BBQ, Buddies, & Beer: Stone Matt's Burning Rosids

C and I got a smoker a little while back and we decided that today was a good day to give it a try. So last night we cured the smoker and this morning we fired it up.We are smoking a small pork butt and if everything goes right we will have some pulled pork for dinner! (If not we will be going to Papa Murphy's to get a Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza)

Drinking a beer on a patio watching your smoker is the only right thing to do on a day like today, so that is where I find myself. My smoker is a few hours into cooking and I start my first beer. Don't worry! It is afternoon!

I got a suggestion from some friends at KC Beer Scouts. They recommended that I drink a 4 Hands Smoked Pigasus and I will be getting some in my next trip to the store. It sounds perfect for my next attempt at using the smoker. (Like KC Beer Scouts on Facebook)

However as I need to keep an eye on my smoker, I went to my beer fridge to see what I had on hand. I found Stone's Matt's Burning Rosids, An Imperial Cheerywood-Smoked Saison. So I decided it was time to pay my respects to Matt and drink the beer dedicated to him. I will talk more about Matt shortly.

I poured this beer and it was a nice orange transparent color with a good off white head on the beer. As it comes in a bomber it wouldn't fit in one glass and it is 10.5% so I would actually suggest splitting it with a friend (unless you are on a mission).When smelling the beer you get a nice earthy aroma where you can really get the cherries. For those of you wondering, according to Stone, Rosid is the plant family that cherry trees come from. When I sipped this beer,the Belgian characteristics that is common in a Saison are prevalent. I got the earthy wood and smoked flavors from the cherrywood-smoke and it finished off kind of tart. This is a very enjoyable beer and I will enjoy it again, hopefully soon.

There is a reason it is call Matt's Burning Rosids, other than it is a cherrywood smoked Saison, Matt Courtright was a brewer for Stone Brewing. Sadly and unfortunately Stone lost Matt in 2013 and decided to pay tribute to his life by brewing this beer. I wish I could have met Matt with the way that Stone describes him:

Matt was the type of guy who loved to laugh, and had the amazing ability to put others in stitches just by being himself. In a matter of seconds, he could reduce the hardest, burliest, most seemingly emotionless brewer into a doubled-over, wheezing hyena. He had many methods for doing so-quips, bear hugs, and jokes, both of the inside variety and just plain hilarious. But, honestly, all it typically took was that infectious grin of his. Matt was just in love with life, and everyone and everything that comprised his. He loved being a brewer. More specifically, he loved being part of Team Stone, and the men and women he not only worked with, but spent most of his free time enjoying off the clock. He loved his family. He loved sports, particularly his hometown teams. And he loved making a difference. Matt expended a great deal of effort in the name of numerous charities, but none so much as GoDesign, a charity committed to fulfilling the architectural needs of developing communities around the world. In support of that organization's efforts, Matt traveled to Africa to help construct a much-needed school for the children of an impoverished village in Ethiopia.

Please go read more about how Stone describes Matt and his passions.

I give the Matt's Burning Rosids by Stone a 7.5 out of 10.

Go! Give it a try!

I think you should join the #beerchat Thursdays at 8pm CST

I was browsing Twitter last night when I found out about #beerchat as it was going on. I noticed this discussion from a few people on twitter just randomly posting opinions about beer last night around 8 pm CST with #beerchat in the tweet. This was just a bunch of people across the country even with some in other countries having good discussion about craft beer and the craft beer industry. This week's topic was:

The #beerchat topic for tonight is: Who is the craft beer community... and who could it be?
— Carla Companion (@beerbabe) March 21, 2014

This is an interesting topic because I wrote about who I think a craft beer expert looks like. I haven't written about who are beer drinkers. This discussion really opened my mind to ideas I haven't thought of before.

Q1: If you had to cast a "craft beer drinker" character in a movie - how would you describe the person you'd go looking for? #beerchat
— Carla Companion (@beerbabe) March 21, 2014

I wouldn't make the cut RT @beerbabe: Q1: Director says "get me some person that looks like a craft beer drinker" who do you send? #BeerChat
— L Allen (@L_AllenH) March 21, 2014

This question seems simple but in it's simplicity the question exposes the difference between what is a beer drinker and who should be a beer drinker. As L Allen points out, my first thought was not a black man nor was it a woman. Admittedly I am a middle class white man and just short of the "craft beer drinker" by a reluctance to grow a beard. The community has been defined by white men with gnarly beards, but it should be defined by a mixed group of people all smiling each with a different craft beer in hand.

Q2: So, is that okay? Should there be more women, for example, enjoying craft beer? #beerchat
— Carla Companion (@beerbabe) March 21, 2014

Q2) I would like women to educate themselves. It's not about saying "I like craft beer." Know why & allow yourself to branch out #BeerChat
— Arianne Dragoo (@AriDragoo) March 21, 2014

Unfortunately, a woman who enjoys craft beer, let alone is knowledgeable about it, is still a pleasant surprise. The sad state of affairs is that a bartender or server at a restaurant is more often then not correct to offer a lighter or sweeter beer to a female who doesn't know exactly what she wants (no pun intended). Some would call this a "girly beer." However, I really liked on a recent brewery tour, where the female tour guide said that a "girly beer" to her was good imperial stout or really whatever is in her hand at the time. While it would make a single guys job harder when ordering a beer for the pretty woman across the bar, I would love for women to be as prevalent in the craft beer community as that beard guy.

Q3: Is the lack of racial diversity in craft beer okay? Should there be a more representative crowd in terms of race? #beerchat
— Carla Companion (@beerbabe) March 21, 2014

@beerbabe #beerchat I feel like those who are interested are welcome no matter what their race. Beer goggles = <3
— Vanessa S (@OhSoVane) March 21, 2014

I like Vanessa's sentiment in that everyone is welcome and I know I would raise a glass with anyone around. We all know there is a lack of racial diversity drinking craft beer. I have met a few great individuals of diverse backgrounds, but they are few and far between. I feel there is just a lack of exposure to these groups. So how can you become interested in something if you don't know it is an option?

Q4: What is the value to having a more diverse and representative craft beer community? Is there one? #beerchat
— Carla Companion (@beerbabe) March 21, 2014

@beerbabe A4: Variety is the spice of life #beerchat
— Mr. Friendly (@mrfriendlybeer) March 21, 2014

Mr. Friendly is absolutely correct when he says "Variety is the spice of life"! And this is the most important reason why diversity would be of great value to the craft beer industry and the consumers of craft beer! From a business mind frame more people, means an increased demand, bigger markets, and more opportunity to share craft beer with those who have never been exposed to it. From an innovation standpoint we know that more people with diverse backgrounds and differing tastes would mean brewed beer changes, expanding styles and challenge preconceived notions. Most importantly, assuming the interest is great enough for craft beer to expand into areas that haven't had it before, increasing brewery's and brew pubs into the rural and urban markets can have a HUGE economic impact, maybe in the billions of dollars not to mention jobs. This would be great for those areas!

Q5: What actions at individual, industry, or marketing levels can help beer become more inclusive. Are there any? #beerchat
— Carla Companion (@beerbabe) March 21, 2014

Q5. Offer beer to ppl who claim not to be drinkers & describe it in an accesible way. Beer tastings in unexpected markets #beerchat
— Sara Bryce (@PLSanders) March 21, 2014

Right before I heard about #beerchat I was at a free beer tasting at a local liquor store provided by Nebraska Brewing Company and their distributors. This regular tasting featuring different brewers is a good way for me to find new beers and new brewers. This doesn't happen in some areas, I might be considered spoiled with that sort of thing. Sara is right. We need to be more accessible and call out snobery and encourage discussion. Craft beer, despite huge progress in gaining market share from big beer, there are still a vast majority of people that are stuck on the dark side of light beer. Some actions that need to happen are:

1. Restaurants need to offer more craft beers on tap and combat AB/InBev and MolsonCoors dominance on the taps.
2. People need to engage more on social media in an effort to remove stigmas on craft beer.
3. Like Sara says, individually we need to stop using jargon or exclusive language.
4. Industry and craft beer drinkers need to help others find transition beers regardless of who makes them.
   

Q6: How included to you currently feel in the craft beer scene, and what would make it better for you personally? #beerchat
— Carla Companion (@beerbabe) March 21, 2014

A6: Not to suck-up, but #beerchat has certainly connected me greatly. Bars embracing #craftbeer movement. Brewers opening doors to public.
— Dan Curl (@TheDanCurl) March 21, 2014

The community around craft beer is very well connected and once you find a way in, people rush to share their passion for beer and a good time. Dan is right! Bars and Brew pubs are popping up all over the place and giving craft beer enthusiasts ever increasing quality options for craft beer.

Please find this group of people, every Thursday night 8 pm CST look for on Twitter the #beerchat and you could even follow @ActiveBeerGeek to find out more about these gatherings. Great discussion and you could even find new beers to try and make some friends while you are at it!

And the beer goes to...

I wish I could buy beer for everyone, but I don't quite make enough money for that quite yet...

In the mean time I would like to buy some beer for the lucky people who won my recent contest.

On Twitter I got 10 new followers and on Facebook I got 20 new likes! While I know the rules say that I would only buy a beer for each winner but if you write the rules you can change them! I will buy a 6 pack of beer for each person!

Seth Bishop is the winner from Facebook!

David Schumacher is the winner from Twitter!

I am thinking a trip or two to the Bridger's Bottle Shop or Bier Station would be a good place to pick out the beer! What do you think?

Now if you didn't win, don't worry because I think I might do more of these kind of contests in the future. Be sure to follow and like these feeds for information about Scouting the Taps and even future contests. Also feel free to give me feedback on how to make Scouting the Taps better!

Who knows if you see me out and about I might be able to buy you a drink anyway.

If you want to see more about the contest click here! I will probably do something like this to celebrate a new website that I am developing with some amazing help!

Prairie Artisan Ales - Prairie Ale

I decided I needed a patio night and C is watching the Jayhawks probably do what my Tigers couldn't do today, win.

But I win because I am having a great beer tonight. I opened a Prairie Artisan Ales Prairie Ale. This beer is a nice light beer and is a good example of a Belgian style saison ale. The beer pours cloudy and in appearance looks like a Boulevard Wheat, hazy and a light yellow. You get the fruity smells along with the smells that the Brett yeast brings to a beer. This beer is nice light as you drink. Not overpowering but lets you know that its there. This beer is very good for a saison, and I am glad to be drinking it on a patio tonight!
Prairie Artisan Ales is a great new brewery out of Tulsa, OK. They have a some other great beers that I will be looking to try for you or maybe enjoy with you!

 I give this beer a 9 out of 10.

Scouting the Taps wants to buy you a case of beer!

I want to reach more people. You want to drink beer. What is better than when a friend buys you a good beer?

Scouting the Taps wants to buy you beer. All I want in return is your help reaching more people. Scouting the Taps is active on a few social media networks and I will buy you some beer for your help spreading the word about Scouting the taps. 

Here is how this will work:

I will buy one person an amount of beer per social media platform. That amount will increase proportional to the number of additional follows I get per platform.

To enter this drawing just takes three steps per form of media.




As of this post I have 61 followers. Help me get beyond 161!

1. Follow @scoutingthetaps
2. Retweet the contest tweet shown here:
   

   Scouting the Taps wants to buy you a case of beer! Click the link & find out how I will do that! #craftbeer #beernerd http://t.co/C8B5AiRY7q
   — Alex Workman (@scoutingthetaps) March 10, 2014

3. Tweet about a beer you want to try, currently having, or maybe there is something about beer you want to learn. Tweet something about beer and make sure to include @scoutingthetaps at the end of the tweet.

As of this post I have 80 page likes. Help me get beyond 180!

1. Like the Scouting the Taps Facebook page.
2. Share the contest post from the Scouting the Taps Facebook page on your timeline.
3. Post a status about a beer you want to try, currently having, or maybe there is something about beer you want to learn about. Post a status with something about beer and make sure to tag Scouting The Taps in the post.

The amount of beer I buy will grow at these levels of new followers per platform. For each platform:

• At 10 new followers I will buy the winner a beer.
• At 25 new followers I will buy a 6 pack of beer.
• At 50 new followers I will buy a 12 pack of beer.
• At 100 new followers I will buy a case of beer.

The lucky people will be selected at random on March 16th at 5 pm Central. Results to be posted after that. Since shipping beer is not really cool with the postal service, if you aren't local we can make arrangements for a Visa gift card to be sent to you in the amount of the prize. However if you are local to the Kansas City area, I would love to buy you a beer in person. We can figure those details out when you win.

Fine Print:

• Winner must be 21 years of age or older to receive the prize.
• Each person can get one entry per platform for a total of two entries for a chance to win.
• A beer will be defined as any beer with a max retail value of $5.
• A 6 pack will be defined as any amount of beer with max retail value of $10.
• A 12 pack will be defined as any amount of beer with a max retail value of $20.
• A case of beer will be defined as any amount of beer with a max retail value of $30.
• There will be one winner per platform for a total of two winners.
• Each Platform has to hit follower count levels to be eligible for the payout.
• An entry will be counted if each step is completed per platform.
• If you are already follow a specific page make sure to do the other two steps.

I really want to buy you a beer and spread the word about Scouting the Taps, so please help me out.

Smokestack Brewery Tour: A Must Do For Every Craft Beer Drinker!

Last night I was part of a test run of a new tour at Boulevard Brewery. This new tour is still in the works and they are getting a feel for what they are going to do with it, but they are looking to start offering this tour to the public in the coming weeks, maybe even as early as two weeks from now. However just as a disclaimer, the details I share with you may change by the time you go for your Smokestack tour.

Boulevard has a free tour that last year alone gave more than 50,000 people the opportunity to get a sneak peek behind the scenes look into brewery operations, history, and to everyone's delight a sample of their craft. It is great for people new to and experienced in craft beer.

Within the past few years Boulevard developed a second tour, called the Unfiltered tour. This tour was a lot more in depth information and had more access to different parts of the brewery. The Unfiltered tour is only offered on Sundays and is limited to 20 spots per tour. This is by design to make sure the tour guide can interact more each individual guest. The limit also allows for each person to taste a wide range of smokestack and special beers. When I went last summer, we started off with trying the Nelson, which is going to be in a new series of beers coming out in the near future from what I hear. During the tour we got to go beneath the bottling lines and see parts of the brewery I had never seen before and we also went in the hop cooler and got to try a few hops and see all the variety of hops used in the process. Because I went during the summer part of the tour took us to see one of the best views of Kansas City. One drawback of this tour is that they go on sale once a month and usually sell out within minutes, so you would have to be camped out on their website. However that tour is definitely worth it, especially if you like beer and the brewing process.

So these two tours bring me back to the tour I went on last night. Both previously mentioned tours have a specific goal and purpose in mind. They are designed to teach people about the brewery, history, and process geared towards humanizing the people who make the great beer we enjoy. Boulevard felt there was under served market for tours at the brewery. Lets suppose you either have gone on the other tours and you have been there, done that, got the t-shirt (literally, I have a couple). How does the brewery reach out to people who are experienced with not only drinking beer, but also know about the brewing process? What can the brewery offer people who maybe have been home brewing for years? What can the brewery offer a beer nerd? How about the opportunity to have a friendly, in depth, detailed conversation about Boulevard, brewing, equipment, ingredients and especially the beer? When I showed up yesterday afternoon in the Tasting Room at Boulevard there were five other people going on the tour (I think they intended for 10 to 15 on a tour). Each person had a flight of four Smokestack beers. The flight included Sixth Glass Quad, Dark Truth Stout, Long Strange Tripel, and Double Wide IPA. There was a plate of strawberries and a plate of chocolates. The tour guides introduced themselves as well as a brewer on hand to get even more technical about the process of making the beer in front of us. We walked through each beer discussing the qualities of the beer we were drinking. We also experimented with flavors combinations between food and beer as well as how the beer order changed the flavor of the beer. For example, strawberries and Long Strange Tripel go very well together. The guides were very knowledgeable but were also aware that they had things to learn about beer (as we all do), at which point the deferred to the brewer who was nice enough to stay after his responsibility in the brew house was done and answer all of our questions. He really demonstrated his passion for beer and shared that passion with us. The experience of this tour really could change based on guest participation or interaction with the brewery staff. The guides and brewer really made it apparent that they wanted to answer any question we had. If there are brewery secrets, we weren't aware we uncovered them, because every question was answered.

After awhile drinking and talking about beer, we took a different tour than the normal route taken by the free tour and I got to see parts of the brewery I had never seen before. Despite the numerous tours I have been on at Boulevard, I have never gotten the chance to see their equipment running. Not only were they transferring batches between tanks but I got to see a batch of Sixth Glass being made. IT WAS AWESOME! The aroma in the room just hit me and it was beautiful. Oh! I forgot to mention we had a beer in our hands as we toured. For the most part this is intended as of right now to be Tank 7, but you might be surprised what asking nicely will do for you. I am now officially on Team Radler and also got to taste their Tasting Room ESB. The two tastes was because C is nice enough to let me try hers.

This tour gave a chance for the guides to really flex their mighty knowledge about the brewery, beer, and brewing. You could tell they really enjoyed the event almost as much as we did. When the tour brought us back to the tasting room, we got to crack open a couple bottles of Imperial Stout and ask questions to our hearts content or just past 5 pm, whichever came first. There also may or may not of been a high recognizable person still working hard having a discussion there in the tasting room with another gentleman. John McDonald was there and he is a super nice guy, despite me going all fan boy on him and asking for a picture with him. For a guy that most likely never has to work another day in his life he is dedicated and still working after 5 on a Wednesday afternoon.

For the perks of this tour, you get what equates to 3 or 4 beers, a lesson on food pairings, an almost intimate discussion about Boulevard, beer, and the brewing process, and you get to see a side of Boulevard you don't to see unless you work there. Boulevard has given the potential to allow 240 people a month to experience the tour. Even though this tour will regularly be scheduled for Monday through Thursday afternoons from 3:15 to 5 pm, I feel it is more than worth the effort and nominal expense to get to know more about the catalyst for the craft beer movement in the Kansas City Area. For more information and how to register for the tour go to Boulevard's website.

Boulevardia Taps & Tastes

I am sitting here during my lunch break reading some of the fallout from those who were not fortunate enough to get Boulevardia tickets. I must say that this shows a bad side of people's expectations, but I know a lot people who wanted to go. I feel for them and I will try to get word of other beer fests in the area out to you all.

For those of you wondering Boulevardia is going to be a festival this summer June 13 - 15 in the west bottoms that isn't just about beer. There is going to be food trucks, music, local vendors, a family fair, and even an eco-expo. The organizers are getting more and more information out each day as they continue to build this event!

Part of Boulevardia will be a beer and food fest called Taps and Tastes. This event will have 40+ brewers and 12 local restaurants serving amazing selections and talking with attendees. For a long time now Boulevard, Central States, and Boulevardia have been promoting this portion for when tickets go on sale. That sale started this morning at 10 am. This event is also where people decided to get ugly about all of this.

I had the pleasure of watching an exchange between Central States, Jeremy Danner, and a guy on twitter with a handle that something to do with a big head, and that's exactly what the guy had! The guy starts off trying to call a BUSINESS out on making revenue to ensure that it covers costs of the event. Then proceeds for the next hour to go back and forth being the Spanish Inquisition and indignant about how he perceived a lack of information. (Oh and he tried this morning to get tickets still and wasn't able to) Jeremy took the respectable route of take it or leave, there are plenty of people who will happily go and Central States bending over backwards trying to show the guy where his questions were answered.

Just an FYI by 10:20 AM all 2000 tickets were sold out. Twenty minutes!! That is INSANE! There were others still this morning that were very upset about site crashings and saying how horrible Boulevardia and Boulevard were for "not being prepared" and how this was worse than the 2012 Chocolate Ale "problem" (bitter much?). In my opinion what happened this morning is that people were reloading starting at 9:45 on the website and as the site changed content is when we got the error messages. However the website wasn't even the portion that hosted the ticket sales. It was on a third party website that was just linked from Boulevardia.

As Boulevard has transformed in the eye of the Kansas City area to more of a social and cultural movement and less of a business that makes really good beer, expectations for the brewery and what it provides have kind of gotten out of hand. This many people don't get this upset about a sold out concert or when a store sells out of a product. The good people of Boulevard, Boulevardia, and their sponsors have made their job harder because people now come to feel entitled to the wonderful events and amazing beer that they produce.

Lets take a look at the numbers. At 40 breweries and 12 restaurants for 2000 (number of tickets sold) people. This is 40 people per brewer and 167 people per restaurant. Even if you assume an average of 3 taps per brewer that is 14 people waiting in line for a 2 oz pour. I think Boulevardia was even stretching it to allow this many tickets to be sold because they feel that the quality of beer and the experience itself is going to make the juice worth the squeeze. I think they are going to pull it off and I am anxious to go as my tickets are my birthday present from C.

Where is the silver lining in all of this?

Despite all of the craigslist ads and social media fallout, Boulevardia will be hosting a three day extravaganza that you should all come out to even if just to the General Admission portion that will still have great food, great beer, and fun for the whole family, not to mention support local businesses that will be there. This event keeps growing every day as new things are added. I am excited to see what live music is brought in and a list of all the food vendors that will be there. If you didn't get a T&T ticket or just want to have a good weekend, go buy your GA ticket for only $10! Or maybe look to volunteer and have good time and get a shirt for free!

Follow Boulevardia on Twitter and Facebook.

Kansas City Bier Meisters 31st Annual Homebrew Competition

Last weekend I decided to volunteer my day to a homebrew competition in North Kansas City. The Kansas City Bier Meisters put on their 31st annual competition with entries from all over the area, including Kansas City, Lawrence, Wichita, St. Louis, and even as far as Lincoln. In all there were 564 entries in to the competition with 229 participants, judges, and stewards. I was a steward and my job was to help out around the judging tables to make sure they got each beer, had cups to drink out of and most importantly receive the judging decisions for each beer and checking math of each score(It was real hard to add a few numbers to a sum lower than 50).

I walked in and found my name on the list of registered stewards, all I had to do to register was send an email to the people at KC Bier Meisters. These guys really know how to host an event! I was immediately handed a nice glass and some raffle tickets for some interesting drawings, was shown where the beer was. Beer was provided by a lot of local brewers, such as Boulevard, Free State, 75th Street, Martin City, Cinder Block, and a lot of others! I was able to taste quite a few good beers from around the area. The highlight of the raffle was some brewing equipment and some brewery signs including a neon sign and 4 foot tall Beer stein. The lowlights of the raffle would include a Colt 45 Malt Liquor sign with Snoop Dogg on it. While I was enjoying this good beers, I got to some great people while learning about the homebrew competition. With each person I talked to I either heard a story about brewing beer or a good place to go get a beer, I also learned a lot about techniques of homebrewing and styles of beer. I had a lot of fun and now I am excited to learn more and brew more of my own beer applying what I have learned.

Each beer was evaluated by at least two judges on aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel, overall impression with scores record on this sheet. Each category of beer got a first second and third, and each beer could be nominated for Best of Show for a grand champion of sorts for the whole competition. Here are the results of the Kansas City Bier Meisters 31st Annual Homebrew Competition.

The most memorable moment from the judging was one judge actually spitting out the beer because it was "not what he was expecting" from the category. For a porter the beer was really pretty bad. Though this would give me confidence to enter a competition in the future. I had a great time and I wish I had a chance to do more with this event. I wanted to sit in on the Spiegelau glass event for $25. I would have had a chance to learn about specialized glassware and keep the glasses that would normally have cost $50 at store. And there was an award banquet that would have cost $35 for a four course meal paired with six different beers. If the course menu is any indication of future competition banquets, then I will look for future events to volunteer for and maybe compete in. Boy O Boy I wish I had seen this site before the competition and I would have known about all these things. I am also pretty sure the tweet below is directed at me... I am just saying...

Thank you all to everyone who entered this year! Also a huge shout out to all of our volunteers, we couldn't have done it without any of you
— KC Bier Meisters (@kcbiermeisters) February 23, 2014

This experience has inspired me to start a series of posts looking at each of the four ingredients for beer. Then I will detail the brewing process through a few of my own homebrew sessions.