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!).

Say "Tomato" with us and Kurlbaum's farm!

It's once again time for the annual WE SAY TOMATO beer dinner, featuring heirloom tomatoes from Kurlbaum's Farm! Last year's dinner was great fun, and this year adds a cool twist of pairing the delicious tomatoes with beers all from local breweries, including some newer releases - Tallgrass's Wild Plum Farmhouse and Boulevard's Pop-Up Session IPA, along with McCoy's Cerveza and Sticke Alt, Gordon Biersch's Hefeweizen, and Long Strange Tripel from Boulevard.

A few of the tomato varieties are the same as some from last year (Juanne Flame, Gold Medal, and Brandy Wine) but used in different manners. And I was a fan of the dessert tomato last time around, so I'm looking forward to see how it turns out this year.

The dinner is at 7 pm on Monday, August 5th. Call us today at 816-389-4180 for reservations! It's $55 for six courses paired with the beers, tax and gratuity included. Don't miss out on a great chance to learn a little about some historic tomatoes, and to see how delicious the heirlooms can be!

AMUSE/RECEPTION

“EL MATADOR” WITH JUANNE FLAME ON A STICK
McCoy’s Cerveza

1ST
TEMPURA GOLD MEDAL
BAY SCALLOPS/LOBSTER MISO BUTTER
Tallgrass Wild Plum Farmhouse

2ND
PICKLED BRANDY WINE
CRSIP ROMAIN/CHARRED VINAIGRETTE/MAYTAG
Boulevard Pop-Up Session IPA

3RD
PUREED BELMONT
CRISPY BASS/GNOCCHI
Gordon Biersch Hefeweizen

4TH
STEWED SAN MARZANO
BERKSHIRE PORK/BACON JUS
McCoy’s Sticke Alt

5TH
CANDIED BLACK KRIM
SHORTBREAD/WHIPPED/SYRUP
Boulevard Long Strange Tripel

Kansas City invades Denver

I went to Ft. Collins and Denver for the long 4th of July weekend, to take in the best in what the cities had to offer. And by that, I mean I went to a lot of breweries. I believe we went to 10 all told, but it gets a little blurry. While looking through my pictures from the trip, most of them look... similar. Luckily, some have branded glasses, making identifying them after the fact a lot easier. Like this one  -

Crooked Stave was one of my favorite stops of the trip. Not only because of the beers (which were GREAT), but because when we walked in, I recognized a couple friends from Kansas City who happened to make the trip west and visit the same brewery on the same day. At one point there were about 14 people in the taproom, and 10 of us were from KC. Maybe that'll convince them to bring there beers here! Everyone should have a chance to try them - mostly barrel aged beers, and lots of varieties in the flavors. Vieille, a barrel aged saison, was a highlight for me.

This is where my deductive skills helped. Because of the table and the water cooler in the background, I at first I thought this was Crooked Stave. Then remembered they didn't have that many beers on tap, and nothing that dark, and remembered it was Verboten. There was another chance meeting that brought us here. This time it was running into one of the founders of the brewery and learning they were open late on the 4th. I'm glad this worked out, because their stuff was very good. Only recently opened in Loveland, they had a lot of beers available, and I don't remember one lacking in the slightest.

I wanted to get a growler of In Love With Summer, their strawberry rhubarb wheat, but sadly they were out of empties. Just means I'll have to go back. They had a rum barrel aged beer that was fantastic, and What Hump?, a sour porter that impressed. Definitely seek them out if you're in the area.

I'm pretty sure this was River North. The style of glass sticks in my head. Just up the street from Coors Field, this was another brewery I didn't know about but sorta blew me away. Great beers all around, including Unified Theory, an oaked imperial wit. And a food truck parked outside. I love eating food out of trucks (even if I didn't eat anything from this one, it still earns points for just being there. The food looked good, but would have been taking up precious real estate tabbed for beer).

 More distinct glassware, this time from Black Shirt Brewing. Cool taproom and a unique take on their beers - most (if not all) of the beers were various "reds." There was a red saison, a red porter, red pale, etc. Solid beers, and everyone seemed to love their sour. For whatever the reason, it wasn't really my thing, but I can respect it. I may have accidentally broken the brewery. OK, not too badly, only a chain barrier knocked over. Nothing serious.

Another new brewery, De Steeg has only been open since February, but they're cranking out great beers. One of the (I assume) founders of the brewery was so impressed by our table that he came out to take a picture for himself. Again, I was impressed by their stuff. A Belgian saison and a French saison were both tasty, and their barleywine was amazing. Plus their entrance is in an alleyway, so if you tell a girl you've been there it's like you're braggin' that you know how to find it.

I think New Belgium was the only brewery that I had been to on a previous trip, but it turned out to be one of the most fun stops of the whole trip. First, Kansas City's Beer Ranger (and all around great dude) Adam Satz hooked us up with some beer and a free shirt - both La Folie for me, obviously. Then we got to play Rolle Bolle! It's sort of a combination of horseshoes and shuffleboard and bocce ball, played with wooden "bolles" that kind of look like wheels of cheese. SO MUCH FUN. I am now looking forward to finding a way to bring this to Kansas City.

Those weren't all of the breweries, but some of the photographic highlights. Denver/Ft. Collins is a brewing mecca, with new breweries popping up seemingly overnight. It's not too bad of a trip for a long weekend, and great to visit some of our brewing brothers and sisters to the west! 

This was while sitting outside at River North. It was waaaaaay prettier than this picture can show.

Any beer travels coming up for you this summer? We'd love to hear about them!

The return of Blackberry Tart

Great news - not only is this a short work week, but McCoy's is going to make it even sweeter (or in this case tarter) with their Blackberry Tart!

Tomorrow (Wednesday, July 3rd), we'll be tapping the beer, with an added bonus... The final keg of the first batch of Blackberry Tart will be tapped along with the first keg of the new batch. We'll have a flight option so you can try them side-by-side and see what some aging can do for the beer. The weather looks like it'll be absolutely gorgeous, so get your holiday weekend started with a delicious beer! The beer will be tapped when McCoy's opens at 11 am -- $6 for a full pour, $3.50 for a pony, and 7 for a flight of two full pony pours!

In case you haven't had a chance to try the Blackberry Tart, don't go in expecting a standard beer with some blackberry flavor. This one's sour and will make you pucker! Having the last batch next to the new batch will be a great opportunity to find how a sour beer ages. The "bugs" (wild yeast strains, different than the usual ones used in making beer) that make the beer sour will have had more time, so it should be a little drier and tarter than the new batch. I'm really looking forward to having one of my all-time favorites back!

Also, we'll be open regular hours on Thursday, so celebrate the 4th of July with us! Come before, during, or after the fireworks and have a pint of beer brewed right here in Westport and give a toast to America's birthday.