a shrimp boil, live music, and specials on February 7th. The brewing company, initially established in 2011 with a Pub, expanded to include the Pizza & Taproom within view of the brewing system in 2014. They now distribute their beers to bars all over Kansas City.

Kansas City Bier Company will be celebrating their first with a week-long party. As far north as Rock & Run in Liberty to as far west as LiMESTONE Pizza in Lawrence, there’s a party for you. There will be giveaways, special tappings, live music, and more all leading up to their party at the Bier Hall. To find out more about the celebrations read our previous post here: kansascitybeer.com/50/

And finally, maybe older than most of you reading, Free State Brewing Company will be celebrating 26 years. In 1989, Free State became the first legal brewery in Kansas in over 100 years. Flagship brews, like Ad Astra Ale and Copperhead Pale Ale, are great representations of Kansas while small batch brews, like Iron Man Imperial Stout and Old Backus Barleywine Ale, are great for the more experienced beer lover. You don’t have to travel all the way to Lawrence to celebrate, though. Bier Station will be hosting the party with a selection of taps, merchandise giveaways, Cheddar Ale Soup, and more. Party begins at 11am on Saturday, February 28.

It’s a great month to be a beer lover!

Rock & Run’s Vanilla Peanut Butter Stout

It’s close to Halloween so if you want a liquid form of the orange and black wrapped peanut butter candies you get trick-or-treating (do those have a name?), then drink Rock & Run’s Vanilla Peanut Butter Stout.

I attended Screenland Armour‘s Retro BREWvies on Monday, mainly to try the stout by Rock & Run Brewery. The event was great especially since there was a max attendance of 60 and only 5 people attended; made the theatre a little more cozy. The feature film was Back to the Future II which was fun to watch considering the future they go to is October 21, 2015. We have a little over a year to get some hoverboards and sleeveless books produced. Cell phones will be nonexistent and that might be a good thing.

So, about the beer. Are you a fan of the candies I stated above? I actually enjoy those Halloween treats, so the beer started off a delight for me. The aroma and original mouth feel was that of those candies. The backend had a sour taste that I’m not sure was intentional. If they can figure out how to get rid of the sour taste, this would be an excellent beer. It paired well with the dessert served by Screenland, sweet plantains and roasted butternut squash.

For now, I’d give the beer a 6 out of 10. It should still be on tap at Screenland Armour and at Rock & Run Brewery’s brewpub in Liberty.