Beer KC Summer Beer Festival - Exclusives!

Only a few more days to get advanced tickets to our Summer Beer Festival, for a discounted price of $25!  The price will increase to $30 the day of the fest, June 9th, as long as they last.  Here's a list of the beers that will be available.  Some are old favorites, but let's take a closer look at a few that are new, or only available at the fest.

Deschutes is bringing not one, but two brews not available in the market!  Hop in the Dark is a Cascadian Dark Ale, a style sometimes known as a "black IPA" or "American black ale."  Whatever you call it, it's delicious.  Roasted malt taste, backed with a good amount of hops.  This is one of the best representatives of the style, so be sure to get a taste of it.  The second beer is the Chainbreaker White IPA (wait a minute, it just clicked - a dark IPA and a white IPA, side-by-side!  Brilliant).  Remember the second collaboration beer Boulevard released?  That just happened to be a white IPA, with, you guessed it, Deschutes.  This should be reminiscent of that one, and, I imagine, will be fantastic on a summer evening.  While I haven't had the pleasure of trying this version of it, if it's anything like the collaboration, it'll have a nice balance of the Belgian white spices (some orange peel, coriander, and lemongrass) and the hop profile that we know and love from Deschutes.

Next, Empyrean Brewing from Lincoln, NE, will have a couple of beers on hand.  They'll be rolling out their beers to the Kansas City shelves this summer, but we'll have their Watch Man IPA and Super Nova Summer Fest on Saturday, as a sneak preview.  Exciting!  Watch Man IPA is a newer addition to their year-round bottle lineup, while the Super Nova Summer Fest is a relatively new to their seasonal bottle line.

Staying in Nebraska, some of our newer friends in the city, Nebraska Brewing, will have beers tapped and ready for enjoyment.  Their EOS Hefeweizen, Infinite Wit, Cardinal Pale Ale, and Hop God are all making appearances at the festival.  You may have seen their reserve, barrel-aged series beers at The Foundry or at your favorite store, but if you haven't had a chance to try these fantastic beers from their regular lineup, this is a great opportunity!  All very well-balanced beers, and all thirst-quenchers.

Now, our brewing friends from just down I-70, Tallgrass will have their Wild Plum Saison.  It was available at Parkville Microfest, but went quickly.  While we're hoping for a wider release of this tasty beer, we're happy to have it this weekend!

Boulevard's Saison-Brett may not fit into the "new to us" category, but it'll be a nice treat to have on tap!  Bottles should be finding their way through the city soon, so keep an eye out for it.

We wouldn't host a fest without bringing out a little special something!  We'll be using our Randall to add watermelon to Newcomb's IPA, for a refreshing taste of summer.

Finally, we left off an important contributor from the list last time. . . Sierra Nevada is supplying their Kellerweis and Summerfest!

What beers are you most looking forward to trying?