What's in our beer?

Sometimes we get questions about what goes into the beers at McCoy's, so why not turn to the source - brewmaster Keith Thompson! 

McCoy's goes to length to ensure that our beer is made with natural ingredients. 

We use domestic and European barley. ALL barley grown in North America is GMO (genetically modified organism) free! It is not legal to grow GMO in Europe (and a fair amount of the rest of the world for that matter). 

The Wheat we use is also GMO free.

We have never used high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in our brewing process.  

For a few seasonal beers, we use a small amount of flaked corn (Summertime Cerveza), flaked oats (Oatmeal Stout). We use over 100,000 lbs of barley per year at McCoy's. Last year we used a total of 200 lbs of flaked corn. 

Hops come from the Pacific Northwest and Europe... all are GMO free. 

Yeast... ours comes from Europe. GMO free. 

Water... KCMO water. We filter it through a commercial Carbon Filter to ensure no off flavors or chlorine gets to our brewery. It is also boiled before brewing to precipitate hardness. The water coming out of the faucet in KCMO is actually very good, for both drinking and brewing. It has significant amount of Calcium, Magnesium, and other minerals needed for yeast metabolism and healthy bones... also GMO free :) 

We use Biofine Clear for our cask beer program. Biofine Clear is a purified colloidal solution of silicic acid (SiO2) in water which aids in the sedimentation of yeast and other haze forming particles in beer. (Vegan friendly - no animal products) 

For our Raspberry Wheat we use a slurry of pure raspberry from Oregon Fruit Products. We used locally grown blackberries for our blackberry tart. 

The beer at McCoy's contains no additional stabilizers or chemicals.

Cheers, Keith Thompson, Brewer, McCoy's

There you have it! If you're looking for an all-natural beverage this weekend, stop on in at McCoy's and grab a beer! Check out the cask beer, a Willamette dry-hopped IPA, just tapped today. The Willamette hops give it a nice citrusy taste without being too overbearing and bitter. 

And if you haven't had a chance to try the Milk Stout, you better get one while you're at it. Smooth and delicious. Wait, Keith didn't say anything about using milk... The "milk" part actually comes from lactose, a sugar that comes from milk. This sugar isn't fermentable, so the yeast don't eat it and it stays in in the beer, giving it a touch of sweetness and a creamier body (and if you're lactose intolerant, you may want to cut back on this one. If you're not, then drink up!).