Boulevard/Flying Saucer PSA

Pausing for a commercial break:

The Flying Saucer Draught Emporium will present a beer tasting featuring Kansas City-based Boulevard Brewing Company on Monday, March 9 at 7 p.m. at its location in the Kansas City Power & Light District at 101 East 13^th St.

The event will be hosted by Steven Pauwels, brewmaster at Boulevard. Five beers from Boulevard’s Smokestack Series will be paired with specially selected artisan cheeses and a dessert. Featured pairings include the Long Strange Tripel with a St. André Tripel Crème; the Smokestack Saison with a Great Pyrenees Goat with green peppercorns; the Double-Wide I.P.A. with Blue Stilton; the Smokestack Imperial Stout as a stand-alone feature; the Sixth Glass Quadrupel with chocolate truffles; and one special “mystery” beer from Boulevard.

“At The Flying Saucer, we want to be the beer destination for the Kansas City area, and hosting tastings with local favorites like Boulevard is a part of that,” said Matt Gardner, general manager at The Flying Saucer. “Boulevard celebrates its 20^th anniversary in 2009, and in those 20 years, it has become the largest specialty brewer in the Midwest, producing great yearlong and seasonal brews. Beer enthusiasts will not want to miss the opportunity to try six Boulevard beers in one sitting. Plus, we don’t even know what the mystery beer will be!”

Tickets for the event can be purchased at The Flying Saucer and are $30 for U.F.O. Club members and $35 for non-members. Reservations are recommended as space is limited.

For more information about the event, please call (816) 221-1900 or visit www.beerknurd.com/stores/kansascity.

I would totally be here on this day, except it's kind of a big day at work, so I prolly won't make it. sniffle Poor me. So, who is going?

A continued love affair

Me + Winter = Stout Love Forever

I was wandering the shelves of my friendly neighborhood liquor store, looking for something, anything different, really, and not finding much that piqued my interest. At the bottom of a display, I saw a sixer of this. Check out Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout, brewed by the Anderson Valley Brewing Company in Booneville, CA. According to the brewery’s site:

With its deep, dark brown-black color, thick, full-bodied, velvety-smooth mouth feel, mocha character, and, strong yet subtle hop bite, Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout is one of the thickest, richest, and most complex stouts on the market today. In 1990, it became our first gold medal winner, at the Great American Beer Festival. Barney Flats was judged so superior to the other stouts that no other medals were even awarded in its category. Try it and see why Stewart Kallen described it as, "Slippery, creamy, dark, and sweet as a Pacific May morning," in his book, The 50 Greatest Beers in the World.

Jason, of the Almstrom Bros of Beer Advocate, noted the following:
Presentation: 12 oz brown long-neck bottle with no freshness date. Blurb about the beer on the back label.
Appearance: Stout black with a wispy light brown lace.
Smell: Sweet and tangy with a mild coffee and chicory aroma.
Taste: Rich, smooth and textured. A fight between the roasted flavour and hop oil … hop oil finally gives up. Hops give a good fight with a flowery bitterness and leave a short trail of flavour. Roasted flavour keeps on pushing on, full bodied and a bit of sweetness come through. The finish is of a faded tangy roasted ending.
Notes: Seriously hearty stout, very full bodied and pretty much no holds bared on your taste buds. This is what you call a beefed up stout … where is my cigar?

My pathetic reviews can’t top Jason’s insightful notes, so I am not going to try, except to let you all know that this is hands down, absolutely, my favorite stout right this second. Go find some!

Oh, and I ripped this picture off of the Google. I didn't go on a glass buying spree. Mine was consumed from a regular old pint glass. Of course.

Beer at Work

I need some help from all of my KC brew buddies. Recommendations, anyone?

We have a kegerator at work, and it is currently empty. It is empty because we can't seem to find a decent source of small/pony kegs. When we have giant parties, we go thru standard sized kegs, no problem. But our office staff of 9 can't seem to kill a keg in a timely manner, and the lines get gross, and by then, well, it's just too late. We all like interesting beer, and variety. We have good beer in the fridge, but it just seems like a waste to have a kegerator and not use it.

So, where can we pick up pony kegs of GOOD beer? (Don't tell me to brew my own. I know. I'm just starting to get my head wrapped around that, and you really wouldn't want to subject my coworkers to a first batch.)

One of these things is not like the other

OK, so this isn't beer related. But I have been living in a bit of a hole, apparently, and I just learned that Phillips Chop House closed. WHAT?! DAMMIT. I haven't been that in love with a restaurant in a while, and now I can't drag my husband there for Valentines Day. Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Snowboarding in 70 degree weather!

This weekend my company will be dumping 68 TONS OF SNOW on the KC! LIVE Block. Why? Well, because we're having a snowboard tournament in the middle of the Power & Light, of course. Saturday, February 7th. And of course it'll be 70 degrees that day. So you should DEFINITELY come down to see the craziness. It'll be as family friendly as possible, with most of the bars closed during the day. Once the booze-mall picks up steam, the kidlets should have gone home anyway. The later crowd will enjoy the pro-am teams doing crazy tricks on the rails in the later evening.

Over the course of the next three days, a ski hill will emerge in the Live! Block descending from the skywalk to the Live! Stage standing over a story and half tall, 50 feet wide and 107 feet long. A total of 150 pre-registered local and national riders will compete in the event and 16 will be named to the “Scion 16” for an opportunity to team up with one of 16 professional riders for the finals competition. A large crowd is anticipated for the finale as it is the biggest snowboarding event to take place in the Midwest.

Date:
Thursday, February 5, 2009 (Ski hill construction & snow dump)
Saturday, February 7, 2009 (Competition)

Times:
Thursday, February 5, 2009
7:00 a.m. – Ski hill set-up begins (continues all day, until finished)

Friday, February 6, 2009
1:00 p.m. – Snow trucked in from Snow Creek in Weston, Mo.

Saturday February, 7, 2009
7:00 a.m. – Snow trucked in from Snow Creek in Weston, Mo.
9:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. (Registration)
Noon – 6:30 p.m. (Snowboarding Competition)
9 p.m. – 11:30 p.m. (Finals)

Location:
The KC Live! Block in The Kansas City Power & Light District

The Foundry

Have I mentioned how much I love Westport now? Well, I do. Because I am not single OR 23 years old, and I cannot hang in the P&L too often. Westport grew up a little, and I like it better. Especially on slow weeknights.

Yesterday was our 7th anniversary, and we did the fancy expensive dinner thing over the weekend. So we decided to catch happy hour beers and pizza at the Foundry in Westport. Between McCoy's, Blanc, The Foundry, and Harry's, there are quite a few options in Westport, and it makes me happy.

We both had a couple of stouts (Kalamazoo for me, Left Hand for him), some tasty pizza, and good conversation. Even if 75% of it was about work.

Know what else makes me happy? Servers who are so friendly that they draw you happy little pictures on your leftover pizza box.

RIP Rivermarket Brewery

I got a heads up from a rivermarket resident that the Rivermarket Brewery finally closed. He said, "It disproves my theory that the only reason that place was open was to launder money. It's a good loss because the microbrewery beer was simply god awful, and the food was mediocre at best. It's regrettable that despite the drink, it was close by and I considered it my local. A lot of good friends have lost work."

He makes good points. I haven't been to the Brewery in years. Honestly. I didn't enjoy their beer, and the whole experience of just being there was vaguely uncomfortable. So I am not surprised, unless you think about how long it was open, past when it SHOULD have closed. It's a loss for the Rivermarket community, but it also means that Harry's should be a bit busier on a regular basis. Did anyone else even notice they closed?

**edited to add that this observation was sent to me yesterday, and my late posting due to workload means bullevard and fatcity totally pwned me on this one :)**

Frenemies

Reports are out that Coors Light has surpassed Miller Light to be the number 3 bestselling beer in the US, behind Bug Light & Budweiser. One of those stories can be found here. Coors latest marketing messaging sticks to one point, only that it should be VERY COLD. (I agree. Kills the taste.) What is funny is that Miller and Coors are supposed to be helping each other, being owned by the same company nowadays. Looks more like sibling rivalry. Clip of the info below:

Miller Lite's sales last year totaled 17.7 million barrels, down from 18.35 million barrels in 2007, according to trade publication Beer Marketer's Insights. Meanwhile, Coors Light's sales increased 2.6%, to 17.75 million barrels compared to 17.3 million barrels.

Coors Light and Miller Lite are the nation's No. 3 and No. 4 brands. The top selling brands are Bud Light, at 42 million barrels, up 0.1%, and Budweiser, at 23.1 million barrels, down 6.1%. Rounding out the top 10 are Natural Light, Corona Extra, Busch Light, Busch, High Life and Heineken.

Overall U.S. beer sales increased 0.5% in 2008.

One Second Superbowl

Have you heard about this yet? Please don't say no. Anyway, I think it's clever, and if they end up running 30 of these things, I'll be disappointed. Stick with one. See here for the "rejected" ads, and be sure to click on the part that tells you what $30 million could buy you, besides a SuperBowl spot. What do you think? If this is post-game Sunday, what DID you think?

This is the most awesome thing I've heard all day

I'm buried in work. Up to my eyeballs. Truly. But I spied this on Dan's Gone Mild blog, & I had to post about it quickly. To the Dead Canary Brew crew, just tell me what I can do to help support, beyond becoming a dedicated customer in the future.

Totally ripped off, from Dan's blog:
In 2009, Kansas City will have another brewery opening up, this time in the West Bottoms. Dead Canary Brewing is a woman-owned and run new brewery, setting up in the West Bottoms down off 12th Street, among the haunted houses and great old brick buildings.

Folks, this could be amazing.

They are setting up Beer Pong and Dodgeball Leagues. They are creating a taproom. They are committed to brewing practices that are green and sustainable. They got started on this journey by brewing naked.

Most importantly, they are creating "high content, high flavor, knock you on yo ass beers." Beers like Cat House Stout - (Dry hopped mint chocolate imperial stout), Local No. 12 - (lemongrass maple strong ale), Speakeasy IPA - (honeysuckle grapefruit IPA), Bathtub Barleywine - (copiously hopped barleywine), and Chickory Rhubarb Imperial Porter.

Chocolate for Friday

Received the below message from 75th Street Brewery today. Still not clear what the brew could be classified as, but sounds good.

Even Darth Vader can't resist the force of the brew we've got on tap now at 75th Street...

Chocolate Assent

75th Street's master brewers are releasing this rich brew to you TODAY!!
Chocolate Assent's dark brown color pours to match the six pounds of Colombian dark chocolate within the brew. The assent's aroma is full-on malty caramel with hints of the chocolate cacophony to come. Your palate will be challenged at first sip with a smooth bitterness start [reminiscent of your first chocolate chip cookie] before the lingering bittersweet chocolate taste tags along. This brew is a go-getter [as in GO GET A GROWLER] that suits a cozy night by the fireside.

But don't plan on us providing the fire. Spark it yourself.

Stop in for a pint TODAY for FIRKIN FRIDAY, January 9th at the 75th Street Brewery in Waldo.

Cheers!

Good, Fast or Cheap - you can only pick 2

I've read roughly one million articles on how people are changing their consumer behaviors based on the crappy economy, but this one takes the cake. According to The Australian, BEER drinkers feeling the pinch of the economic downturn are engaging in their own form of supply-chain simplification and saving money by brewing at home.

Really? My assumption was that brewing would probably be more expensive, and at least in my case, of debatable quality. Or inconsistent at the very least, in the beginning.

Black Ops

Remember my little hey-let's-break-the-law-and-send-booze-thru-the-USPS episode? My sister-in-law returned the favor by sending me some Brooklyn brew. I received a bottle of Brooklyn Brewery's Black Ops Imperial Stout last week. I waited for the right moment to break it open, which turned out to be Sunday, the night before my husband and I had to return to work after 10 consecutive days of vacation. Aaaannnnnd, thud. But I slept very well.

Regardless, a strong imperial stout was perfect for the winter evening, and this is definitely a STRONG one. According to Beer Advocate info, Brooklyn Black Ops was aged for four months in bourbon barrels, bottled flat, and re-fermented in the bottle with Champagne yeast. There were 940 cases produced. The label looks much prettier in RL than here in the picture I ripped off of someone else's Flickr.

I kept the 750 ml bottle on my kitchen counter top for more than a day, so it was definitely room temperature by the time I poured the dark, motor oil colored stout into 2 pint glasses, and waited for the abundant dark tan head to settle down before we tried it. The first whiff seemed to contain some of the bourbon barrel character, but to be honest, mostly all I smelled was raw alcohol. Well, it is an 11% ABV beer. It kind of intimidated me, but only because it was a school night. The taste starts with dark roasted malts, chocolate and coffee flavors, maybe a little vanilla, a little bourbon burn, and ALCOHOL. A mostly direct quote from my husband went something like this, "This might be a great evening after all." I refrain from conjecturing what he meant by that.

All I know is that he polished off his glass long before I did. This was a sipper for me. Good, smooth, with the alcohol burn becoming less apparent with each gulp, but still a sipper. I couldn't really imagine having too much of this, but one pint was perfect. I had to get up early in the morning for the first time in almost 2 weeks. Blerg.

New Years Resolutions

I like to keep things simple, so I don't have a long list. I am putting them here to keep myself honest, to check in on from time to time. Resolutions are very easy to make and very difficult for me to keep.

1. Be healthier, meaning just to eat less crap and get to the gym an average of 3 times a week.
2. Drink less beer, in terms of volume, and better beer when I do.
   
3. Make sure my house is CLEAN, not just picked up, on a weekly basis. (Monkey hate clean.)
4. Start homebrewing this year. (This is more of a process, meaning I have a lot to learn and purchase, and a full dance card otherwise, but it is something I always wished I knew how to do.)

What resolutions did you make?

Two thousand and nine already?!

Happy New Year!
I love fresh starts, new beginnings, clean slates and alla that. I love shiny happy hopeful opportunities, inspirational quotes, and the like. So when I wake up tomorrow, hungover or not, I will remember that I have 365 days, 52 weeks, 12 months, or however you like to look at it, all clean and blank and stretched out before me to make amazing. Before I snarl at anyone and bitch and moan about how bad I may or may not feel, I will lay in bed and remember that it's a new day and a new year and it will be as awesome and amazing I allow it to be.

K, had enough sunshine blown up your wazoo? Have a marvelous time tonight, doing whatever you do, and remember, Holiday Cab is back up & running in KC. Call 816-777-1115 for a safe ride home. Driving around on NYE is a bad idea, no matter what. Morons. You know. I will stick to drinking beer tonight. Last time I drank anything else it was a bad plan. V. bad plan. Am grounded from red bull and vodka for life, I am sorry to say.

John's Upper Deck

Someone who lives near John's in downtown KC says there is something shady going on. They've apparently been closed for over a week for "renovations," but clearly there has been nothing done except to turn off the lights since hanging the sign. So, is John's the next casualty?

Crawling home

Lee is in town, Lee is in town! Freezing his mild Texas behonkey off in our sub-zero climate, I am sure. He's going to be at McCoy's tonight. Sadly, I will not be at McCoy's tonight. :( If you see Lee, tell him I said hi, and I'll catch him another eve. With beer. I promises.

Tonight my co-workers and I are embarking on what sounds like a Very Bad Idea. We're doing a pub crawl, on a Monday night, as our own little holiday party. All full-time employees and all contract field staff are welcome to attend. We're starting at the office, and heading out into the frigid night around 6 ish. This is what the work fridge looks like right now. Boulevard Pale Ale, Schlafly & Breckenridge Christmas Ales, and a little Hoegaarden, not to mention the Bailey's, Bud Light, Jose Cuervo margaritas, or the bottles of random booze below. I heard that someone is bringing their own 30 pack of Busch Light. A little something for everyone, then. The little mustard bottle looks a little out of his element, don't you think?

Sometimes I just steal things

Found via DP, who got it from TastyBooze, and reposted here because if you don't know, now you know. Aren't you glad you aren't a girl?

Space Beer?

Stolen directly from BLDGBLOG:

Last week, Sapporo announced that they would soon be serving space beer, "the world's first beer made with barley descending from plants grown inside the International Space Station."

The barley used in the new beer is a third-generation offshoot of the original plant stored for five months in a Russian laboratory in the station. The company has made only 100 liters of the new brew, named Sapporo Space Barley, which is not for sale. Sapporo says the beer is safe because it has tested microbes in it and did tests with lab animals and Sapporo employees, too. It also says that the space beer tastes just like regular beer.

For obvious reasons, this brings to mind China's space seed project, in which "space breeding" puts astronomy to work in the service of contemporary agriculture.

Plant seeds have been blasted into orbit in the hope that "space breeding" holds the key to improving crop yields and disease resistance. Wheat and barley strains developed by the Department of Agriculture and Food in Western Australia (WA) have just landed back on Earth following a 15-day orbital cruise on board China's Shijian-8 satellite. "Space-breeding refers to the technique of sending seeds into space in a recoverable spacecraft or a high-altitude balloon," said Agriculture WA barley breeder Chengdao Li. "In the high-vacuum, micro-gravity and strong-radiation space environment, seeds may undergo mutation."

While this certainly offers landscape architects an unearthly way to boost their horticultural repertoire, it also shows that specialty foods cultivated through genetic interaction with the universe might yet find a comfortable place in the human food chain.
Sipping space beer, ingesting astronomical influence, welcoming literally non-terrestrial nutrition into the planetary web of caloric intake, we'll find that Sapporo's newest beer brings a suitably alien tenor to the local amnesia of alcoholic intoxication.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Postal Experiment

I think I may be breaking the law. I bought a bottle of both Boulevard's Saison Brett and Bourbon Barrel Quad, wrapped them in 900 layers of paper, and shipped them off to my brother & sister in law in NYC. I just placed them in the care of the US Postal Service tonight, using the self-service kiosk at my post office so no postal worker could detect my guilty red face when they ask if the package contains any liquids and I say "NO!" Considering the current temperatures, I am taking bets on the likelihood of both bottles arriving in whole condition, with no explosions, breakage or leaking.