For those seeking an after-dinner (or before-dinner) mint, distributor Central States Beverage has released the list of who is going to get Boulevard's Tripel Julep in both Kansas and Missouri (h/t to KC Beer Scouts).
Tripel Julep is the mint-infused, whiskey-barrel-aged, extremely limited batch of Long Strange Tripel that Boulevard is releasing to Kansas City-area taps (and nowhere else on this beer-drinking earth) in homage to the Kentucky Derby. It's a beer-inspired play on the mint julep. Happy hunting and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, if you snag a draft. The full list is after the jump.
The hometown brewery is adding a hometown touch to the brew formerly known as Boulevard Pilsner. Going forward, Boulevard Pilsner will now be called KC Pils. There will also be a new bottle design and packaging - the standard box that comes with year-round beers like Wheat and Pale Ale.
Just a note, the formula for Pilsner isn't changing. This is just a rebranding effort on the part of the brewery on Southwest Boulevard. On its Facebook page, Boulevard stated that KC Pils will be on tap at the Sporting KC game this Saturday, where soccer fans can also eat Grinders food at Sporting Park for the first time and enjoy pregame at the Budweiser Beer Garden.
KC is about to get Boulevard's take on a Kentucky Derby staple.
Boulevard's tasting room just got a whole lot bigger. It's fitting that in a week that saw Love Child No. 3 (a test batch brew that has grown into a Smokestack Series release) hit shelves, news broke that Boulevard is rolling out a limited-edition beer only available on tap around Kansas City. That beer is Tripel Julep, the brewery's Long Strange Tripel, which has been aged in whiskey barrels and infused with mint. The Tripel Julep sprang forth from the mind of brewmaster Steven Pauwels and is meant to be a tip of the cap to the flag-bearing drink of the Kentucky Derby.
Tripel Julep is expected to be on tap around the city over the coming week (at bars that regularly carry Smokestack offerings). Affare, Anton's Taproom, the Brick and Snow & Co. will all be getting kegs (h/t to @KCCrossroads). Standard scavenger-hunt rules apply. If you see it on tap, kindly note it (and the price, if possible) in the comments section.
Boulevard keeps having love children, and we're the better for it.
Sour beer is the final frontier for many beer drinkers - the arena they build up to after countless wrestling matches with hop-forward beers and dalliances with cider or fruity brews. I'll admit that I'm in the midst of figuring out what I think about sours myself, so I approached Boulevard's Love Child No. 3 - the hometown brewery gifted Fat City with a bottle Friday - with a bit of trepidation. The latest Smokestack series release should start appearing on shelves Tuesday.
Until Fat City scrapes together the cash to put a giant Bat-like signal in the sky with a pine-cone shaped symbol, you'll have to settle for an online announcement. Hopfest tickets are now on sale. The annual ode to hops at the Well (7421 Broadway) and Lew's Grill and Bar (7539 Wornall) is set for Saturday, May 18, from 2 to 6 p.m.
Beer nerd heaven might be in Independence. BD's Mongolian Grill (19750 E. Valley View Parkway) recently opened the Beer Growler Taproom - a 50-tap and 50-bottle celebration of craft beer. But the revelation (and let us hope this is the beginning of a trend) is that every beer which comes from the kegs behind a glass wall can be taken home in a 64-oz. growler, a refillable glass amber jug.
"We think it's pretty unique," said BD's Michael Passero. "A growler is the freshest way to drink draft beer at home."
Perhaps the Easter Bunny will leave a 22 in your basket.
Most breweries now employ an "Enjoy By" date on a bottle rather than an expiration date. But Stone Brewing Co. has flipped that idea on its head with a new release, the Enjoy By 04.20.13 IPA. The California brewer has created a hop-heavy ale with 11 different hops added at all points of the brew process. And all of those pungent hops aren't meant to last, which is why the beer that showed up in Kansas City (the first of the limited hophead releases that appeared in KC was Enjoy By 12.21.12) this past week is here only for a short time. Stone sent Fat City a 22 oz. bottle - the adult equivalent of the Easter Bunny - and we obliged them by drinking it.
There may come a day in the not-too-distant future when we forget that Kansas was once bone-dry. Dark Horse Distillery, out of Lenexa (profiled last February as part of a piece on Kansas microdistilleries), has just released two new spirits: Reserve Bourbon Whiskey and Reunion Rye Whiskey.
"A lot of people like drinking it neat or on the rocks," Dark Horse Director of Sales and Marketing Damian Garcia says. "It opens up some of the flavors, but they both do really nicely in a cocktail."
Kansas Citians can get a whole new morning perk-up starting next Tuesday. That's when Boulevard's Coffee Ale - a collaboration with the Roasterie that is the latest in their Smokestack series - will start showing up on store shelves. By the end of next week, It should be everywhere that regularly stocks Boulevard beer.
Back in February, The Pitchwrote about how the collaboration came to pass and what led Boulevard to forgo making a coffee stout or porter. If you're hoping for a caffeine fix, though, you'll have to look elsewhere, because Boulevard's Elizabeth Belden estimates that you'd need to drink 9 pints of Coffee Ale to equal the caffeine in one cup of coffee.
It's important to remember in times like these that there is ground under the snow. And that ground can be home to a pretty sweet biergarten. Food & Winejust named Grunauer's (101 West 22nd Street) outdoor Shangri-La as one of America's Best Beer Gardens. Here's what F & W had to say:
A tasty Viennese-style menu (think Hungarian beef goulash and Sacher torte) is one draw at this hugely popular beer hall in Greater Downtown. Draft beers are largely German, though a convincing Weizenbock-style beer from California's Lagunitas is also in the lineup. The wine list includes a number of excellent Austrian bottles, like the rich, floral Heidi Schröck Furmint.
So, don't just go there for Oktoberfest. This is one beer garden worthy of year-round celebration.
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