MMMHop

Hanson is launching a beer.

Yes, that Hanson. The Hanson that made a killing in the late 90's by looking like girls and creating a diabetes-inducing pop song about gibberish.

At the Oxford Union on Monday, the boy band brothers announced the brew, with drummer Zac Hanson stating:

"It's vital our fans trust in everything Hanson do. We are soon going to be selling our own beer. I'm not joking – Mmmhop IPA anyone?"

Wow. Just wow. If their IPA ends up being anything like their music, I assume it will be sub-par, forgettable and appeal mostly to underage girls.

Expect MMMHop IPA to be available early next year. Alright Kansas City, who's hosting the launch party?

Firestone Walker XV Tapping

According to the Martin City Brewing Company Twitter account, tomorrow night (Wednesday, 11/30) at 6 PM they will be tapping Firestone Walker XV. The Firestone Walker Anniversary Ales are always highly anticipated (and rightfully so), so this may be an event worth checking out, especially if you missed out on purchasing a bottle.

XV is a blend of 8 different beers, comprised of 76% Barley Wine style beers, 19% Stout and 5 % Imperial IPA, and like last year's anniversary ale, clocks in at a nice 12.5% ABV. Being the Barley Wine geek that I am, I'm especially excited to give XV a try.

So there you have it, head out to Martin City Brewing Company tomorrow night to try this unique, limited beer on tap.

Two Jokers, One Introduction

Since I know the tension and anticipation has been mounting for the past week or so, I thought I'd go ahead and bite the bullet and introduce myself to the KC Beer Blog crowd as one of the new blog contributors. I thought about creating a moniker (Horseblanket and Gulden Shower were the two that I was most heavily considering), but instead I'm just going to post under my actual name, Pat. Some of you may follow me on Twitter under @AFOMOBlog, and if you don't, you should start..I'm probably the most interesting person on the Internet.

But really, I'm just a guy who enjoys beer and I've lived in Kansas City my entire life, other than 4 God-forsaken years in Omaha for school. I have a personal blog that I write, and I suppose Bull thought that my average-at-best writing abilities and love for beer were a winning combination, so here I am praying that I don't disappoint you all and get chased out of town. I'm sure I have some sort of initiation or hazing in store for me as a new contributor to this blog, so just let me know which dark alley or abandoned building I should meet you at and what supplies I need to bring.

As I mentioned above, I'm under the impression that there will be another person writing posts as well, so I will let them handle introducing themselves.

But enough about me. There's a serious issue we need to address today:

Two Jokers will be disappearing. Well, temporarily, at least.

From Julie Weeks, Boulevard's Marketing Communications Manager:

"We are still putting the finishing touches to our 2012 schedule, but at this time we’re not planning on bringing back Two Jokers Double-Wit as our summer seasonal. If we go that route, it would not necessarily mean we’re retiring the beer forever, instead giving another beer style a chance for shelf life. We have done this in the past with other seasonals. Dark Truth Stout started as a seasonal only, and we distributed Nommo Dubbel this fall instead of Seeyoulator Doppelbock."

I am a huge fan of Two Jokers (and am clearly not alone, as evidenced by the #TeamTwoJokers hashtag that has already sprung up on Twitter), so I'm sad to hear it won't be around next summer. Obviously, Julie's statement leaves it purely up to speculation what will happen after 2012, but I would personally love to have it go the route of Dark Truth and be available year-round.

I know I've seen Two Jokers still available at multiple liquor stores (Royal on 103rd and Brown Bag out in Olathe are two that come to mind), so it may be worth going and grabbing a few extra bottles to have for next year when it will be absent. And when you do, make sure to simulate a Black Friday mob scene and pepper spray anyone within 20 feet of the Smokestack beers to ensure you get your fill.

And of course, as is common practice on the Internet today, we should all use every method possible to harass Boulevard and let them know they would be making a huge mistake if they were to retire Two Jokers completely.

Now the speculation begins..what will the new 2012 Boulevard summer seasonal be?

Epilogue

Yesterday it was a balmy 75 when I took this picture

Ah, the beach. You know in this day and age you have a lot of choices what your background image is going to be? You choose your desktop, you choose your gmail theme, you choose your feed reader theme. You have all the choices in the world to customize the tools you use in life. You can choose the walk in the woods, the mountains, an African safari, etc.. I’ve always chosen the beach picture.

You all know, I grew up in Wichita. Kansas City for me was a dream. I was drawn here. I came up 4 or 5 times a year all the time I was growing up. I always saw KC as the big city, the place I would live, the place I would love. And things worked out that way. I’m one of the few people to ever move here twice, one time pretty successful, one time not. But, there’s always been the nagging feeling about wanting to be a part of that beach picture.

Coach's Secret

The other night we couldn't decide what to eat for dinner. We had steaks in the fridge but that really didn't strike either of our fancies. We had the kids to think of as well, where would they want to eat. And then it struck us, Coach's (414 W. 103rd, just down the street from Royal Liquor). This happens more and more in the Vard house. Coach's has become one of our favorite places to get a good dinner and beer.

Cock of the Walk

You know that scene in "Elf" when Buddy sees the sign for "World's Best Coffee" in the city. He walks in and congratulates them, "You did it! Congratulations! World's best cup of coffee! Great job, everybody! It's great to be here." That never fails to crack me up. Whenever I see a sign like that I always want to replicate it, but, alas, there are very few original jokes in the world and I'm sure some 13 year old boy has already done it to anyone with that sign.

Sip a Little Sumpin'

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who puts a little jewelry on his bottles of Little Sumpin' Sumpin'.

B4TW - Schlafly Winter ESB

No doubt we're into autumn weather now. It's cool, crisp and still dry. Seriously, my skin is about to start peeling off it's so dry. I want a beer that has a good malt backbone but still has a crisp hop presence. Something like that seems like the perfect beer for the sunny, cool weekend. The beer that meets my criteria is Schlafly Winter ESB.

Winter ESB just started hitting store shelves in town this past week. The winter really does bring a bounty to package stores in the metro. There's just too much to choose from and the Winter ESB gets a little lost in the shuffle for most people. I'm not one of those people, it's one of my favorite Schlafly beers of the year and I'm glad it's back. That's why Schlafly Winter ESB is the beer for the weekend.

Winter ESB is widely available all across the metro. It should be available in any store that carries a good seasonal selection or carries a good selection of fine Schlafly beers.

Strong Ale Fest Beers

KC premier beer destination, the corner of Pennsylvania and Westport Rd. is holding themselves a Strong Ale Fest again this year. More specifically the folks at McCoy's, The Foundry and Beer Kitchen are having a beerfest in the little parking lot in front of The Foundry on Saturday November 12th from 1-5. This event was quite the success last year and I'm sure with the experience of last year the Fest will be even better this yearThis is the inaugural year of the Fest.

Schlafly 3, Citrus Witbier

The third edition of Schlafly's Twentieth Anniversary beers, Citrus Wit is hitting KC today. Not much of any of the Twentieth Anniversary beers have left St. Louis and this one is no exception. It's coming to town so long after it was released in St. Louis it makes me think that they were holding it back to see if demand was such that St. Louis would need it. But, no matter, it's here now and is very limited. It will be behind the counter or in the cooler or whatever, in short, you'll have to ask for it. Gomer's, Lukas and Royal on 103rd are your options for this one.

Citrus Wit was brewed by the 3rd generation of Schlafly brewers, the ones who took the brewery from brewpub to regional brewery. It seems to be a pretty standard witbier with some added citrus in the form of orange, lemon and grapefruit peel. If that floats your boat, you're probably going to want to give the above liquor stores a call to reserve your bottle. Maintain your beer karma, once you've got one, don't try to get some from another store.

Update: St. Louis just got bottles last week, so this isn't some held back bit of bottles as I speculated. But still.

Beering Mission Farms

So, last night after walking half a mile trick or treating with the kids, telling them to slow down, say thank you, keep out of the street, etc.. Then getting home and telling them only one piece of candy, okay, one more but that's it, why did you open that, it's too much, get on your pajamas, etc. Then settling in my chair with a beer, the Chiefs game and Facebooking and emailing, Stella starts gabbing at me. All I hear, while I watch Phil Rivers throw 2 interceptions in 5 minutes (Phil's my fantasy QB, my other one was Jason Campbell, needless to say, my season's done) is Stella saying words like "Mission Farms", "Los Cabos", "Avenues Bistro", "Lakeside Tavern". None of these words apply to me so I was making like Billy Chapel and clearing the mechanism. Not until I started to hear words like Green Flash Red, Tank 7, Free State and 23rd Street Crimson Red and I began to pay attention.

Big Eddy

Today's the day that nary a person has been anticipating. That's right, it's Leinenkugel's Big Eddy Russian Imperial Stout day. Not familiar? Well, Big Eddy is Leinenkugel's version of big beers like New Belgium's Lips of Faith or Boulevard's Smokestack. The first of these hitting our market is the Russian Imperial Stout, but an Imperial IPA also exists.

The Russian Imperial Stout is a hearty 9.5% ABV and comes in 4 packs of 12 oz. bottles priced between $11-$12. I had one last week and found it to be a real departure from the normal substandard fare that Leinenkugels usually brings (Summer Shandy excepted). It had the taste you would expect from an RIS, roasted malts, chocolate, dark fruit, but was just too sweet for me. I like my stouts, with the exception of Left Hand Milk Stout, on the more bitter side. I'd much rather get a 4 pack of Great Divide Yeti, Old Rasputin or Dark Truth than Big Eddy.