Summit in KC

Minnesota transplants, your day has come, Summit Brewing is soon to be available in Missouri and Kansas. And by soon, I mean that Summit beers are sitting in a warehouse in Kansas right now waiting to be distributed around the city. How soon that takes place I don't know, but I would guess next week or the week after.

Not familiar with Summit? Well, you've probably never spent any time in the twin cities then. Summit owns Minny/St. Paul like Boulevard owns KC, though Surly may take over soon. And Summit reminds me a lot of Boulevard in the sense that one of their best beers is a porter and they have a similar lineup to Boulevard before the Smokestack series took root. But, I don't like any of their beers as much as I like Boulevard's.

The Minnesotans love the stuff like they love Kent Hrbek, Bert Blyleven and Fran Tarkenton. You know what I say, any group that actively make signs that say "Circle me Bert" stands a very good chance of being a pack of idiots. I don't find anything objectionable about Summit, it's solid beer and has a definite following. But, I think it's just going to languish on store shelves because it doesn't compare favorably to Boulevard, Free State, Odell, Avery, Lagunitas and Schlafly. But as NBC Action News reporter Ryan Kath and native Minnesotan wrote on Twitter "Tough Pale Ale choice: hometown brew or Boulevard?" I suppose if you grew up with the Summit version it might be a tough decision. It's not going to be for me.

In any case, Summit is soon to be on store shelves in both Kansas and Missouri. I'm not aware of any rollout parties or sample events yet. Maybe this can soothe the local Minnesotans with football season coming up and the sound of "defending world champion Green Bay Packers" in many games while the Vikings are rolling out Donovan McNabb's corpse at quarterback. A nice Summit Porter and tears mean football for many Minnesotans.