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| The great artwork for the beer |
Every family has their own Thanksgiving traditions, and the Myces family is no different. We all go to brother K. E. Myces’ house in Manhattan, drink beer, go to Wal-Mart (Making sure we have a good buzz and have one of the In-Laws to drive us), tell stories, pretend we are 22 and go out on the town in Aggieville, all while trying not to piss each other off. It’s always a delicate balance, but we make it work.
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| The 12 tap handles |
This year, we added another amazing tradition in the routine. Instead of Black Friday shopping, we started Black Friday beer drinking. Always the
connoisseur of good deals, we discovered a brewery with $2 pints and $7 Crowlers to celebrate the one year anniversary at
15-24 brewhouse in
Clay Center, Kansas. As I’m always the sceptical one, I felt this deal was too good to be true, but I had to check it out anyway. After having great success in the small town breweries of
River Bottoms,
Levi Garrison, and
Dubious Claims, how could I turn down this opportunity? Is there anyway I can set up a collaboration between some of these awesome establishments? We were able to talk Ms. Myces into driving the 3 Myces men for our afternoon outing, so we didn’t need to have a
slap bet to see who had to drive.
They have 12 beers on tap with one of them being nitro. There were 5 signature beers with their
1 Eye Open IPA, being the top seller, and the rest of the tap handles consisting of rotating seasonals. They also have a full service restaurant that I wasn’t able to try, but they have burgers and hand-cut steaks, delivered fresh and never frozen daily from the local
Clay Center Locker. Their restaurant is about as ‘farm to table’ as you can get!
I drank the
Ohdle Stout, Tri-Sarah Hops IPA, Hitchin’ A Ride Red, and Knickers in a Nut. Don’t judge, I wasn’t driving. All 4 were amazing, but the Stout hit it out of the park. Their Sunset Shandy was a great take on a Shandy for those wanting a sweeter beer. Between the other Myces’ we had a pint of all their beers and didn’t drink a bad beer. The bartender Sarah did a great job answering our obnoxious questions and pouring us several samples.
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| My Ohdle Stout |
The brewmaster, Clint learned his craft working in Colorado and for Granite City Brewery in Iowa, before setting in Clay Center with his wife. He couldn’t ever shake his brewing itch, so he opened 15-24 on the square in Clay Center with a local investor. They opened Thanksgiving weekend 2018, and have been brewing constantly ever since. They have a 5 Bbl system and have already sold over 1,000 bbl this year. That’s a helluva lot of brew days my friends. 100% of their beer is sold in house, and they have beers sold directly out of the bright tank to ensure you are getting the freshest beer possible. They also have a crowler machine and will fill your growler as well. There is also a rumor of a Berliner Weisse being aged in wine barrels sitting on blackberries, coming the week after Christmas #MeThinksMeLike. So if anyone wants to get Brett Myces a late Christmas present this would be a good start.
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| The decor behind the bar |
For all you city folk reading this, your first question is going to be, “Where in the blue hell is Clay Center?” Well my smart alec answer is “At the intersection of State Highway 15 and US Highway 24 in Kansas,” but it is an easy drive of 37 miles Northwest of Manhattan. Now your second question is going to be, “How do I get home or where do I stay?” You have several choices, you can always stay in Manhattan or Junction City and be responsible, or there are actually
Airbnb’s in Clay Center. I totally understand if you don’t want to spend an entire weekend there, but they do have a
zoo, golf course, and aquatic center. I would propose staying Friday night in Manhattan to check out
Tallgrass Taphouse and the
Little Apple Brewing Company, sadly they no longer brew beer, but are an excellent beer bar with great food. Then head to Clay Center and spend the day visiting the town and drinking beer, before settling into one of the Airbnb’s.
More information on 15-24 is on their
website,
facebook page,
trip advisor,
yelp, or
untappd.
Cheers,
Brett A. Myces
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| Glass, growlers, and crowlers |
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| The awesome license plate letting you know where the bath room is |
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| A picture of their menu |
