Torn Label
Torn Label is one of the smaller breweries I visited. They had an interesting lineup of beers and solid impressive hoppy offerings. The Alpha Pale was delicious with tons of hop aroma and notes of tropical fruit and citrus that balanced nicely with a light acidic finish and low bitterness. This is an excellent pale. The house brew coffee brown was thin with bitter coffee notes and mild molasses. I would have gone for more coffee character. The Monk and Honey had notes of spice, citrus, and lemon peel with a mild honey sweetness.
The Hang Em High IPA was biter and resinous with notes of grapefruit on a sticky body with hints of lychee and an herbal hop bite at the finish. The 3 Heroes Wheat IPA was soft with notes of tangerine, tropical fruits, and candy orange. The beer showcased tons of hop aroma with minimal bitterness. The Shake Hands with Danger Imperial Brown was sweet with notes of caramel and light coconut. The beer hides its alcohol very well and despite being fairly thin packed tons of flavor.
Torn Label had some impressive IPAs and a tasty imperial brown that suggest to me that they will continue to brew lots of great beer.
Top 2:
Alpha Pale Ale
Shake Hands with Danger Imperial Brown
Boulevard
Boulevard is owned by Duvel. They have a massive beer hall area where they have 20-24 beers on tap on the second floor and a massive shop on the first floor. They have a limited food menu as well and depending on how busy it is they may limit you to certain pre-selected flights. I tried a ton of different beers at Boulevard but I will highlight some of my favorites rather than going through all of them.
One flight came with a mystery beer that turned out to be a cranberry sour. It had notes of cherry from the malts that blended nicely with cranberry notes and a light tart finish. The latest collaboration release available was an oak aged lager and it had a light sweetness with an oaky finish. I enjoyed this quite a bit. The IPAs I tried were all fairly herbal and didn’t really stand out to me. I wouldn’t recommend you visit just for the hoppy beers.
The berliner weisse had notes of ginger with light lemon notes and a crisp tart finish. The brett saison had a nice white cake saison base with mild citrus, funky brett, and a dry finish. I left with a bottle of this to try at home. The 2015 imperial stout from bottles was delicious with notes of caramel and molasses with a nice thick sticky body and light fudge on the finish.
It is worth taking the trek to the brewery to try various tap room exclusives and to try the various barrel-aged or collaboration offerings. I wouldn’t recommend that you visit for IPAs but they had delicious berliner weisse, Belgian styles, and various stouts.
KC Bier Company
KC Bier Company focuses almost exclusively on German styles. They have a large outdoor beer hall atmosphere and serve beers in full 1 liter steins if you feel so inclined. I only tried four beers there because I had already visited two previous breweries.
The Helles was crisp and light with mild herbal hops and a clean finish. Compared to the helles the pilsner had a bit more citrus notes and slightly more hop character and bitterness with a dry finish. I ended up ordering a liter of the pilsner to enjoy after my flight. In a full pour it had a nice fruit character I enjoyed.
The gose had a nice citrus forward taste with light tart on the finish. The dopple alt had a nice mix of caramel and toast with a soft dry finish. I enjoyed this style that is not often brewed. Typically an alt bier is 4% or so and this one was a double so it was over 7%.
KC Bier Company is worth a trip to enjoy their varied offerings at the source or if you are simply into a pilsner or hefeweizen they are easily available around Kansas City in six packs.
Paul McGuire
Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.
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