Prairie Artisan Ales Coming to Kansas

Awesome news for Kansas drinkers--Prairie Artisan Ales is coming to the Kansas side of the state line! LDF Beverage out of Wichita has announced that they're going to be bringing Prairie to Kansas statewide. Prairie is currently distributed in MO by Shelton Brothers. The beers will start hitting the shelves tomorrow in our area.

If you haven't heard of Prairie before, they're one of the best breweries in the Midwest but have a limited brewing capacity and are relatively difficult to get your hands on. They opened up in 2012, originally brewing as a sort of gypsy brewery using extra capacity at the Choc Brewery brewhouse in Krebs, OK. They only opened up their own brewhouse in mid-2013 in Tulsa (with funds from a rare successful Kickstarter campaign, no less).


Considering their short history, they've gotten quite a following. You don't get a 4+ overall brewery rating on Untappd with 175k ratings for nothing. They've got some excellent session beers alongside great sipping beers. They're only bringing 5 of their almost 30 regular beers to Kansas for now, but they've a little bit of everything. If you can, definitely try to get a hold of their imperial stout, Bomb!, and Funky Gold Amarillo, which is a dry hopped wild ale.

They're having a kick-off party at Barley's Midland two weeks from today, Feb 9, where you can try their beers. At the party they'll have a couple 1/6th barrels each of Bomb!, Funky Gold Amarillo, Birra, and Standard Ale on tap. They're also planning a kick-off party in Lawrence, but the time and date is yet to be determined for that one. We'll post more details about the events as they come up.

Here's a rundown of the beers they're bringing to KS:

Bomb!

Untappd Rating: 4.38
ABV: 13%
IBU: 65
Approx. Price: $6/12 oz. single
From Prairie: Bomb! is an imperial stout aged on Nordaggio's espresso beans, chocolate, vanilla beans, and ancho chile peppers. All the flavors meld to create a truly unique beer. The peppers add just the right amount of heat to compliment the intense coffee and chocolate flavors.

Funky Gold Amarillo

Untappd Rating: 3.94
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: 18
Approx. Price: $8/500 ml single
From Prairie: Funky Gold Amarillo is the second beer in our dry-hopped sour ale series. We took our sour golden ale, Gold, and gave it a heavy dosing of Amarillo hops. The result is a beer that is a mix of topical fruit and Prairie funk. Notes of peach, orange, white wine, and citrusy brett can be found in the flavor and aroma.

Prairie Ale

Untappd Rating: 3.80
ABV: 8.2%
IBU: 25
Approx. Price: $7/500 ml single
From Prairie: Prairie Ale is our classic saison. We brew this beer with pilsner malt, wheat malt, flaked wheat, and cane sugar. A healthy dose of saaz hops are used to add a spicy element to the beer. Prairie Ale is fermented with a mix of ale yeast, wine yeast, and brettanomyces. Notes of black pepper and pineapple can be found in this beer.

Birra

Untappd Rating: 3.62
ABV: 4.5%
IBU: 18
Approx. Price: $9/12 oz. 4 pack
From Prairie: Birra is a light, sessionable farmhouse ale. It is crisp with notes of black pepper and orange and goes perfectly with food.

Standard Ale

Untappd Rating: 3.73
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: 25
Approx. Price: $9/12 oz. 4 pack
From Prairie: Prairie Standard is our everyday beer. Its a light, crisp saison with a hoppy finish. This beer is dry hopped 1 lb per bbl with Motueka hops. A lovely New Zealand hop with a spicy lime like flavor and aroma.