New to KC: Some ACBW Highlights
Ryan gave us a great detailed overview of American Craft Beer week earlier today. I know a lot of us beer geeks like to drink the latest and greatest, so I wanted to highlight a few American Craft Beer Week tappings that haven’t been in KC before.
Monday
Flying Saucer will be tapping 3 Urban Chestnut beers tonight. Ku'Damm (a berliner weisse) has already been making the rounds around town, but the other two are new to KC. Hallertau Pils is a single hop German style pilsner brewed with Hallertauer Mittelfrüh hops. Also on tap will be their Daft Barleywine aged in Willet, Pappy, and Buffalo Trace barrels.
Tuesday
Bier Station is hosting Jester King tasting event. Tickets are $40 and available on Brown Paper Tickets. The ticket includes 4-oz pours of 6 different Jester King beers. Might be a bit on the pricy side for the amount of beer, but Jester King makes some excellent wild ales and some of these haven’t previously been available in this market.
- Le Petit Prince Farmhouse Table Beer
- Noble King Hoppy Farmhouse Ale
- Commercial Suicide Oaked Farmhouse Mild
- Mad Meg Farmhouse Provision Ale
- Ambree Farmhouse Amber Ale
- Snörkel Farmhouse Ale Brewed with Oyster Mushrooms and Sea Salt
Cinder Block is debuting their latest offering at 4pm on Wednesday. Details are scarce, but the beer is Lusus Naturae Peach Farmhouse. You had me at peach.
Thursday
This one is special to me because I helped make it. Last July, Sierra Nevada brought its Beer Camp Across America tapping events to craft beer bars across the country. I attended the tapping of the 12 beers at Flying Saucer and their brewery rep was soliciting entries for their Beer Camp contest. The rep asked us to write a “crazy beer idea” on the back of their taster flight paper for a chance to win a trip to California.
My idea was a Passion Fruit IPA dry hopped with Citra and Mosaic hops. I wrote it down and forgot about the contest. Three months later, I got an email from Sierra Nevada telling me I’m a beer camp finalist. I was one of 24 people across the nation who won. Sierra Nevada gave me a thousand bucks to get out to California and I got to help make beer!
They divided the 24 winners into two groups of 12 and each group had to collaborate to make a beer. Our group (which ended up only being 9 people) collaborated to make a Chocolate Mandarin Imperial Stout. At first I was disappointed that I didn’t get to make the beer idea I submitted, but after realizing it would take months for the beer to make it out here, I’m glad we ended up with something less hoppy.
The beer, Nibs of Steel, will be on tap at Flying Saucer on Thursday at 7pm. It is an Imperial Stout brewed with Cocoa Nibs and Mandarin Oranges. We used tons of malts, including Chocolate Malt and Roasted Barley, and dry hopped it with Mandarina and Amarillo hops. Alas, the orange character doesn’t come out much against the strong roasty flavors of the malts, but as it warms up, you can get a hint of citrus.
Friday
Back at the Saucer, it’s Perennial Night. Perennial is one of my favorite breweries in the country, and we Kansas Citians are fortunate to have them in our distro. New to KC is Perennial’s Funky Wit which taps at 7pm. Oh, and there’s Sump too.
