I know you are a contractor. Perhaps you can help...

And this again was when the bar was first built and the pub table (out of view) and tv were first installed. Since then, I have added swag, which you all wont like, an area rug from home cheapo that looks like the field at Gillette, and faux etching on the mirror of a 24" flying elvis centered and the corner swirl pattern. I also have it lit now. My neighbor is an electrician and he used some 2=1/2" led lights of some sort with one each shining down into the glass front cabs, and the rest in the middle above the mirror, at both forward and rearward angles. The whole basement is on dimmers. The cab next to the keg fridge is a sink base and I plan on getting it plumbed this spring with a small sink.

It doesn't look barren like it did when I first finished construction. Hell in these pics the bar stools still have tags on them...

No love for the oak top bar rail or real brass foot rail...


oh and edit. I built that thing from scratch. I am no carpenter by far, but I was able to cut all those angles on the bar rail and the crown molding. I made it from cabinets and plywood, some veneer for the back of the cabs, some split banister spindles and trim boards. I ordered the brass rail and endcaps on line and the oak bar rail from a local millwright. I had all the glass custom cut...

I'm kidding. It looks like those were taken the moment construction was done. The foot rail is a nice touch. Expensive too. The oak bar rail is nice and I have some on my bar but I won't do it again. It's too expensive for what it accomplishes.

You did a fine job, especially if you're not a carpenter.

Proper looking man cave there.

Thanks. I gotta get used to the attitude here. The put downs and butt hurts just seem to be prevelent.

Yeah, the brass rail was pricey, the end caps especially. I got some awesome carved ones, but they were half the price of the rail.

The oak bar rail was pricey too, but the one I got is curved to fit the elbows and forearms perfectly. I was in a local brew pub when designing my bar and I asked where theirs was done because it fit so good. Then I had mine made to match it. Not a waste at all. In fact it kinda makes it.

thanks again for the compliment. I still gotta get a tower tap for my kegs. The keg fridge pre dates the bar

Thanks!

so I popped a bottle of Dupont with some friends...

I immediately got the appeal of the style....great funky nose, a teeny tiny bit of sour, the taste seemed to swirl...it was never just one thing....a bit of citrus zing throughout keeping the whole thing together...

can't wait to try another...

Yes! Glad to hear that you enjoyed it.

Had one of these at a local brew pub. Very good porter!
http://www.narragansettbeer.com/wp-c...ett_Porter.JPG

Its good that 'Gansett is back, now owned by craft brewers, using the same good water as its predecessor once did back when, before corporations corrupted it.

Drinking the Foret Organic Saison. It's a little one-note for me at this point with lots of hops. It's good, though, but I wouldn't regularly choose it over less expensive Saisons like Tank 7 or Saison Dupont.

Edit: I'll change my opinion (I should have served this cold to let things open up as I drank it, but I served it at pretty much room temp, somewhat limiting the "journey" of the beer). It has quite a bit of complexity. There's some lemon and herbs in there as well as the funky skunky of the hops that bring a brightness to it. Still not sold on it over others, but I'm glad I bought it and tried it.

HOLY ****ING SHIT!

Going to Omaha this weekend, and I've been talking to a friend up there about trying some new beer... I was going to bring up some Stone Brewery stuff, and he bought some Sam Adam's Longshot, etc.

He calls me and says he's looking at 3 bottles of Boulevard 21st Anniversary Pale Ale.... was this released again?

I told him to buy all 3 (plus some Imperial Stout)... he laughed, but obviously doesn't understand the demand around here when it came out.

No, it was not released again. And won't be.

I didn't think so, and figured I would have heard if there was more available around here... I know Boulevard says it's good asap, but do you think there's any harm in storing one of those for a while?

Yes. It's not going to lend itself to aging, IMO. It's a beer based entirely on the interplay between the hops and the English specialty malts. When the hops fade off, then you're going to be left with an underwhelming beer at best.

Thanks, it probably wouldn't have lasted long anyway.

Some local KC love..... 75th St. Brewery's Summit St. IPA is pretty damn good. Some very complex flavors there, more than I can really identify. I'd like to hear if anybody else has tried it. I detect some citrus at first, with some pine tree aftertaste. I'm not sure if that makes any sense. I was really impressed though.

Anybody?

That makes perfect sense to me. In fact, those are the two predominant flavors of IPAs.

Picked up a bottle of Boulevard's Imperial Stout in LR yesterday. Upon first sip, should have picked up several.

I believe Saison-Bret comes out next week.

Sweetness overload. Might be good with BBQ (if you like Strawberry Pop/Red Cream soda):

http://images.teamsugar.com/files/up...er.preview.jpg

Yea. The girl that checked me out was confused/pissed because the code in the comp was the same as the Imp Stout. Had to get the beer guy to come down and figure it out.

Wasn't a fan of this, and I generally like stouts. It received excellent reviews, however.

I saw in the reviews that they had a batch with brett by mistake. I'm sure if you weren't expecting it, I could see how it'd be different than what you wanted. I like it, have a non-brett. I still put Bourbon County above it though as far as bourbon aged RIS goes.

Saison Brett has started its assault on KC.

I've got 4 bottles already.

I wonder if Saison Brett will make it to Minneapolis. I've really been wanting to try that one...

Picked up Sixth Glass lil' smokies. Never had it before but looking forward to cracking a bottle.

My friend in AZ just mailed me a bottle of Dogfish Head's Bitches Brew, an Imperial stout that was brewed in tribute to Miles' seminal fusion album of the same name.

Anyone try this stuff?

Brewing a Pliny clone today.

Found a bottle of Hopsickle from Moylans(love their Kiltlifter BTW) at the liqour store. Knowing it likely wasn't fresh due to location, I'm impressed with it. Great backbone to balance the bitterness.

Sheeeeeeeeeiiit, I forgot about this thread. I've had one HELL of a beer month. Highlights were two bottles of Cantillon Fou' Foune and multiple rare one-off beers consumed AT Three Floyds Brewing.

I had Arrogant Bastard recently for the first time and another ale from same brewery last night....pretty fine stuff that

Boulevard/Deschutes White I.P.A. last night. Very good, I plan to pick a couple more up this morning.

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/7307/bbq3x.jpg

I hear the Deschutes bottled version (Conflux #2) is even better (Boulevard's brewmaster, Steven Pauwels, thinks that the BLVD bottled version is too heavy on the sage), but Deschutes may not make it to MO in time to get that beer into the KC marketplace. :(

Interesting. Any idea if the Blvd version is available in OR?

Yeah, OR gets BLVD beers.

Deschutes announced their entering the MO market months ago, but there have been some snags as far as getting an adequate amount of product together for the state debut. Deschutes had planned all along to be in MO by the time Conflux #2 comes out (I think it hits shelves in the next couple of weeks, if not next week), but that isn't going to happen now. They could always hold back some cases of Conflux #2 for when they can enter MO, but the beer is meant to be consumed fresh.

Saison Dupont.

I am in the Portland area and went to Deschutes yesterday. I had both theirs and the Boulevard version. I am a huge fan of BB but as statedby Reaper the Deschutes is a bit better.

I have been there, 2 of the McMenamins Brew Pubs, Pelican Brewery in Pacific City, and a place called Everyone's Brewery in White Salmon WA.

Tommorow is the Oregon Brewer's Festival. :thumb:

Rimann Liquors, Prairie Village. Well played Kansas, well played.

I got some Northeast IPAs today as extras in a beer trade. I bet these suck.

I've had quite a few beers on that top 50 list, some are great but some are just okay. Lots of belgian style blonde ales, which I just can't get into for whatever reason.

I had this for the first time last weekend. I really enjoyed it. Nice viscosity and maltiness to serve up the complexity of the Belgian yeast.

There aren't any Belgian Blonde Ales on that list... unless by blonde ale you mean to refer to every Belgian pale-malt or wheat-malt beer on the list (which would include Orval and all of the Saisons and all of the witbiers). If that's the case then I make this face: :(

like the Ommegang Hennepin, Leffe Blonde, etc. I thought those were belgian blondes.

Enjoyed a Boulevard Saison-Brett 2011 the other day. Great stuff.

Hennepin is a Saison (and a shitty one at that; I don't blame you one bit for not liking that beer). Leffe Blonde is definitely a blonde, but isn't on the top 50 list in the OP (which was the list I was assuming that you were referring to).

Was in okc the other day and picked up two bottles. Had one last nigt. Should havepicked up 4.

Saison-Brett is one of Earth's best beers.

I was truly impressed with it, too.

Needed the rebound, since I was a little disappointed with Collaboration #2.

I knew it was good, had it in 09.

Funkwerks - Maori King Imperial Saison.

Pretty damn delicious.

Beer snobs...please enjoy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55lxV...eature=related

If you don't, please have another beer.

ok, my bad.

I don't know which is worse: you, this post, or the band Cake.

I've become a huge fan of Boulevard's Two Jokers from their Smokestack Series.

The 2011 version is the best new beer I've had all year. It's incredible. The change in the 2011 version is that they fermented 25% of the batch with lactic acid. This accounts for the slight sourness, like in a Berliner Weisse. It takes the beer to a whole other level.

Got my hands on The Boulevard and Deschuttes White IPA. Fantastic. Being a West Coast/Imperial/Double IPA fan, I was a little skeptical at first but the first sip was awesome. I was surprised my friend found it here.

Also, got my hands on Lagunitas Maximus. ****ing awesome as well.

Damn, didn't know that, would have picked some up last time I had a chance.

Good stuff. Their Hop Stupid is well worth a try if you like hoppy IPAs.

I love hop stupid (it's the first lagunitas beer I ever tried). I've been all over it since it showed up in the store. Probably had a good 7 or 8 bottles of it.

Tried the Two Joker's Double Wit, and I liked it. My wife hated it. In what way is a double wit related to a sour beer? It was fairly sour, but I enjoyed it.

Had a High Life last night. Champagne of beers you know.

Any fans of Dogfish Head?

Can't get it here, but I'm heading to Chicago this weekend and want to give it a shot.

Any specific style of theirs I should try?

They changed the recipe to include 25% sour version (via lactic fermentation) blended in. It's a bit of Berliner Weisse like character that really takes the beer to a world-class level.

Most of their beers are gigantic and very sweet. Their historic ales series is pretty interesting. I really like their Sah'tea and Chateau Jiahu historic ales. They have a lot of beers worth trying. What sorts of styles are you interested in?

most anything is worth a try, but one of their most straight forward beers (imo), and absolutely delicious, is the Indian Brown Ale...

if only one beer is in heaven, it will be blvd BBQ!

I got my hands on some Dogfish Head Chateau Jiahu last night. I highly recommend this one, golden in color, some honey, grape and spice notes. Low carbonation and very drinkable for such a high abv. Very good shit!

Drinking a Genesee Cream Ale out of NY. Not bad.

This list is bound to piss off the KC beerists:

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/b...le+Feedfetcher

There's some good beers there, but when I think of the Midwest, I don't think of Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Minnesota.

Yeah... all of those breweries are in the Great Lakes states. Most are withing a few hundred miles of each other. Not really "the Midwest"....

Those are awesome (albeit obvious) breweries. Not a single part of me is pissed off that the author wasn't inclusive enough.

As for the defintion of Midwest, I'm a supporter of the all-inclusive definition. The Midwest stretches from Ohio through Kansas. Why? Because everyone in that span thinks of themselves as living in the Midwest, so why not.

This would be cool...

http://www.boulevard.com/experiences...ter-luncheons/

Just popped a bottle of Life and Limb, a collaboration between Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head. Highly recommend it. Fantastic beer.

One of my top two beer events of the year is tomorrow here in Minneapolis - Autumn Brew Review. 89 Breweries, 345+ beers, 4 hours to drink as much as you want on a flat admission fee. An unbelievable event...

Here's the program, if anyone's interested: http://www.mncraftbrew.org/wp-conten...ProgramWEB.pdf

Saw this at my local store. Will probably get one for tonight.

Has anyone tried any brews from Cathedral Square? I have a Belgian White sitting in the fridge awaiting me.

Also have a He'Brew Lenny's R.I.P.A. 4 pack and a sixer of Schlafly Pumpkin Ale. It's going to be an excellent evening.

Went to the beer store for a 6 pack, and ended up with three... didn't know it was the first day for Nutcracker, and I've heard nothing but great things about the Pumpkin Ale.

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r...019_184035.jpg

You did well, young man. Invite me over now. You have 2 of my top 20 beers in your fridge. Of course, there are probably 50 beers on my top 20 depending on the season.

If I may make a suggestion though... Let that Nutcracker sit for another 2-3 weeks before opening one. I had an early season sixer last year that tasted horrible. It needs a little more time.

Sure, stop by... I'd like an estimate on a deck.

Thanks, I'll try waiting on the Nutcracker.

I'm becoming a bigger and bigger fan of Sam Adams... actually don't like the original all that much, but tried several last winter and had some Black Lager and their Pumpkin Ale last weekend.

I'm still waiting on a stout called Abyss, from Deschutes, an Oregon brewery. The distribution map shows that it is still "coming soon" to Kansas and Missouri. Has anyone out there tried it? The write up has me anxious to sample it.