Kansas May Join the Modern World

One of the great embarrassments of the wonderful state of Kansas is Kansas University, that friggin' Jayhawk can suck my.. oh wait, that's not what I'm writing about. Let's start over, One of the great embarrassments of the wonderful state of Kansas is 3.2 beer. For those not steeped in the beer purchasing history of Kansas, Kansas sells a kind of demon beer in grocery and convenience stores that does not contain more than 3.2% alcohol by weight (4.0 ABV I had this wrong in the original post). Many Kansans, myself included, don't ever buy beer at the grocery store because of its inferior quality to liquor store beer. Just this past week, I bought a sixer at Cosentino's downtown and felt very strange about even though it was regular strength beer. I've probably bought* beer in a grocery store 5 times now and not one of those occurrences was in the state of Kansas.

*My first beer drinking experiences in high school took place because my friends stole beer from the grocery store where they worked. I'm here to tell you that you can get drunk from 3.2 beer, but only if you're tolerance is similar to a 95 pound teen.

It appears that a bill has been presented to the KS legislature to get rid of the 3.2 limit for grocery stores. Finally allowing Kansans to buy regular strength beer in the grocery. Kansas is only one of five states with the ridiculous requirement in place and will soon lose Colorado as one of its brethren as that state is scrapping the law.

As with all cases of government paternalism/intervention this law change will hurt smaller liquor stores that generate most of their revenue from big domestic beer sales. That is a definite cost to the legislation. But, to paraphrase Billie Jean, right is right. The state could maybe loosen some of the more strict rules regarding liquor stores. Perhaps allow wine/beer tastings on liquor store premises or something like that. No doubt some smaller liquor stores would close, but it would be better for the overall industry if we lose the stupid rules.

Chunks O'McCoy

Stella and I went out for a night on the town last night. We saw "Revolutionary Road" at the Rio in downtown Overland Park which was a laugh riot. Then we meandered over to McCoy's for dessert and beer.

Amazingly, we were seated at the accordion table again. I would guess that of the 30 or so times we've been to McCoy's together, we've sat at the accordion table 25 of those times. It was to the point last night we tried to pick out the other places in the restaurant we had sat at and could only locate 2 other places. We didn't count the times that we've been to McCoy's with other people because we obviously couldn't sit at the accordion table on those occasions. I think it may be where they sit the undesirables.

On to the beer. I asked our stoned out of his mind waiter (he was very nice, just stoned) what the seasonals were. He named off 2 that sounded good. A cask conditioned brown (I always go with the cask) and an oak aged porter (the most underrated beer style, the porter). I started with the cask conditioned brown. Stella got a raspberry wheat and a creme brulee cheesecake.

The brown arrived and was pretty good. It was colder than I expected, usually cask beers are cellar temp, this one seemed cooler temp. I wasn't that impressed with it. The brown ale at McCoy's is one of their better beers and I always enjoy them, but this one was decidedly worse than the regular brown ale. I kind of hurried through drinking it because I wanted to get to the oak aged porter. As it turned out I hurried too much because I drank the last little bit which contained a huge amount of sediment. It wasn't a yeasty, grainy sediment either, it was more like little pinky toe toenail clipping sediment. I spit it back in my glass and tried to avoid the temptation to vomit. I told our stoned waiter about it and he said it's just a hazard of an unfiltered beer. Maybe I'm a novice, but I know one thing, I don't ever want chunks of inedibles in my beer. This beer was a fail.

I got the oaked porter and didn't like it much at all. Usually beers that are aged in oak are aged in old bourbon or wine barrels which has softened some of the oak flavors and given the oak a unique flavor. This porter tasted as though they had bought some oak 2x4's from Home Depot and steeped them in the conditioning tanks with the beer. What I'm trying to say is that the porter tasted very similar to licking an oak tree. Although, now that I write that, licking an oak tree seems appealing to me because it was still a drinkable beer. The oak was just overbearing.

All in all, Stella got the best end of the McCoy's deal by getting the creme brulee cheescake which was very good and the raspberry wheat. As for me, I think I may not give McCoy's the benefit of the doubt anymore and asked for a sampler of their seasonals before I get a whole pint.

Blackberry Donnelly

You ever have a show that you record every week in your DVR but never take the time to watch it? You kind of like the show but never take the time to watch it and the shows keep stacking up in your DVR. You always find a DVD or some show on live TV to watch instead of actually watching the show that is taking up 6 hours of space in your DVR. We've had several of those shows in the Vard mansion, “The Black Donnellys”, “Conviction” and the new “90210” come to mind. Usually the show gets cancelled before we actually watch them and we just delete all the episodes from the DVR.

Samuel Adams Blackberry Witbier is like “The Black Donnellys” of beers except it doesn't have any annoyances comparable to the kid on that show who failed to enunciate a single word in 8 episodes (I only watched 2, I'm just guessing that he never learned to enunciate for the other 6 episodes).

I kind of like a good fruit beer and am a giant fan of raspberry beers. I've taken a lot of guff over the years for my love of raspberry beers but I like them and I'm unapologetic. In general I'm not that big of a fan of blackberries, seeing them as a poor substitute for raspberries. But they're fine, certainly not the worst berry, I'm looking at you blue. So when I heard that Sam Adams had a blackberry witbier I was slightly intrigued.

It's a bit cloudy and looks like a good witbier when poured. It smells very strongly of blackberries which kind of overpowers the nose. I'm glad I chose my tall pilsner glass to drink it out of because I think it may have masked some of the overpoweriness of the blackberry smell. If I was presented with the full nose while drinking I think the blackberry may have been overpowering to the taste buds. But with the pilsner glass it actually became quite well balanced. What it lacked was any kind of sweetness, leaving it tasting a bit bland which I would blame on the blackberries which always seem to taste bland to me.

The Sam Adams Blackberry Witbier is certainly not the worst beer on shelves in KC. But it's far from the best. I suspect that it will meet the same fate as “Conviction”, a product from a great producer that never really found an audience because it just wasn't that great. Luckily it comes in a Brewmaster's variety 6 pack so you're only stuck with 2 of them if you don't likey.

Lost with the Czar

In what is becoming an annual tradition, I decided to celebrate the season premiere of "Lost" with a beer that I've never had before. This was a bit of an accident this year as I meant to have the new Boulevard Imperial Stout while watching the show. But, after going to 2 stores in Kansas, I concluded that it wouldn't be in Kansas until tomorrow. Since I had my cold dark heart set on an imperial stout, I picked Avery's The Czar Imperial Stout.

Stella and I sat down to watch the 3 hours of "Lost" around 8:00. We burned through the pre-show show in about 40 minutes. In between the pre-show and the season premiere I ran my Czar through the Cooper Cooler for about 5 minutes. I would guess the Czar came out of the cooler at about 55 degrees, a little cooler than John Locke err Jeremy Bentham.

I used my trusty Boulevard Smokestack glass to pour the Czar. The Czar pours black with just a hint of a reddish tint and leaves a nice one inch creamy tan head. The smell contained some dark chocolate, a hint of hops, some fruit and a whole mess of alcohol. The smell alone would have intoxicated one of my kids. As I sat down to watch the good doctor film his training video I took my first taste. It was a little bit chocolatey with some fruit flavor and then all of that went away and all I tasted was alcohol. It was like eating a Hershey Kiss with a bourbon chaser. The aftertaste was dominated by the alcohol. I probably made a mistake by cooling it down as much as I did.

By the time it was revealed that the island is a time machine, I knew I was going to struggle to make it to 10:30. The 11% alcohol was going to have its way with me. The Czar was my own personal smoke monster. As the beer warmed throughout the 2 hour show, it never quite got to the point that I wasn't tasting the alcohol. I even had to eat a salty snack which I always want when drinking bourbon or scotch.

Don't get me wrong, the Czar wasn't a bad beer it was actually pretty good, I just think it could have had a sweetness to balance out the alcohol burn. To put it in "Lost" terms I wanted it to be like Benjamin Linus. I knew it had a lot of alcohol in it just like I know Benjamin Linus is a slimy snake. But Benjamin has a charm that even though you know he's a snake, he can still convince you to do what he wants. I wanted the Czar to have that charm, in the Czar's case a sweetness to balance out the snakiness of the alcohol. The Czar in short is what Benjamin Linus would be if he were played by Jon Voight (see Voight playing the coach in "Varsity Blues" if you don't know what this means).

Tipsy's Revisited

Back when Tipsy's in Mission (Johnson Dr. and Broadmoor) opened a couple of months ago I wrote "Greeting people is apparently not that important at Tipsy's. They were 0 for 2 in my 10 minutes in the store. After I picked out my sixers and walked to the register, I was finally greeted by the clerk. For a new store, I would expect some kind of enthusiasm from the clerk to try to get me to come back."

Well either they read this blog (not likely) or I just had a bad experience the first time (very likely). Because every time I've been to Tipsy's since I have been greeted when I walk in the door and have received superior customer service. It is one of my favorite liquor stores to buy a sixer in.

That being said, I think Tipsy's is much more of a wine store than a beer store. They have an average to very good selection of beers in six packs, including a very good make your own six pack selection. They are lacking in selection of bombers though. They carry all of the Boulevard Smokestack series, but store them all in the cooler (which you don't want if you're going to store it for a while or if you have a Cooper Cooler). They carry a couple of Rogue and Avery and some foreign big beers, but overall they only have about 20 bombers. If I'm looking for something new and exciting Tipsy's is not where I go.

I get the distinct impression that the owners of Tipsy's care much more about their wine selection than their beer selection, which is fine. They even have a tasting room in the front of the store where they have wine events and tastings. I'd like to see them expand that to include beer tastings but it's fine if they don't. I would like to see them put up a website. It's a pretty big liquor store with a lot going on, a website is probably needed.

If you're in or near Mission, Tipsy's is well worth a stop, especially if you are going to stock up on some wine.

Inauguration Day

To be honest, I haven't really researched anyplace that is having an inauguration day watch party. But, Gordon Biersch is having one. For those that are interested in a new day in America, you may want to head down for lunch and watch our new President give a rousing speech.

Join us on Tuesday, January 20th for an early lunch or a beer to commemorate history in the making as our 44th President is sworn in to office. Live and ongoing coverage will be broadcast on our state-of-the-art, big screen TV's, so you can forgo the crowds of Capitol Hill and still get a front-row seat!

Don't Miss Out...

The Inaugural Swearing-in Ceremony begins at 11:30am EST, and additional inaugural events continue throughout the afternoon. Enjoy a great lunch and watch history being made!

Let us know if you know of any other watch parties going on in town.

Boulevard Imperial Stout

Boulevard's newest Smokestack beer is out and in some stores. You may have to do some searching/calling around to find some this weekend but by next week every liquor store should have a case or so. Oregon Amy bought out Royal Liquors on State Line and is reporting that Gomer's in midtown didn't have any yet (but Gomer's midtown did just locate 5 cases of Saison-Brett that I don't think they will still have on Monday).

Boulevard gave Wes and I (and every other beer blogger in town) a bottle of this stout last year so I have tasted it and like it. Amy has a review and she says it is her favorite of the Boulevard lineup of beers. Now's the time to stock up.

As we always do around here, give us a shout out where you found some, how much is left and how much you paid.

Exit Dave Enter OC

I guess even big chains have a tough time paying the Power & Light rent. Famous Dave's is shuttering its downtown location for a more friendly suburban location. That's all well and good since Dave's is suburban type barbecue. I'm not a hater of Famous Dave's, I've even eaten it in the past week, but we have about 10 local barbecue places that are better.

Now on to my complaint, Old Chicago is moving into the spot vacated by Famous Dave. Now don't get me wrong, it's exciting to have another place with an excellent beer selection in the P&L (Flying Saucer is the other one, if you didn't know that, drive down to the P&L and have a beer at the Saucer, we'll wait on you to get back). Is everyone back? Okay, I'm not upset about it being an OC, I'm upset it's not a Rock Bottom Brewery(which is the same company as Old Chicago).

The P&L could be a destination for beer geeks. It's already a pretty good spot to pick up some good beers. You can get a nice dinner and brewpub beer at Gordon-Biersch and then spend the rest of the evening at the Saucer enjoying every beer style imaginable. With 2 breweries and a great beer bar, the P&L could have a real identity other than white douche capital of KC. Then if all went well with 2 brewpubs, maybe Schlafly or Upstream or some other good brewpub from the midwest, would want to locate in the neighborhood. A cluster of brewpubs, this is what dreams are made of.

I'm sure that Gordon Biersch has some sort of brewpub non-compete clause in their lease, but I think they would be willing to break it. In San Francisco, the GB flagship brewery is less than a mile from another brewpub and both of them are doing fine. Not only don't I think it would be a problem, I think it would be a benefit. Throw in a Toronado, a Blind Tiger Ale House and a Harry's or Waldo Pizza Tap Room and you have the new beer capital of the United States. I'm starting to get myself a little excited, not a good day to be wearing boxer shorts with a button on the fly.

The first step has to be the Rock Bottom Brewery instead of Old Chicago. We've got to take baby steps here. But this is the idea of the future.

Liquor Store Looky Loo

Over the next couple of weeks you should be checking your local liquor stores for a couple of new offerings. First off, Boulevard Irish Ale will be hitting stores next week and is probably the finest and most popular of Boulevard's seasonal offerings. It is so popular it gets really hard to find after St. Patrick's day. Irish Ale will also be on tap everywhere Boulevard's seasonals are usually on tap.

Then around the 15th of January, Sierra Nevada is releasing a new beer to their year round lineup, the Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA. From Sierra Nevada:

In the forthcoming Torpedo package, we are not only using the new Hop Torpedo method, but also debuting a new variety of hop. We are using a new varietal called the Citra hop. Sierra Nevada ( and two other breweries) funded the research and development of this variety and we own most of the acreage available in the world, (which is something like 3 acres). This hop has a crazy strange flavor profile, leaning toward pineapple, mango, papaya and other tropical fruit flavors and aromas. As always, we use only whole cone hops.

The Beer:
Torpedo is in a grey area, somewhere between an IPA and a Double IPA...We are calling it Extra IPA...
7.4% ABV
IBU's in the high 70's to 80's

Bittering hops: with Magnum
Finishing hops: Magnum, Crystal, Chinook.
Torpedo: Magnum, Chinook, Citra.

As regular readers of this site know, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is one of my favorite everyday beers and I very much am looking forward to their Torpedo. You may want to take matters into your own hands and call your local liquor store and request that they get Torpedo, it should be available in the area.

Update:Irish Ale is available right now at Gomer's in Lenexa, you may want to check with your favorite store to find out availability.

Update 2: Sierra Nevada Torpedo won't be available in KS and MO until March.

Needless Extravagance

Since we have 3 kids, Stella and I have only a limited amount of refrigerator space. Between the 4 gallons of milk, juice boxes and various other juices, we have only a limited amount of space for adult items like cheese dip and sodas. We've constructed a soda shelf in the garage for sodas and waters but we had trouble getting them cold and it has proved to be too much of a hassle to bring some in and put it in the refrigerator. I think most people battle this phenomenon with a second refrigerator but my second refrigerator is a kegerator.

We also frequently drink white wines which need to be cold, but not having them stored in the refrigerator we always had to think ahead before we cracked one open. So Stella finally had had enough and asked for a wine chiller for Christmas. I'm almost ashamed to admit that we now own a Cooper Cooler and even more ashamed to admit that I love it. I've been blatantly storing sodas on the counter so they get even more warm than they normally are. Then I throw them in the Cooper Cooler for 3 minutes and I have an ice cold soda.

All you need to do to use it is fill it with 2 cups of cold water and 3 or 4 handfuls of ice cubes. Then you put your can/bottle in it and set the container type (bottle, can or wine). The Cooper Cooler then turns your can or bottle while spraying the ice cold water on it. It's the same basic principle of using running water to defrost a steak. The running water over the turning soda chills it much faster than it could be chilled by just sitting it in ice or in the freezer. Plus you don't have the problem of forgetting about the soda in the freezer and finding it a day later frozen and ruined.

I used the Cooper Cooler for a bottle of Long Strange Trippel and stopped it after a minute so it didn't get too cold. It came out perfect. We used it on New Year's Eve on a bottle of champagne and had a perfectly chilled champagne and the spinning didn't even cause it to explode when I valiantly popped the cork.

I think I'm going to free up even more room in the refrigerator by no longer putting all of the Capri Suns in there. Instead I'm going to choose the O'Reilly feature (no spin) and cool them with the Cooper Cooler.

Even though I love it, it's a little embarrassing owning such a silly extravagant item. But, it's not extravagant if you use it right?

Membership has its Privileges

Since we had a sitter the night we went to see Neil Diamond we thought we would get out of the house early and get dinner before the show. Stella loves to eat at Gordon Biersch and I like it as well. An additional factor in our decision was the fact that I had a $20 gift certificate to Biersch from when I enrolled in their Passports Rewards program in March when they opened. As part of that enrollment we also had a coupon for their Twelve Days of Christmas promotion. The coupon for that night was for a free appetizer with the order of an entree.

So we got down there about 6:00 and Neil didn't start until 8:00 so we had plenty of time to eat. Apparently everyone else who was going to the concert also decided to eat at Biersch and we were told the wait would be an hour. Well we had time and we kind of had our hearts set on it anyway so we went back to the bar to wait/try to capture an open bar table and drink a beer. As we were leaning against a wall, Stella noticed a Passport Rewards brochure and mentioned something about it. I remembered that being a member meant I got priority seating so I went up to the hostess and told her that I was Passport Rewards member. We were seated within 5 minutes.

We had the potstickers appetizer which, for $9, was a little lacking in actual food, but very tasty. Then for the entree we split a garlic chicken pizza which wasn't that great unless you got a bite with chicken, garlic and cheese in it. I had the Winterbock beer which was very good, Stella had her favorite, the Marzen. We were ready to pay our tab by 7:00 leaving us plenty of time to get in the VIP entrance and make our way up the elevator to our suite. The best part of the whole experience though, was the fact that our total tab after discounts and gift certificates abounted to $1. We were out of pocket $7 for the whole meal with tip.

For the $10 I spent on the Passport Rewards(I think it is $15 now), we were treated like VIP's with the priority seating, treated to a pretty good meal and drinks for very little money. I also get a free entree coupon for my birthday and invitations to their seasonal keg tappings. Not a bad deal overall. I don't go there enough to actually rack up any real amounts of points on the card, but I don't really have to to take advantage of membership. It was $10 well spent.