KC Here I Come

Many of you know that I will be moving to Kansas City, Missouri.  The main reason is for a new job, and although I am looking forward to being settled down in a new city, I will miss parts of Boulder, especially all the great beer it has to offer.  Boulder and Fort Collins, CO, are two of the greatest cities in the country for microbrews.  Being near Boulevard Brewing will be awesome, but KC doesn’t have what Boulder does for beer. 

I am also quite excited to be near a baseball team that I actually like.  The Royals are not doing so hot, but I would much rather be cheering for my poor Royals than the Rockies.  And, as I am sitting here writing this, I am sweating like crazy; I will not miss the heat of this damn house.  “But Greg, you moron,” you may be thinking, “KC is way hotter than Boulder, and it’s so humid there it’s like you are breathing through a wet rag.”  Yes, I already know this, and so does everyone in KC.  That’s why every single house or apartment there has AC, unlike the crap college rentals in Boulder. 

Family is also a big draw for me to be in KC.  My sister has a two year-old, and she is totally cute, and there will be another little babe running around here in the next couple months.  Ya know, on second thought, moving now might be a bad idea actually since these little kids are going to need lots of babysitting.  And who better then the younger brother, “because you will do it out of the goodness of your heart and not charge us right?” says my brother in-law.  Well shit, at least they will be cool, and I can’t say I really mind.  It seems like the rest of the extended Bland family will be making KC their new home as well, as many of my cousins are moving to KC.  So it will be great to be near all of them for once.

Now, I know this is supposed to be a blog about beer, so here is the advantage to moving to KC for beer.  I will have more room to expand my brewing capacity and can really start to perfect my skills as a brewer.  The market here in Colorado is saturated with microbrews, and the opportunity to become a successful brewer here in Colorado is very difficult.  The opportunity I will have in KC could lead to my own brewpub someday, and the market in KC, and really the whole of the Midwest, is begging for diversity in the beer choice.  This will be a great chance for me to start making contacts and developing my own recipes to finally put together a plan to make Bold Greg Brewing a reality. 

Beer of the Week

During a week-long visit to my girlfriend’s hometown in Wisconsin, I had the opportunity to experience a taste of the many marvels the state has to offer: eating several varieties of cheese (sometimes daily), checking out farms full of cows, watching how Trek bikes are made, scaring the piss out of myself dropping into a crazy waterslide (sorry to whoever went after me) at the self-proclaimed World’s Largest Waterpark and of course, drinking great beer.  So, what better place is there to find a Beer of the Week than Wisconsin? 

Precisely.

Milwaukee is a beer lover’s Mecca.  Not only is PBR from Milwaukee, but all kinds of great microbreweries call Milwaukee and other cities throughout Wisconsin home.  Born in the city of New Glarus, a town of just 2,300 a little drive south of Madison, is the New Glarus Brewing Company.  Of the good beers this notably tasty brewery produces, Spotted Cow is probably the best known.  It’s considered a farmhouse ale, often called saison, meaning that it is an old fashioned, naturally cloudy beer.  Traditional in all aspects of the ale, this beer requires a warm fermentation and the real presence of yeast, and flaked barley and corn pack some great flavor.  Unlike Coors, which I ripped on in a previous post, the corn in a farmhouse ale is not merely a cheap replacement for barley, but rather added to create the smooth finish distinctive to Spotted Cow and other similarly brewed beers. 

New Glarus is a great brewing company with lots to offer, so the next time you find yourself passing through America’s Dairyland, be sure to save room in your suitcase full of cheese to fit a few Spotted Cows.