Screenland Armour's Arts & Crafts Festival is this Weekend!
The quality of festivals has increased drastically as well. It used to be that about half the festival was various shitty beers from AB, Miller, and Coors. I mean, it was pretty awesome being able to compare Bud Ice, Bud Light, Bud, and Bud Select all at once, but I guess I'd rather find my favorite Crane beer instead. Even the worst of festival this year was better than the best festivals 7 or 8 years ago. And for the most part the festivals cost exactly the same amount of money now that they did then somehow.
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| Screenland Armour's Arts & Crafts Beer, Music, and Movie Fest is this Weekend! |
Anyway, enough talk about shitty beer festivals of yore. This weekend we have one more chance this year to bask in the glory of all-you-can-drink beer samples at one of the best and most unique beer fests in KC. Screenland Armour in North KC is hosting their annual Arts & Crafts Festival this weekend! The fest is an epic celebration of craft beers, spirits, independent films, local music, art, and crafts, AND it all benefits KC Pet Project. What more could you ask for? Oh, how about the festival being limited to 250 tickets per tasting session? No jostling in line at this fest!
Since this is the KC Beer Blog and not the KC Indy Film Blog or KC Indy Music Blog, I'm not going to dwell too much on those sides of the fest since my opinion would be woefully uninformed. However, I can guarantee you that the folks at the Screenland have picked out a solid lineup of movies and local bands. You can't go wrong with movies with titles like Frankenstein Created Bikers.
This year the beer festival looks better than ever, and they have a number of distinct focuses for different tasting sessions which is pretty cool. It's also very cool that the sampling sessions go for long periods so that you can sample some, go in and watch a movie, and come out and sample more. They also have a range of prices for these various sessions so you can really customize your experience. You can find tickets for each of these sessions here. And most importantly, the beer list looks epic too (at the bottom of this post). Here's the rundown of what each session has to offer:
Friday
The Friday tasting session runs from 5pm - 10pm and focuses on local and regional craft beers. This session is $35. The Friday pass for $35 also gets you into all of the movies that night.
Saturday
The Saturday tasting session runs from 6pm - 10pm (with VIP starting at 5pm) and focuses on rare/vintage beers and national brands. This session is $45 for GA (beer tasting only). (To get into the VIP, you need the 3-day VIP pass for $140 which comes with a bunch of other stuff too). If you want to get into the movies also, the pass is $60 for Saturday.
Sunday
The Sunday tasting session runs from 1pm - 5pm and focuses on homebrews and the "left of the fest" brews (it's like the Sunday after Thanksgiving but for beers!). This session is $30 which gets you in for beer sampling and all the movies.You can also get an all-weekend VIP pass that gets you into everything for $140. For what it's worth, this seems like a steal to me if you have the stamina to do 3 beer fests in 3 days (not sure that this old man can handle it, but I'm sure there are plenty of you out there who could!).
Add to all this the fact that you'll end up in North KC for a substantial portion of your weekend with this fest and you'll have time to check out the exploding scene up there. Go early for some coffee and pre-gaming at Colony Espresso & Beer Bar and eat some chicken curry soup for lunch at Le Monde to fortify yourself for drinking. Then hit up the tap rooms at Cinderblock, Calibration, and Big Rip and swing by Grain 2 Glass for some to-go brews from their bottle case. And why not just round it out with a little pickleball too at Chicken & Pickle! North KC is a pretty awesome corner of town that I bet most of you have never been to. So check it out!
The Beer List
Here's the full rundown of beers for each session:
Friday
COOP: F5, DNR, Spare Rib Pale Ale, Horny Toad
Nebraska: IPA, Cardinal Pale Ale, Collab Mosiac IPA
Odell: Mercenary, Mountain Standard
Cinder Block: Cinder Noel, Porter, Collab IPA
Torn Label: 2015 Old Believer Imperial Stout
Big Rip Brewing Co: Pennywise Sweet Potato, Chai Milk Stout
Zipline Brewing Co: IPA, Kolsh, Oatmeal Stout
Schlafly: Blackberry Cider, English Mild
Tallgrass: Backpacker Brown, Raspberry Jam, One Eyed Jacques, Top Rope IPA
Piney River: Missouri Mule IPA, Black Walnut Wheat
Colony Brewing Co: Iron Street Sour, Kvffee Shvp Kvlsch(Coffee Kolsh), Lil' Scarbrough (red IPA)
Empyrean: Bourbon Barrel Barley Wine, Peanut Butter Porter, Dark Side Vanilla Porter
Crane: TBA
Boulevard Brewing Co: TBA
4 Hands Brewing Co: Chocolate Milk Stout, Incarnation IPA, Single Speed
Mother's Brewing Co: 2014 Imperial 3 Blind Mice, 2015 Imperial 3 Blind Mice
Free State Brewing Co: 2015 Old Backus Barleywine, Frost Flower Pilsner
KC Bier Co: Dunkel, Hefeweizen, Weizenbock
Rock and Run Brewing: Rainbow in the Dark, Apricot Bleach Blonde, Ryely Porter
Martin City: 2016 Bourbon Barrel Abbey, 2016 Potier, 2015 Dreamquest, 2015 Coming Home, 2015 Quad Feci, IPA, Blonde, Abbey, Monk in Scotland
Saturday
Cinder Block: 14 Brand Collapse, Black Squirrel Cider, Collaboration NE Style Double IPA
Odell: 15 Pina Agria, 15 Brazzle, Friek, Firkin of Porter w/peppermint
COOP: Coconut Porter, Blood Orange Horny Toad and Territorial Reserve Barrel Aged Imperial Stout
Nebraska Brewing: Fathead Barleywine, Apricot Au Poivre Saison
Founders: KBS (2016), Breakfast Stout, PC Pils
Breckenridge: Twenty Five: Imperial Vanilla Porter aged in rum barrels
Unita: Tangerine Hop Nosh, Sour Apricot IPA
Urban Chestnut: Cherry Thrales, Zwickel, Fantasyland IPA
Cantillon: 2013 Lou Pepe, Classic Gueze
Crooked Stave: 2015 Blackberry Origins
3 Frontens: Oude Kriek, Oude Gueuze
4 Hands: Gingerbread Chocolate Milk Stout, Psycho Killer, Vol. 4
Lagunitas: Nighttime IPA, TuberFest
Avery: 2015 Tectum Et Elix, 2015 Fotuna, 2014 5 Monks, Joes Pilsner
Great Divide: 2014 Peach Grand Cru, 2015 Chocolate Yeti, 22nd Anniversary Sour
Stone: 2015 Chai Imperial Stout, BA Bitter Chocolate Oakmeal, Enjoy By 12.25
North Coast: 2013 Old Stock Ale, Barrel Aged Old Rasputin 17
New Holland: Hoptronix, Incorrigible Reserve
Oskar Blues: BA Ten Fidy, Priscilla
Schlafly: Blackberry Cider, Mild
Deschutes: 2015 Stoic, Black Butte 26
Prairie: 2015 Prairie Bomb, 2016 Paradise, Birthday Bomb, 2015 Americana, 2015 Apple Brandy Noir, 2015 Somewhere, 2015 Okie, 2015 OK-SI, 2015 Pirate Bomb
Jester King: Le Petie Prince (2015), Beachtimez Sportzketball
Jolly Pumpkin: 2013 La Roja, 2013 Bam Biere, 2013 Bam Noire, 2014 Calabaza Blanca,
New Belgium: Kriek (2015), LOF Anne Francoise
Bells: Traverse City Whiskey Barrel Jupiter, Christmas Ale
Alpine: Willy Vanilly, Duet IPA
Goose Island: 2015 BCBS, 2016 BCBS
Ritterguts Gose (2014)
Mothers: 2015 milf, 2015 Raspberry 3 Blind Mice
Boulevard: Love Child No. 5, 2015 Imperial Aztec, 2015 Saison Brett, 2016 Saison Brett, 2016 Rye on Rye on Rye
Stillwater: Gose Gone Wild, Gose Gone Wild Tijuana, Gose Gone Wild Phuket
Perennial Artisan - TBA
River North: 2015 Whiskey J Marie, 2015 Cabernet J Marie
Firestone Walker: Double Jack, Wookie Jack, Luponic Vol 4
Sierra Nevada: Barrel Aged Narwhal w/black and red currants
Sunday
Sundays beers will feature local home brewers competing for a scale up with Cinder Block Brewery.
We will also feature beers left over from Friday and Saturday festivals in a TBD day of list.
