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Saturday, December 27, 2014

Kansas - local beer tour.

When I travel, I enjoy looking for a bit of local taste. I visit as many local beer spots as a I can to try and get a feel for the local beer culture and to try new adventurous beers.  I do this when I travel for business or for pleasure.  For me, the holidays are an opportunity to go to my hometown and relax a little but since I don't get back home often, it's an opportunity to catch up on my old stomping grounds developments in the beer world.

Over the last week, a buddy and I drove around the area and hit a few of the local beer spots.  Some new (to us) and couple "old faithful" spots that I just like to get to when ever I get the chance.

First up on our local tour was 23rd Street Brewery located on Clinton Parkway just 3 miles from Allen Fieldhouse, home of the Kansas Jayhawks (Rock Chalk Jaywalk).  While this brewery is one of the most aesthetically pleasing breweries I've seen, assistant brewer Tucker Craig says the second floor brew house makes things a bit of a challenge on brew days.  They use a winch to hoist their grain deliveries up to the second floor 15 bags at a time.  Craig, who is still an avid homebrewer says his brewing buddies sympathize with his plight.  

The brewery still caters to their local homebrew club the Lawrence Brewers Guild. (@LawrenceBrewers).  Most recently one of their members, Andy Booth was part of a collaboration beer with the brewery.  Together they brewed up Firehouse Alt.  I was able to try that beer along with many of the others from the brewery during our visit.  I'll post some of my tasting notes along with pictures of each of the beers from the tasting below.  

After leaving 23rd Street, we made our way up Clinton Parkway to Mass street.  This is the heart of Lawrence and the home of not only the first legal brewery in Kansas post prohibition but also the brewery where I experienced my first, real live craft beer. FreeState Brewery.  Just to give you an idea how long it took for Kansas to get it's first legal brewery post prohibition, FreeState was opened in 1989.  

We went there on a Saturday afternoon at about 2:30 and this place was hoppin.  We couldn't get a seat at the bar so we stood at the end of the bar.  That of course didn't stop us from getting a couple beers.  First up Black Eye Rye Porter.  I've always been a fan of FreeState dark beer and this one didn't disappoint.  I also tried a small taster of their Ironman Imperial Stout which the bartender made sure to tell me it's on a Russian Imperial Stout.  Russian or not, this one left me wanting a little but I'm a big fan of big beers so it's going up against some pretty good competition.

After leaving FreeState, we were running out of time before the "better half" required my presence so we were looking for the biggest bang for the buck (in terms of beer choice).  We made our way up I-70 to the Legends mall near the Kansas Speedway.  Tucked in between the many shoe stores and places I try to avoid at all cost is one of the many YardHouse Restaurants.  While this is a chain, they do a great job and stocking many choices for the craft beer aficionado.

While here, I only had time for a couple beers.  First I tried a Petrus Aged Red.  I had never had a Petrus beer but I live just miles from Jester King Brewery which is one of the best sour breweries in the nation...hands down.  That said, this one had to do a miracle to measure up.  While it wasn't in the same league as JesterKing it was a nice beer.  It was aged on cherries and in my opinion tasted about as close to a tart cheery pie as you can get in a glass.  It was very low in acidity but still had a nice sweetness.  Could really only have one of these so I also had a Goose Island Honker's Ale. I pretty much have to try any English Bitter I find on a beet menu because I'm always looking for a nice session-able ale.  This one did not disappoint.  I'm not 100% positive but I would swear they used a lot of Marris Otter malt in this beer and it really comes through.  Very nice beer.

That was pretty much the extent of the trip before having to make our way back to Topeka.   My conclusion is that if you're in the Topeka area and want something other than Blind Tiger (which I'll write about later) you might have to drive a bit but there are some pretty good choices that aren't too terribly far and there are a number of places I'd still like to go...if I can only break away from the "better half" and the social schedule.  Cheers to happy holiday's and remember....drinking responsibly means drinking again.

Lawrence Brewers Guild - @lawrencebrewers
23rd Street Brewery - @23rdStBrewery
FreeState - @freestatebeer
YardHouse - @yardhouse
Jester King Brewery - @jesterkingbeer

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