20 Reasons You Should Visit the Riot Room

Here comes the story of the Hurricane Riot Room. For those who may not know, the Riot Room is a rock/metal venue in Westport, formerly known as the Hurricane. I used to go to the Hurricane on occasion to see bands my friends were in, it wasn't a place I'd go to have a beer. That was back in 2006. Since 2008 the venue has been called The Riot Room but many things remained the same. The big difference now is the beer selection, and what a big difference it is.

I stopped in the Riot Room yesterday after getting a late lunch at McCoy's (there may be better lunch menus but I couldn't pass up the patio) to check out the Scottish Highland Games pub crawl. I figured I'd stop in, see a couple dudes in kilts, grab a Boulevard Wheat and promptly scoot. Three beers and ninety minutes later I was hating myself for not visiting this place sooner.

I called this post "20 Reasons You Should Visit the Riot Room," so here's why you should go:

1. Avery White Rascal
2. Chimay White
3. Bell's Two Hearted
4. Free State Ad Astra
5. O'Fallon Hemp Hop Rye
6. Schlafly Summer Lager
7. Avery DuganA
8. Bell's Oberon
9. New Belgian Lips of Faith Blonde
10. Grimbergen
11. Schlafly APA
12. Boulevard Wheat
13. Avery Old Jubilation
14. Schlafly Extra Stout
15. New Belgium Ranger IPA
16. Boulevard Pale Ale
17. New Belgium Skinny Dip
18. Schlafly Wheat
19. PBR...
20. Coors Light...

All of those were available on tap at the circular bar.

OK, so the last two are a bit out of place but they are worth noting because they are the only non-craft beers on tap. If you're feeling cheated because only 18 of those are beers you'd drink, here are two more reasons you should go: Generous pours (the picture above is of the Grimbergen I ordered), and location. Within walking distance from Gomer's Midtown and spitting distance from McCoy's, The Riot Room is pretty conveniently located, parking may be an issue though... Oh, and here's a bonus reason, proper glassware (I put more stock in this than I should but it's always nice to get your beer in the glass it was meant for).

The only draw back to the Riot Room for me, and it won't be an issue for some people, is that the bar is really only open for events. This isn't really a place you can just stop in after work and have a beer, chances are you'll need to come on a show night and pay a cover. Like I said before, I stopped in to check out the Scottish Highland Games folks since I had no idea KC even had a Scottish Highlands Games, let alone that it is two weeks from now. I was able to dodge the cover since this was like three or four hours before any bands went on, but they were doing sound checks so it was impossible to hear the Royals game (which wasn't worth watching anyways) or talk to anyone. I did enjoy Troglodyte's sound check though, it took me back to a time when lived on a steady diet of double bass and second hand smoke.

Texpertise

The family and I are taking a road trip over the holiday coming up (that holiday being my 29th birthday) to Wichita and Ft. Worth. We're just spending the night in my hometown of Wichita, stopping at the Donut Whole for some maple bacon donuts and heading to my brother-in-law's house just outside of Ft. Worth.

I already have some of my own Texpertise from several trips down there in the past. I know I'm going to have access to Dogfish Head and Stone beers as well as local brewers like Live Oak, Rahr and Sons (where I'm hopefully going to have a tour) and St. Arnolds. I also found another well regarded brewery that I have no knowledge of in Green Flash. Of beers from those breweries, does anyone have any must trys (I've had just about every Dogfish Head beer in previous trips so I'm more interested in beers from the other breweries)? I know Lee is going to give me a rundown on the St. Arnolds lineup.

I'll be hitting up the Flying Saucer in Ft. Worth where I should be able to find any of your suggestions. We'll also be visiting the manna of Texas liquor stores in Goody Goody. So I should be able to find any beers available in Texas. I'll also be hitting up the Yucatan Taco Stand Tequila Bar & Grill for some fish tacos, cabrito tacos and maybe some paella. For fun we're going to go see the Frisco Rough Riders vs. Tulsa Drillers where I'll be able to see former Cubs Steve Buechele and Brant Brown coach Chet Lemon's son.

Does anyone have any Texpertise and point out some must not miss beers or food? No, I'm not interested in any nude bars, porn shops or fireworks stands so leave those suggestions to yourself.

KC Beerfail

The KC Beerfest happened yesterday in Westport. Happened is most cordial word I can use to describe the event. In case you hadn't heard yet, the event ended a little earlier than expected... about two and a half hours earlier than expected advertised. No, there wasn't a freak thunderstorm or underage flash mob, but rather a beer shortage. I've heard different stories about what caused the shortage but they all follow a common theme: someone didn't bring the amount of beer they were supposed to.

I got to Westport just after 1pm and made my way around the Boulevard and Odell tables before moseying down Westport road through Founders, Saison Dupont, Left Hand and Tallgrass. I got a glass of Odell Mountain Reserve and Tallgrass Oasis during this first pass. Not bad stuff, the Oasis was surprising good. I was expecting a light summer lager but it was a hoppy red mouthful.

Finally, around 2 or 2:15 I walk over to the last set of tables and notice that one whole side of the street is empty.... I mean there was nothing on the tables at all. I couldn't tell what I'd missed, that's how long they'd been out of beer. The far side of the street still had some bottles so I walked over and saw a few New Belgium beers, Schlafly Pale and Strangford Lough. The crowd was packed around the last two or three poor volunteers that still had beer left. I managed to get a pour of Strangford's St. Patrick's Ale. It was scotchy and had a little caramel flavor. By the time I'd gotten my St. Pat's pour the other beers on that block had completely run out. The place was picked so clean that I even saw someone run off with a cardboard cutout of The Most Interesting Man.

I heard from one person that only one case of beer per style showed up that morning, while someone else had told me that a distributor completely pulled out of the event without giving the organizers a heads up.

So it was now about 2:30pm, an hour and a half after the event opened to the public, and one third of the tables were now out of beer. The crowd understandably dispersed and headed toward the tables that still had beer. Keep in mind that even though a third of the beer was gone, a third of the crowd didn't just go home... So now the remaining tables were even busier and running out of beer at a rapidly increasing rate as more people keep showing up. I decided to cut my losses at this point and make my way over to Boulevard and grab a Saison-Brett before it ran out. The girl pouring the Saison-Brett handed me a glass that was filled to the brim! Unfortunately, it was all foam...

We hung around until about 3pm, grabbing a falafel sandwich from the Jerusalem Cafe truck (which was parked in front of Jerusalem Cafe oddly enough...) and watching the disappointed beer drinkers wander around in a sober stupor. It was like a bizarro warzone... Finally, we just went to Murray's for ice cream which ended up being the best decision of the day. I got the Bacon Maple Walnut ice cream and forgot all about the beerfest, seriously it was that good.

Walking back through Westport around 3:30 it looked like Tallgrass and Boulevard were the only ones with beer left. It's worth noting that the event was sold as running from 1pm to 5pm... I left around 3:30ish because there was no point in staying any longer. As surprised as I was that beer ran out early (this isn't the first time this has happened at a KC Beerfest) I was even more surprised there weren't any fights or people making a scene. I'll credit the lack of beer to contributing to the crowd's mild temper.

Lost - Whatcha Drinkin?

I was going to write a well informed post about THE beer to drink during the Lost finale tonight. But, I never really figured out THE beer to drink. I've been as lost as to what to drink during the 3 hour extravaganza tonight as I've been during the 6 years of Lost. We spent the day at the Matt Ross Community Center pool today, I'm worn out and I'm not making an extra trip to Tipsy's. So, I'll either be drinking one of my 2008 Saison-Bretts, a Seeyoulator or stick to the Bell's Oberon, Great Divide Titan IPA, Colette and Denver Pale Ale that treated me so right last night. It's about 78 degrees in the house right now, we're getting some takeout, the kids are going to bed early and I'm going to be sucking down some beer.

So, the question is, what are you drinking tonight?

Once Upon a Brewmaster Luncheon

This past friday I finally made it down to Boulevard for their Brewmaster Luncheon. I've had to pass on the past two or three invites from friends because of other commitments or just being really short notice. This is the second season for the luncheon series so I'm a little late to the party since just about everyone I've talked to has already been to one. Anyway, I had a really good time and thought it was worth sharing.

If you aren't familiar with the format it's basically the same as the public tour but with food. While you wait for everyone to show up for the tour you get to hang out in the tasting room adjacent to the gift shop. We were served generous pours of the finalized Amber ale which will be on tap in the Omaha market around the first of June. Folks in KC will see bottles of Amber start popping up in 12 pack samplers around the same time. I was told this is because Omaha drinks more Amber ale (read: Fat Tire) so they're getting Boulevard Amber first. There was no mention of when KC would see it on tap, but I doubt it'd be too much longer after Omaha.

I mostly tuned out the tour since I'd been so many times before. I did notice that the barrel aging room is now full of "6th" barrels, there don't seem to be any Rye-on-Rye or Imperial Stout barrels on site. I later heard that the Rye-on-Rye schedule is dependent on getting barrels from Templeton so Boulevard has to wait for Templeton to bottle their whiskey before any empty barrels become available. Since it's such a small operation they don't just have barrels lying around. The guide did mention an off-site location where Boulevard keeps its sour beers and longer term lagered beers.

The tour ended in the Muehlebach suite where we sat down for lunch. This month's menu was put together by Josh Eans from Blanc Burgers + Bottles. When I first heard Blanc was doing the food I felt a little disappointed that the Boulevard lunch I finally get to go to is catered by a place I've eaten at several times before. After seeing the menu though I felt a bit better about it. I realized that these guys serve burgers all day so they're probably not going do a three course burger lunch when they're invited to Boulevard... The menu went like this: cured salmon and microgreen salad followed by short rib ravioli, then bleu cheese with rosemary honey.

The first course was wild king salmon cured with lime and Boulevard Zon which was served with a microgreen salad topped with a Zon, orange and coriander vinaigrette and paired with the Two Jokers Double-Wit. Two Jokers is one of my favorite Boulevard beers, I like it more than the Saison-Brett to be honest. This dish was light and tangy with lots of summery flavors and a salad that had a lot of kick to it... which is something I don't say very often. The salmon was served cold and covered with lime juice and Zon. I'm not a big seafood person so this was great for me. I enjoy thin sliced salmon rather than a cooked filet. The beer pairing was good but I didn't have an epiphany by any means. I already liked the Two Jokers and would drink it with just about anything so I'm a bit biased. That being said, this was the dish I liked the least.

Course number two where I was expecting greatness. This course was a Boulevard Sour Brown ale braised short rib ravioli served with mushrooms, peas and paired with Boulevard's Dubbel. I felt like this dish was cheating a little... You can't get a Boulevard Sour Brown or Dubbel anywhere, these are experimental beers that don't make it off the premises. Not only that but you can't walk in to Blanc and get the short rib ravioli... That's kind of the whole point of the luncheon, to treat you to something special, but this was completely left field as far as I was concerned. It was awesome, but I was bummed knowing I'd probably never have it again.

Oh, and it was beyond delicious by the way. The ravioli were filled with savory cuts of short rib that were swimming in a sauce of sour brown ale and decadent rib juice. I generally don't care for mushrooms but the combination of sour rib meat and mushroom went together phenomenally. This is a dish I'd pay a stupid amount of money for... even without the Dubbel pairing.

The Dubbel seemed like a great pairing at the time. No other Boulevard beer would have gone quite as well. The Long Strange Tripel would have been good, but maybe too sweet and light. The Dubbel was a copper, brown colored beer with caramel and a little chocolate in the flavor. It was sweet and a little sour, which hooked right in with the ravioli. Steven Pauwels said this beer was around 7% or 8% alcohol and has been in testing for about nine years... Yup, nine years. It sounded more like they tried this style nine years ago and didn't like how it turned out, then tried it four or five years ago and still weren't happy. They keep coming back to the style but haven't perfected it... It tasted fine to me, I'd buy a bottle and serve it with short rib ravioli in a heartbeat.

The final course was a cheese dish. Steven Pauwels was incredibly giddy over this cheese dish. He said that he'd been begging the chefs to do a cheese course but no one had ever attempted it at the luncheon. The plate they brought out to us had a wedge of Rogue Creamery Smokey Blue topped with rosemary honey and served with toasted olive oil and rosemary bread. Oh, and there were hazelnuts on the plate too... This was paired with a glass of Boulevard's Double-Wide IPA. I have to say that this was my least favorite pairing, but I liked the food a lot. I'm not crazy about really hoppy beers and didn't really dig the spicy IPA and bleu cheese combination. I don't like Buffalo wings with bleu cheese either so maybe it's just me.

What I did like was the honey and bleu cheese, that was amazing. The outer rind of the cheese wedge was smokey and went with the hazelnuts and IPA better than the creamier center of the cheese. I won't rush out and get a bottle of Double-Wide to pair with my bleu cheese but I would grab a bottle of honey to dip it in. That was an epiphany for me, even if the beer pairing wasn't.

Lunch wrapped up with Steve Pauwels poking fun at Josh Eans' mustache which got more than a few laughs. Eans then thanked everyone for coming by sending out a Blanc branded Christopher Elbow chocolate on a Boulevard coaster. This was a chocolate ganache infused with fresh Oregon hops. I honestly couldn't taste the hops at all in my chocolate, maybe because I'd just finished off that glass of Double-Wide. Chimpotle on the other hand, just about gagged when he took a bit of the chocolate... and this is not a man that gags lightly. So, your mileage my vary with the hop infused Elbow chocolates.

Steven Pauwels happened to be sitting at our table, right next to my friend Bartles actually, so I got to ask him a number of questions about Boulevard and the luncheon series. I asked which luncheon was his favorite and he said that the folks from The American Restaurant made some really great pairings. He teased a little about the next collaboration beer that is already in the works. He wouldn't say anything about what brewery it was, or what beer they are thinking about doing because if we knew the style of beer it'd give away who that brewery is because that style is what they are famous for. I asked about the Dubbel we had and whether or not it'll ever make it into Smokestack bottles after a nine year on and off trial period. Pauwels said there are definite plans to eventually make it a Smokestack beer but it won't happen before Smokestack 4-Packs come out... Smokestack 4-Packs? Yup, Pauwels said we should be seeing those on shelves around Thanksgiving, so just in time for stocking stuffer season. He mentioned Double-Wide and Tank 7 being part of the initial release of 4-Packs.

I had a great time at the Brewmaster Luncheon. I was a little apprehensive about spending $35 for a Blanc lunch at first, but I realized I'd spend that much for a burger and three Boulevards at the restaurant anyways... The food ended up being great, and it was nice to sit within drooling distance of Steven Pauwels. If there is anyone left out there who hasn't done the Brewmaster Luncheon at Boulevard I'd definitely recommend doing it.

KC Beerfest this weekend in Westport

It hardly seems like it's time for another KC Beerfest. I remember the last one like it was yesterday... It was cold, there were a lot of people and there wasn't enough beer. I thought about taking a pass on this year's Beerfest mostly because I didn't want to drive up to Legends again. My plans changed when I learned this year's Beerfest (at least the first one) will be held in Westport. Hey, I like Westport. I also like sampling a lot of different beers when I'm not freezing to death on the third level of a parking garage in the windiest part of Kansas. But seriously, Westport is going to be a cool location, much better than Power & Light in my opinion.

The event starts at 1pm on Saturday the 22nd, tickets are $25 in advance or $30 at the door. I heard everything will be set up around the intersection of Pennsylvania and Westport road, so right outside McCoy's and probably in the mini-parking lot in front of the Foundry. Parking will be retarded, because we're talking about Westport, so plan accordingly.

The beer list is largely the same as last time (not much changes in 6 months, surprise!) but there are a few notable additions. Here some are the beers I'm looking forward to:

Crown Valley - I haven't had any of their beer let so I'm curious to try it.

Boulevard Amber - I enjoyed the test bottles I had last month and am eager to try the real thing.

Great Divide Dunkel Weiss - The more German the name the more I wanna drink it.

Odell Mountain Standard Reserve - I've come pretty close to buying a 750 of this on countless occasions but always talked myself out of it.

Bell's Two Hearted - One of the few IPAs I like. I don't really need an excuse to drink this every chance I get.

Even if you've had most of the beers on the list it won't be hard to get your money's worth. Plus the event benefits the KC Free Health Clinic and the AIDS Service Foundation of Greater KC.

If you're in attendance you'll probably see me stumbling from table to table in my Avery hat and Sixth Glass shirt. Try not to make fun, it's not polite.

Lager? I Hardly Knew Her

After the last tasting panel it was obvious we needed to pare things down a bit. 18 beers is just way too many to get an accurate taste of in one night, especially if you're looking to have fun while you're drinking. So for the next tasting party we changed things up and dialed down the number of beers and we even changed locales to Weston's River Market loft.

The event was classed up quite a bit by the contributions of Weston's wife, Chambord. She made us little peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, helped fry up some Spam and put in the pretzel handles, and supervised Weston deep frying Oreos. For the rest of our parts we all brought "yard beers" which was loosely defined as cheap lagers, though that's not all that was brought. Chimpotle also brought his bottle of Sam Adams Utopia and beer flavored Pub Corn, one of these was better than the other.

We started off trying some Utopia with Chambord and Yeti's wife, Longhorn. It was more of a brandy than a beer, but it was very good. In the beer world it reminded me of Avery Beast Grand Cru. If you're interested in spending $200 for a big bottle of beer, which is what Utopia costs, I would recommend trying a $15 bottle of Beast Grand Cru to make sure you enjoy the deep, complex, brandy features of the Utopia.

When Chambord and Longhorn left for JP's Wine Bar, we sat down to get to "work" drinking cheap beers. As I took my seat I noticed Weston's cat's water bowl had a continuous flow of water. Chimpotle and I made fun of the childless Weston for caring so much about his cat that they spent $50 on water fountain for it. Since the cat's water fountain was right behind me for the entire evening I must have used the restroom 5 times. The sound of continuous running water really does affect my peeing. Chimpotle did the pouring in the kitchen behind a little wall so we didn't know what we were drinking. We had a couple of higher end beers mixed in with the ultra cheap macro brewed beers just to see if we could pick out the good ones. Below is our tasting notes on each beer and our guesses for what they were.

Natural Light - Tasted like watered down honey or ball steeped water. We joked that someone had dipped their balls in boiling water creating a mistake on both ends, the balls and the resulting brew. The group guessed it was Keystone Ice, my guess was Natural Light.


Coors Light - Smells like actual beer but has no taste and is neither good nor bad. Everyone including me guessed it was Natural Light.

Bud Light Lime - There was no doubt what we were drinking. We thought it tasted like bottled water with lime in it. We concluded that if Bud Light Lime is your favorite beer, then you don't like beer.

We got a little sidetracked by a little game of trickery called "Bros Icing Bros" where if someone was presented with a Smirnoff Ice, he had to chug it. I think Yeti had 2 Ices in rapid succession, Duff had a 22 oz. bottle of it, Weston had 2, Chimpotle and Paul A. Ner each had 1. I escaped "getting iced" by proclaiming that I don't do shots and I don't chug things. Mostly I don't do things 18 year old girls do, I don't shave my legs, watch "Gossip Girl", blow dudes or drink Smirnoff Ice. After watching the festivities, I wouldn't put any of those things past the other 4 guys. Though there was one great thing to come of Bros Icing Bros and that was Chimpo screeching "Iced". If we had any recording equipment with us, I think there would be no doubt that all 5 of us would have that as our ringtones.

Stag - One word was written for this beer and that word was awful. We guessed it was Miller High Life. Strangely when the blind tasting was all over, I had another can of Stag.

Milwaukees Best - If there's one thing that my time in college taught me it was what Milwaukees Best tastes like. We all said it had very little taste and guessed correctly that it was Milwaukees Best.

Schlitz - There was some disagreement on this one whether it was a more premium beer. Paul A. Ner was quite sure it was one of the more professional beers and that it was brewed with care, he thought it was the Left Hand Polestar Pilsner. I guessed correctly that it was Schlitz.

Ed Hardy Light - I really liked how Paul A. Ner put it with his description of this one "has some taste", while that's funny it was also true. That taste was buttery. Mostly at Weston's insistence we guessed this one was Schlitz.

Left Hand Polestar Pilsner - Amazingly we all agreed this one was awful and gross. I think it's obvious that we can pick out the beer that's different and describe it as bad. I think it's safe to say that, while it's not anyone's favorite beer, it's not awful or gross if it's what you're drinking for the night. We guessed it was Stag.

During the tasting when we weren't getting "Iced", Chimpotle and Weston were breaking out their gross sexual website knowledge and showing us these videos. I didn't watch many of them and I certainly didn't watchStanhope version of "The Aristocrats" (Google it, I'm not linking to it). It literally made me cry when watching it that night.

Wittekerke Witbier - This was another one that was obvious what we were drinking. It wasn't the best witbier I've ever had and it had a lot of sediment in it, but it's definitely a beer I'll try again.

Keystone Ice - This was the point of the evening where I was tired of writing stuff down so all I have is the consensus guess which was Coors Light.

Labatts Blue - This one stumped us and a guess was not proffered.

Bud Light Golden Wheat - We all guessed this one because of it's color and haziness and also we all had one before we began because we had a bunch of it. Interestingly, we all hated it when we were drinking it earlier in the evening we thought it was awful and a bad version of Boulevard Wheat. But, in the middle of tasting a bunch of crappy beers, it stood out as one of the better ones.

Miller High Life - We didn't think much of it and decided it was the Ed Hardy Light.

It was interesting when Chimpotle called out the beers when we were done and we compared it to the list. My favorite part of the night was when Chimpo said that I was "surprisingly accurate" most of the night. As for the rest of the evening, I ate too much Spam and probably 20 Oreos. When Schlitz is your favorite beer of the night it's hard to say you've had a good night. But, aside from seeing Weston's balls, we had a good time.

Schlafly Barleywine Vertical Tasting Next Week

Back in January Waldo Pizza hosted a vertical tasting of Schlafly's Imperial Stout, and it was awesome. Mr. Schlafly Beer West, Gary Briggs, brought bottles of the 2006, 07, 08 and a keg of 09 with him and all it took to get a generous taster of each was the price of a pint of freshly tapped 2009 Imperial Stout. I've gone on at great length about how much fun it was to drink my way back in time to 2006, so it should without saying that I'm really excited about the Barleywine vertical tasting that is coming up next week on the 19th. That's right, Gary is bringing bottles of the 06, 07, 08 and 09 Schlafly Oak Aged Barleywine to Waldo Pizza for a one-night-only event.

I've heard that there will be no keg this time around but the event will otherwise be the same. Buying a glass of the new 09 Barleywine will get you tasters of the 06, 07 and 08 for free. Also worth noting is that this will be held at Waldo Pizza, an awesome place to grab a beer and order a pizza. The venue is relatively small though so if you plan on coming for the tasting I'd suggest getting there early, having a pizza and getting warmed up ahead of time.

I plan on driving straight to Waldo Pizza after work next wednesday and ordering a big pizza and a glass of Hitachino White Ale if it's still on tap. I'm really looking forward to having the Barleywine again though. I've had it once before at a Schlafly dinner in March, it was paired with tempura battered short ribs... it was beyond amazing. Oh, and that was the 2008 vintage which was chocolaty and sweet like caramel.

Don't miss this event:

Wednesday, May 19, 2010 at 6:00pm

Waldo Pizza

The Free State Project

We took our biennual trip to Lawrence Saturday for some Mother's Day festivities. Stella wanted a Runza or Spangles and Lawrence was the closest place to get the Nebraska or Wichita delicacies. As we pulled into Lawrence while listening to the Kristen Chenoweth biography on the ride down Stella decided that our lunch was to be Runza. I was less than pleased because last time I had a Runza I threw it up (though to be fair, it was a frozen Runza that I didn't heat up thoroughly enough). Stella was happy, she got the bierocks she grew up eating and some good onion rings. I was less pleased, but the cheese Runza was edible.

We then spent the afternoon at the Natural History Museum in Douche Hall on the KU campus and some nature place with a really loud macaw that liked screeching for no reason. Then we hit up Mass street to do some shopping. We went to my favorite store, Brit's, where they had West Ham and Man City soccer scarves, but not my beloved Tottenham Hotspur. Stella got herself some Christopher Elbow chocolates which prompted my oldest daughter to look at me and ask quietly "but, what about your present?". My present, a 42 piece box that we had gone down to the Elbow store to get on Friday.

Then we finally got to the only place in Lawrence I look forward to, Free State Brewery. It was only 4:30, but we only had another hour of good kid behavior before fatigue set in too far and we could no longer control the kids. I went and put our name in and got seated while Stella and the kids were shopping across the street. By the time they got there I already had fallen in love with the Bumper Crop Saison. The Free State saison was everything I look for in a saison, a little citrus, some spice in the back and some funk all over. It was truly stunning and wonderful. It was so good, when it came time to have a second beer, it was difficult to not get another saison even though there were several other beers I wanted to try.

Stella got the Crimsonberry ale which was just what she was looking for. She really liked it, I thought it tasted a little flat. But it was good, the berry flavor was a complement to the beer not the main taste, which we both like. For my second beer, I went with the Vortex Red because of my newfound love of red beers. For my dinner I went outside my comfort zone and got a smoked trout sandwich with watercress and some kind of blackberry compote. Stella got a fig walnut salad. Both items were daily specials. To say that the smoked trout sandwich was the best fish sandwich I've ever had may sound like hyperbole, but it's absolutely true. It's the only fish sandwich I've ever had, but I'm sure I'll never be able to beat it. The cool fish and the light bread was a perfect linner selection. Since it was only 3 hours since lunch, I was worried the sandwich would be all bready and big, but it was the perfect size, the perfect flavor and the perfect ratio of bread to meat to toppings. We're nearly 48 hours from the time I ate the sandwich and I've thought of it at least 75 times since then. Stella's enjoyed her fig walnut salad almost as much. The Vortex Red was a fine beer, but not better than the Lagunitas Red or Odell Red I've had lately.

About halfway through my wonderful sandwich I ordered a Belgian Wheat. It was fabulous and a great complement to my sandwich. Stella decided to get a little 10 oz. glass of the saison to go with our strawberry shortcake dessert. I kept stealing sips of the saison to wash down the wonderful little strawberry shortcake (it was  a little light on strawberries, but the shortcake was wonderful) bites.

Overall, Free State Brewery would be my favorite place in KC to eat. The food is wonderful and quite reasonably priced. Only a couple of entrees are over $10. The beer is just as wonderful and puts the brewpubs in KC to shame. The biggest compliment I can give to Free State would be that if one of my kids decides to go to KU, I will be close to okay with it simply because I will have a reason to go to Free State more regularly than we do now.

Dear Colette

Dear Colette, 


I'm not sure how to put this so I'm just going to say it, it's not going to work out between us. I love your Great Divide family, Hoss and Samurai are great friends and you know Titan is my brother from another mother (Bridget really is a saint).

I was so looking forward to our relationship, I spent months anticipating it. Then when I saw you, and this isn't flattering, I nearly wet myself in excitement like Jim in front of Nadia in American Pie. I love the Saison style and your family is one of my favorites, I thought for sure we were meant to be lifetime lovers.

I feel like I was duped, like you had stuffed your bra or something. When we got down to business and the lights were out I never would have guessed you were a beautiful Belgian Saison, I would have guessed you were a filthy German Hefeweizen. Mind you, I don't mind that you were a little filthy, that has its place, but it wasn't what I was looking for in a lifetime saison companion.

It's trendy to say it's not you, it's me. But that's not true in this case, it is you. You're lying to yourself calling yourself a saison, you're much too lemony for that. It's okay to be a Hefeweizen, some people really like that. I'm going to keep your number and give you a call when I'm in the mood for your filthy side, we really did have a good time. But, I don't think I'll ever be able to commit to you, I'm going to have to keep looking for my everyday saison.

All the best,

Bull

The Hunt for the USS Missouri

When I was a kid I used to always see bumper stickers that said "it will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber." I always thought that seemed nice especially since my dad was a teacher and we would somehow benefit from that. Well it appears that day has come but instead of a bake sale for a bomber, Boulevard will be donating some cold hard cash for every Boulevard you drink in a bar, a 12 pack, a Smokestack or a standard sixer for the commissioning of a Virginia class sub, USS Missouri.

As part of this effort, Boulevard has created some pretty sweet little pint glasses for your favorite bar to serve Boulevard in. Unfortunately, these glasses aren't for sale, though you can get an aluminum sign and t-shirts with the Boulevard USS Missouri logo. I'm a sucker for glassware and would love to drink some Pale Ale from the USS Missouri glasses and maybe, umm, procure one or two for home use. Call it out in comments as you see the glassware so I know where to go and negotiate a deal to buy a couple.

Beginning today and ending at the end of July, all of your Boulevard drinking (in Missouri) will help throw one hell of a commissioning for the USS Missouri and maybe send a little message to the submariners that the state of Missouri is really behind their efforts. At the very least you will at least enjoy some good beer over the course of the summer. This also gives you a reason to be a scold to your Bud Light drinking friends, what is their beer doing for Missouri.