B4TW - Boulevard Wheat

I know what you're thinking after reading the title. What the hell? Boulevard Wheat? Whatever for? Well, I'll tell you why. Because that's what I'll be drinking this weekend, at least tomorrow, hopefully around noon (Dear Zeus, let me be done by noon). You see, tomorrow is the Tour de BBQ and I'll be riding 35 miles in it. Somewhere around mile 20, I'll think about the Boulevard Wheat that is sure to meet me at the end of the ride and that thought along with some Oklahoma Joe's, RJ's Bob-Be-Que, Johnny's and Woodyard Barbecue along the last 15 miles, will get me to the end of the ride. And I won't have a better tasting beer than the Boulevard Wheat at the end of that ride. If you do the ride or have done it in the past, you'll know what I'm talking about.

If you're not riding in the Tour de BBQ and live downtown or somewhere south of downtown, east of I-35 and west of Holmes, odds are the Tour de BBQ will pass within a mile or two of your house. Why not look at the map, head out to a good viewing point near your house or down Southwest Boulevard near Boulevard, sit down and cheer on the riders. When you get back home or go to a bar, grab a Boulevard Wheat and maybe you'll get a fraction of the wonderful feeling that I and the other 2000 riders will have at the end of the ride.  That's why Boulevard Wheat is the beer for the weekend.

As an added bonus, for any riders or volunteers, if you're one of the first 5 to post a picture of you enjoying a Boulevard Wheat with your Tour de BBQ gear visible (helmet tag, wrist band, bib number, etc.) on the KC Beer Blog Facebook page, I'll give you a Sam Adams Perfect Pint glass.

Beer for the Playoffs

Chris O'Meara, Associated Press

It sounds trite, but baseball matters. I've been following the epic collapse of the Red Sox all month and last night was just glorious. I went to bed thinking that the best case scenario was a Red-Sox-Rays game to see who would go to the playoffs. But, it all changed, Papelbon blew a save, Longoria pulled a George Brett and said "WE WILL NOT LOSE" and brought the Rays back from 7-0. If there was such a thing as a Rays fan, he would have a memory for the rest of his life. Longoria game 162. For me, it's Motley Game 7, Sundberg's slide, Andujar meltdown, Saberhagen, Brett, 11-0 on the good side and Durham duff and Bartman (not his fault) on the bad side. What other things do you remember from 1985 or 2003? That's why baseball matters.

Harling's History

A couple of years ago I took a little beer class from the UMKC CommUniversity and the Beer Jockey Jim Quinn. It was a pretty good time with some decent pretty basic information. It was more of just a conversation about beer with 4 or 5 good beers to drink along the way for around $15. Jim's been doing various versions of that class for a couple of years now through the CommUniversity.

Now he's doing one a little different next month at Harlings Upstairs. This class is going to focus a little more on the history of Westport with some eclectic beers along the way. Jim promises many stories (some of them may even be true) about the area and Kansas City's beer history. It's not going to be a beer geek class, the way I take it, the class is going to focus on enjoying some of the more sessionable beers around town.

The class happens on Thursday night October 20th, but is limited so if you're interested you'll want to sign up immediately. The class costs $9 and Jim recommends you bring some cash to drink more beer and eat salty snacks (Harlings doesn't take credit cards). The class is numbered 3308A, not to be confused with Beer Appreciation 101 (also a worthy class) which is more expensive and more in depth in the art of tasting beer.

B4TW - Great Divide Belgian Style Yeti

This is going to be a great weekend to get outside, maybe seed your yard, trim your bushes, get all that piddly yard stuff out of the way before the leaves fall. Or you may want to get over the Plaza Art Fair or the Fall Festival in Overland Park to see The Elders. In any case you're going to get some walking in or some good ole' outside exercise in the near perfect weather. You're gonna want a good hearty beer to replenish you in the evening. That beer should be Great Divide Belgian Style Yeti.

Belgian Yeti is one of my favorite beers to come out in the past couple of months. It combines the near perfection that is Yeti with some Belgian style yeast. The problem was the beer came out in May right about the time the sun moved 5 million miles closer to Kansas City . I'm never in the mood for a stout when my boxer shorts are full of ball sweat and no amount of Belgian fruit and spices is going to get me to recommend it when it's that hot. But this weekend will be perfect, with perfect daytime weather and cool nights. You're going to have your windows open this weekend and around beer time you may wonder where you put your Snuggie in March. You don't need your Snuggie, you need some stout. That's why Great Divide Belgian Style Yeti is the beer for the weekend.

Grunauer at Royal

After I go on and on about Grunauer the other day, I find out they're going to be doing free food at Royal Liquor Thursday night. That's right, free samples of the best Austrian food in Kansas City paired with the beers served at the restaurant. Rather than spend $50 on dinner trying a couple different things and a couple beers, you can have small versions for free. Plus Nick Gruanauer will be there to talk about their Octoberfest celebration on Sunday which features a roasted pig and German beer specials. He'll also be happy to discuss beer and food pairings or anything else you've always wanted to know from Nick.

Events kick off at 5:30 and go until 7:30 at the Royal Liquor at 103rd and State Line. The last one of these featured Swagger and was popular enough to allow them to do it again this time. Get there Thursday and show some support so Royal Liquor can continue to do these beer and food pairings. It's the best free samples you're going to find in KC.

The Beers of SNL

Saturday night marks the season premier of Saturday Night Live. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it's not as good as it used to be. People have been saying that about the show since it began. It's the same as it always was, you just remember the good things, you block out the rest and forget that the 3 things you remember from a particular season took place over the course of 25 shows. That's what I love about the show, you just never know when a "More Cowbell", "Ambiguously Gay Duo", "Lazy Sunday" or "Wayne's World" are going to happen. With each show, you really just hope for one or two funny skits, a good bit on Weekend Update and maybe a laugh somewhere else along the way. All the while, maybe the next skit is going into the pantheon of great skits. With the DVR you can knock out an SNL episode in 45 minutes.

So that's what I look forward to with each new season, one or two great skits, a couple of screwups and some decent political satire (politicians do a pretty good job with that themselves nowadays, amiright). But, the premiere each year also brings you new cast members (though I don't think so with this season). Which of the new people is going to be the next Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Phil Hartman or Chris Farley, who's going to stick around forever and who's going to be so awful they just disappear sometime mid season? These are all questions that will be answered over the course of the season.

Grunauer Getting it Right

Stella and I hit up Grunauer for dinner the other night. We'd never eaten there but we'd been to the bar a couple of times for drinks. We were all duly impressed with the food to the point of raving about it to my brother who was deployed in Germany for a year and loves the food of that region. If you've never had Austrian food, you should definitely go to Grunauer, it's fabulous, but you should go hungry and maybe consider sharing entrees because you get a lot of food.

But, this is a beer blog, so the beer should be mentioned. Grunauer does a great job carrying German beers on tap. It's the first time I've ever seen some of those beers on tap anywhere and that's neither good nor bad*, but the fact they're on at Grunauer shows that Grunauer really cares about all aspects of being authentic and carrying quality products.

*The guy sitting next to us at the restaurant was the epitome of a douchebag. Apparently he was going to get married soon and I could tell just by everything he talked about all night he was one of those guys that's going to cheat on his wife, if he's not already like Allen Covert in "The Wedding Singer". Anyway he'd ordered a Stiegl after much deliberation with the waitress. When it came and he took a drink and seeking to sound cultured, because I'm sure he was hitting on the waitress, said this is like a cross between Stella Artois and Peroni". I almost choked on my schnitzel.

I've run into this conversation a couple of times in the past couple of weeks; why do Japanese and Chinese restaurants only carry the Budweisers of their respective countries. You go out for sushi or the Japanese grill and you're stuck drinking a Sapporo. You wouldn't drink Sapporo in any other venue, why would you drink it there? Why don't they carry some Hitachino Nest or at the very least some Great Divide Samurai.

Italian or French restaurants, for the most part, focus on the wine from the region, but beer is an afterthought. It shouldn't be. You can get many great French or Belgian beers to carry. At the risk of making the guy who hates Chimpotle mad, I'm not so sure about Italian beers, but just having Peroni on tap doesn't cut it.

It's true that the vast majority of people coming into a French, Italian, German or Japanese restaurant have never had a beer from those respective countries and have probably never heard of most of them. But, if your restaurant is seeking authenticity, chances are you're challenging your diners with menu items they've never had nor heard of, you're certainly doing it with your wine list, why not do it with your beer list as well.

Grunauer does it right. More places should.

Sully's Sullied

Stella and I had some free time Saturday afternoon and I wanted to give Sully's a shot. In case you don't know, and you wouldn't if you never go to Mission, Sully's is the bar that took over the rat hole that was JJ's Other Place. Drinking in Mission, KS can rarely be a good experience outside of RJ's Bob-be-que. Pretty much every place is a dive and anything outside of big macro and Boulevard Wheat is impossible to get on draft. But, I'd heard that Sully's was trying to sell better beer and that was enough to get me in the door.

Sully's was definitely a step up from JJ's Other Place. It was clean and nice looking, had a couple of real nice dartboards and a very nice shuffleboard game. We found a place to sit in front of the TV showing the Rays-Red Sox game. I've been enjoying the Red Sox collapse for the past couple of weeks so I spent a lot of time with the Rays and Red Sox over the weekend. Then the lone bartender came over to our table to take our order, a couple of Bob's 47's (on tap). Of the 8 taps at Sully's, only 3 are of the macro variety and the light version of each of the major brands. The other 5 were Boulevard Pale Ale, Bob's, Ranger IPA, Fat Tire, Free State Ad Astra and something else.

Johnny's at Night

So Stella and I were out Saturday evening and I wanted to grab a couple of drinks and watch the Sporting KC game. Earlier in the day we had driven by the new Johnny's Tavern at 95th and Antioch so it was in my head as a place to go for neighborhood sports bar action. The situation we were in was screaming for Johnny's so we went.

B4TW - Green Flash Double Stout

It's flippin' cold out today. It's about time to break out some stout. And isn't it convenient that a new stout hit KC this week, Green Flash Double Stout. The Double Stout should be nice and chocolaty to keep you warm this weekend. Since Green Flash is new to KC, this is the first time the Double Stout has been available. I picked mine up in Kansas but you should be able to find it in Missouri as well. If you don't see it you can give the newest Schlafly beer, Schlafly Porter a shot. Any store worth going to will have one of the two.

Look forward to 5 months from now when I declare that a day just like today is so warm it calls for a wonderful spring beer like Irish Ale or Halcyon Wheat or some such beer.

Arty Gents

Boulevard label for the movie "Kansas City"

The fine folks at Boulevard invited the Gents over for a little happy hour and talk about Payton Kelly's Boulevard art. Every bit of Boulevard's look is a direct result of Payton Kelly's work. From the trade of some beer for some art for the first run of Boulevard's bottles to all of the Smokestack bottle labels and everything in between, Payton has designed it all. They put up a little travelling exhibit of the influences for aspects of each label and the resulting art from Payton. I've never drawn anything in my life so I didn't know that much went into each label.

The bulldog on Bully! is modeled after Churchill

I talked to Payton about the bottles he designed for the movie "Kansas City" which is, if not the worst Robert Altman movie, in the discussion of worst Altman movie. Payton worked real closely with the set designers to design the bottles of Boulevard used in the movie, though only one was shown for a brief moment. I've pored over that movie trying to catch a glimpse of that label and never really got a clear look. Payton said there was one scene that showed a label very briefly. I'll take his word for it, I'm not watching that movie again. But, I really love that label and is one of my favorite Boulevard labels of all time. I bought a lot of Pale Ale when it was sold around town with that retro label.

Hey, that's not a single wide trailer

As we were standing around talking about the Single Wide label I did the thing that makes me so popular around Kansas City. I asked the passively insulting question, my trademark. "Do you ever get complaints that the trailer on the Single Wide label  isn't really what most people would consider a single wide trailer?" Of course the answer was no, but I feel better about humanity knowing that no one has taken the time to register such a stupid complaint. As for me, I blame the 2009 Gnarly Wine I was drinking at the time.

After the happy hour was over we headed over to The Foundry for some extra drinks. The same impetus behind the insulting question caused me to devour 2 Foundry tacos in under 2 minutes. We all got some Stone 15 which was much better than the bottle version, which I didn't like very much. I spent some time sitting in a bean bag and drinking beer and watching the Royals on TV. It was a pretty good time overall.

Craft Beers of Old

Next time you walk into Royal or Tipsy’s or Gomer’s or any of the other beer havens in town, just step back and take in the vastness of their respective inventories. It is amazing how many options we have, and they just keep coming: from new (to our market, anyway) breweries like Firestone Walker, Stone, Green Flash, and Summit to highly regarded, soon-to-debut-pending-label-approval outfits like Deschutes and Nebraska.

As the new kids in town proliferate, stalwarts of the brewing scene like Boulevard and New Belgium continue to push the envelope with their Smokestack and Lips of Faith series. Big beers, sour beers, insanely hoppy beers…there’s always something new to try.

The Blanc Divide

Lamb, duck confit, risotto, raspberries, Great Divide, Blanc, these are a few of my favorite things and for one shining evening they will be combined into the Blanc Great Divide beer dinner. 4 pairings, 5 beers, including a 2008 Old Ruffian keg, where else are you going to get that? You do have to deal with Leawood but not every thing can be perfect. Tickets are only $45 which is a pretty good price for great food, great beer and a great time.

Beer Breakfast

I'm not much of one for a daytime beer and especially not a breakfast beer. But, since I started running in the mornings, it has crossed my mind to drink a beer to replenish myself. For some reason, probably the nutritional value, a nice malty beer sounds really wonderful as I take off my running shoes. And since I never eat breakfast  I always end up eating lunch around 11 because I can't wait any longer.

I worry that a breakfast beer will only make me tired for the rest of the day, I don't drink a beer with lunch for that reason, it just ruins an afternoon. But, if I were to make a breakfast beer a reality, which beer would be good for it?

Stone Foundry

Tomorrow evening at 4 The Foundry is going to be the first place in KC to tap a keg of Stone's 15th Anniversary Black IPA. If you didn't get a bottle when they were released Labor Day weekend or you did and really enjoyed it this will be a pretty good shot to get you some. You may even see some of the Gents if you're there after 7:30.

B4TW - Sam Adams Octoberfest

This is going to be a big weekend. On the good side, we have the first NFL Sunday of the year. On the bad side, we have the 10th anniversary of 9/11. I'm a bit of a 9/11 junkie, I watch all the shows recapping the events of the day, I find others' 9/11 stories interesting, I take it all in. Somehow the 9/11 shows never capture the WTFingness of the day. We were going about our day, then all of a sudden everything stopped and anything could have happened and we would have believed it. At various points in the morning, we thought the White House was attacked, the Washington Monument bombed, of course the Twin Towers attack and the Pentagon attack. We didn't know where the President was, Rudy F...ing Giuliani was heroically giving out whatever information he could getting Ny'ers out of Manhattan in an orderly fashion. That morning, you just had no idea what was going to happen. I only knew that I was pretty safe since I was in a 1 floor bunker in Wichita nowhere near Boeing or the Air Force Base, the only things in Wichita with any sort of military value. We didn't even know who the hell was doing this to us.

The facts of the day are now well documented, maybe that's why it's so hard to capture the feelings of that morning. That evening I went to the liquor store that Wes Port and I owned in a poor part of Wichita. When I say poor part of Wichita, imagine Wichita and how crappy it is, then imagine what the poor part must be like. We had homeless people who lived in the little fenced in area on our property where we threw broken down boxes. The area was so poor, those homeless people sometimes had more money than people who actually lived in houses in the area. There wasn't much around this neighborhood that you would call a public gathering space so they just kind of wandered over to the liquor store. People just wanted to be around other people that night and watch the news, which had very little information. I've never experienced anything like that night, it was awful, but made you feel good for being American. I spent 2 or 3 hours, selling nothing (it may have been the lowest volume day saleswise we ever had), just talking to the people of the neighborhood.

After we closed up the liquor store I grabbed a sixer of Sam Adams Octoberfest (it's possible it wasn't Octoberfest, but another Sam Adams fall seasonal, I remember it as Octoberfest) to take home and drink while watching the same news I'd been watching all day. Would they find any surviviors, were we at war, WTF? I drank Octoberfest after Octoberfest, staying up too late, drinking too many and went to bed still shocked.

So, because of the date, and because it goes with football and because it's what I think of when the weather has just the nip of cool in the air in the evening, the beer for this weekend is my September 11 beer of choice, Sam Adams Octoberfest.

Kick and Clutch Day

The much anticipated releases of New Belgium Kick and Clutch are happening today in Kansas City. Kick is for the fruit beer fans with pumpkin and cranberry flavors brought to you in a sour wood aged brew. Clutch is for the heavier stout drinker with coffee and dark chocolate flavors brought to you in a sour wood aged stout. Both sound absolutely wonderful and I'm beginning to trust that New Belgium can bring me great beers in the Lips of Faith series.

Both these beers should be available on both sides of the state line, although I'm sure that Missouri is getting theirs today. Usually New Belgium Lips of Faith beers are readily available but the demand for these 2 is going to be high and I'm not sure how much of it we're getting. So you're probably going to want to put up your beertenna and listen for your favorite store getting it, then getting there to pick yours up. When you find it help out your fellow beer travellers and post the price and availability in the comments section.

Prairie Village Urban

I hooked up with Stella for an urban lunch this week at Urban Table in the Village. Stella had wanted to eat there since it opened so we finally got around to it. In case you don't know, Urban Table is owned by the same guys wtho brought you BRGR. Urban Table is like a cross between You Say Tomato and Ingredient serving sandwiches, soups and salads. The schtick is that all the food is fresh, organic and seasonal.

It's really kind of a cool looking little place, like a hipsterish Machine Shed or like the actual You Say Tomato only with matching furniture. The menu is pretty sparse, about 6 or 7 sandwiches, a couple different salads and a soup of the day. I imagine the menu's going to change with the seasons. I got a BLTA, a BLT with avocado and Stella got some sort of cheese sandwich with figs.

B4TW - Boulevard Amber

I watched the season finale of "No Reservations" this week which was a phenomenal episode, maybe the best. In it, Bourdain basically just went to a Cajun feast at some barn. I'm know to look at the beer people are drinking and I saw the familiar site of some Abita as you would expect to find in Louisiana. I wondered, just how ubiquitous Boulevard would be in a similar scene in KC. It should.

Since this is Labor Day Weekend, many of you will be holding your own little cookouts with some good ole' Kansas City smoked and grilled meats. Some of you may have friends and family over and they don't buy their beer from the same cooler in the liquor store that you do. Why not have a beer that everyone can enjoy? That beer is Boulevard Amber.

Amber is typically a gateway style of beer and Boulevard just happens to make about the best amber you can buy which means it's just as enjoyable for the seasoned beer drinker as it is for someone who enjoys the stylings of the vortex. Plus, it's Kansas City beer and you can show some pride in your city. You'll be doing your part to make Kansas City even more Boulevard country than it already is. Also the Amber Ale will go great with your selection of grilled and smoked meat, potato salad, that weird Jell-o thing your Aunt always brings over and pecan pie. That's why Boulevard Amber is your beer for the weekend.

Update: I forgot to mention in the post that Boulevard will be giving $1 for every barrel of beer they sell in Missouri to the American Red Cross to benefit Joplin. Show Me Beer has more details, so if at all possible, get your Boulevard Amber for this weekend on the Missouri side. Joplin still needs our help.

Update II: The Foundry and Beer Kitchen are also joining in and donating $.25 for every Boulevard beer they sell this month.

Schlafly Citrus Witbier

The newest of the Schlafly 20th Anniversary beers, Citrus Witbier, is going to be tapped tonight at 7 at The Flying Saucer. This may be your only shot at getting a drink of the Citrus Wit. Riot Room will have it over the weekend and bottles will come to town in the next couple of weeks. But, if it's like the other 2 anniversary beers to be released, there won't be enough to go around.

The Citrus Witbier is a traditional Belgian Wit brewed by Schlafly's third generation of brewers, the ones responsible for taking Schlafly into the role of regional brewer. The Citrus Witbier is definitely worth a shot and you're not going to get many, make the most of it and get out to the Saucer tonight if you're interested.