Boulevard Tour

This Sunday we went to the Boulevard Brewery on Southwest Blvd in lovely Kansas City, Missouri. Tours are free and they recommend reserving quite a bit ahead of time - we got our spots about 2 or 3 months beforehand. The tour begins by the gift shop area in the old brewery. It is a turn of the century brick building where John McDonald, founder, installed a badass Bavarian brewhaus and got down to business. All of Boulevard's Smokestack series beers are made there, including our favorite Double Wide. Unfortunately, we did not get to see any real brewing action... the real work happens during the week. We walked past rows of old bourbon barrels filled with some bourbon barrel quad (BBQ - a limited run Smokestack that is going to become a seasonal) and also some of a new rye beer they are working on.



After checking out the old side of the building we crossed the kooky yellow bridge into the modern part of the brewery. Our tour guide was a dapper gentleman with hair that looked straight out of Fallout, grease and back-pocket-comb included. He talked extensively about the green-friendly features of the new building: concrete construction, a green roof instead of a black tar one, and large windows that limit the need for artificial lighting.



On the second floor we had the chance to check out the huge wort kettles and were advised, like good little children, to keep our hands to ourselves lest we burn them on hot pipes. Acting like the nerds we are, we veered away from the tour a bit and peeked into what seemed like a cold room where giant bricks of hops were stored. This was also the floor the employee pub was at. Damn I need a new job!

On the third floor was the Muehlebacher suite (pronounced "mule-backer"). For only $7000 you could have a private party or wedding there, including all you can drink beer and about 24 bottles of wine. Is it tacky to have a cover charge at a wedding?



The other cool part about the third floor was looking down into the bottling line. We learned that Boulevard has one of the newest, coolest, and most efficient lines in the country... kind of like the Wonka factory but better.



The thing I liked least about the tour was its length - fifteen minutes didn't seem nearly long enough! Thankfully, just when I was getting surly about the tour being over we were led back to the tap room in the old building. Free beer! We tried two beers not available on the market yet - a pilsner and a saison. We can't remember the official name for the pilsner... American Pilsner maybe? Anyway, I thought it was a straight-ahead pilsner. Not the kind of beer I usually go for, but waaaaay tastier than a Bud or Coors any day. The saison was called Tank 7 and I think it was similar to the Saison-Brett they released a few months ago.

Saisons are "farmhouse ales" and based on my half assed Wikipedia research I can say the following about them: they are refreshing summer ales, probably have some wild yeast strains all up in them, and although once an 'endangered' beer specie they are now coming back like the 90's (according to Willie the 80's already came back and are on their way out again). Imagine an endangered panda wearing ripped jeans and Ray Bans. Willie loved the Tank 7.

Our tour guide encouraged us to try beers we hadn't tried before. Besides the Tank 7 and Pilsner, we had a couple sips of Lunar Ale but then went back to our beloved Single Wide. It was a great way to spend a Sunday!