Founders Beer Dinner - 11.20.11

Join us on Sunday, November 20th for the latest edition of our monthly Brewmaster's Dinner.  This time we're very excited to be showcasing beers exclusively from Grand Rapids, Michigan's Founders Brewing Company.  Founders has a strong reputation as creating some of the most highly sought after beers in the country and were named the 2nd Best Brewery in the World by ratebeer.com in 2011.  Here's whats on the menu:

- sweet potato with smoked pork belly gravy and fried egg paired with Founders Pale Ale
- bleu cheese dressed mache, pickled roots, crunchy bread and purple gastrique with Centennial IPA
- lobster chili blanc with Harvest Ale - seasonal fresh hop pale ale
- red deer pot roast banger, carmelized cherry smashed and bourbon butter with Backwoods Bastard
- dark roasted waffle, hazelnut curd and vanilla bean syrup paired with Breakfast Stout

Tickets are $50 per person, including tax and gratuity, and can be purchased at all 3 Beer KC restaurants or by calling Beer Kitchen at 816.389.4180.

Now on Tap - Goode Farmhouse Ale

It's back! On tap at McCoy's & the Foundry is our very popular Goode Farmhouse Ale. Named after Gib Goode, the farmer who generously picks up our spent grain every week, Goode Farmhouse is the seventh batch of our unfiltered & characteristically cloudy Belgian-style ale.  This complex ale tends to be semi-dry  with lots of fruity flavors and aromas.  Bold earthy yeast flavors, a mild hop profile, lots of spice and just a touch of sweetness round out this complex and refreshing brew.

Brewer's specs:

Pale 2-row & unmalted wheat

Styrian Goldings hops

Fermented with Belgian Ale yeast

6.1% ABV

Cheers!

Strong Ale Fest - 11.12.11

Join us between 1:00 - 5:00 on Saturday, November 12 for Beer KC's first annual Strong Ale Festival at the McCoy's / Foundry parking lot.  Featuring 30 brews clocking in at no less than 8% ABV, this is a great opportunity to try some rare & higher-alcohol beers without committing to a whole bomber or 750ml bottle - all while contributing to a great cause: the AIDS Walk Kansas City.

Featuring these local, regional & national breweries:

- McCoy's Public House
- 75th Street Brewery
- Southern Tier Brewing Company
- Green Flash Brewing Company
- Gordon-Biersch Brewery
- Grand Teton Brewing Company
- Stone Brewing Company
- Firestone Walker Brewing Company
- Avery Brewing Company
- Unibroue
- Tallgrass Brewing Company
- Boulevard Brewing Company
- Schlafly / St. Louis Brewing Company
- Bell's Brewery
- New Belgium Brewing Company
- O'Dell Brewing Company
- Free State Brewing Company

Tickets are $30 in advance or $35 at the door and can be purchased at all 3 Beer KC restaurants or by clicking this link.

Pics - Cider Dinner 10.16.11

Sunday night's Brewmaster's Dinner featured a 5 course meal paired with rare apple and pear ciders from Minneapolis's Crispin Cider and Colfax, CA's Fox Barrel Cider.  The sold-out dinner was an excellent showcase of the vast differences that can be obtained in ciders, while carefully matching each variation with a particular dish.  As always, big thanks to those of you who made it out, but for those that didn't, here's what you missed:

reception course of various seasoned pub nuts

warm rocket salad with pear and lingonberry vinaigrette with gruyere cheese 'puffs' paired with  Fox Barrel's unfiltered pear cider with elderberry & rhubarb

butternut squash bisque with nutmeg foam paired with Fox Barrel's unfiltered  pear cider with ginger and black currant

halibut-cheek sausage with sesame-vegetable crepes & lemon caper buerre blanc served with Crispin's Cho-Tukkyu apple cider fermented with sake yeast 

ox-tail osso bucco with toasted barley risotto, pan jus and red onion compote paired with Crispin's Lansdowne apple cider fermented with Irish Stout yeast

apple-cranberry turnover with Crispin cider sabayon and vanilla bean gelato served with Crispin's Honey Crisp apple cider fermented with honey

Tickets are available now for November's dinner which will feature one of our favorite breweries, Founders Brewing Co.  More information on that as it becomes available. Also - stay tuned for more information on Beer KC's first annual Strong Ale Festival taking place November 12...

Nebraska Brewing at Foundry & Beer Kitchen

Beers from our northern neighbors at Nebraska Brewing Co. are finally available in Missouri and we're very happy to have a couple of their brews on tap.  Head brewer Tyson Arp and NBC consistently rank as one of the best, yet smallest, breweries in the country taking home 2 medals at this year's GABF - including the first ever Gold medal for a Nebraska brewery.  Beer Kitchen currently has their highly sought-after Hop God on tap - a crossbreed of a Belgian-style Tripel and American IPA (10% ABV & 101 IBU), while the Foundry has their particularly rare, newly reformatted West Coast-style IPA called Romancing the Cone (7% ABV & 71 IBU) - very little info exists on this one: no ratings on Beer Advocate or RateBeer, and only a few check-ins on Untappd.  Stop by Beer Kitchen or the Foundry and try some of these excellent beers from our friends up north.  Cheers!

2007 Stone Old Guardian at Foundry 10.06.11

Tomorrow night at the Foundry we'll be tapping a keg of Stone's Old Guardian.  With a 99 on RateBeer and an A- on Beer Advocate,  clocking in at 12% ABV & 85 IBUs this big-ass barleywine has been aging in in the icehouse since it was brewed back in 2007.  We'll be joined by Stone's Vice-President of Sales Arlan Arnsten when we tap the keg around 8:30 tomorrow night.  Another great opportunity to try a super-rare beer and meet one of the dudes behind the scenes.  See you Thursday!

Pilsner Takes Bronze at 2011 GABF

Brewmaster Keith Thompson's take on the Bohemian-style Pilsner won the Bronze medal at this year's Great American Beer Festival in Denver, CO.  Thirty years and counting, the GABF is the largest annual beer festival in America and our Pilsner took 3rd place out of 42 entries in the style.  With over 450 breweries and 50,000 people in attendance, we're honored to take home another medal.  Congratulations to our brewers Keith & Tobias - we raise a glass in your honor.  Cheers!!!