Downtown breweries any good?
 

I searched because I would have assumed this has been discussed, but results came up empty. Are the breweries downtown or anything in power and light district any good? Wife and are driving 11 hours Saturday and we love to hit up local breweries when coming to a new town. Yelp has great reviews for about all of them downtown. Thought I’d ask the planeteers their opinion!

Opinions on best places to eat in same area?

I always liked Double Shift Brewing Company that was across the street from Grinders. You can get some food at Grinders and then do a little brewery walking tour in the same area.

Pretty much what I hit when in town.

Downtown:
City Barrel
Torn Label (around corner from City Barrel)

Somewhat outside of downtown:
Alma Mader (just down from BLVD on SWBLVD)
BKS
KC Bier Co

EDIT: I've never eaten at City Barrel but their menu/social media posts of their menu always look great

Torn Label and Alma Mader are the two best in the Downtown-ish area, IMO.

As far as places with good beer selections, Taps on Main and Oak And Steel are good choices.

As far as food, Jack Stack is in the Freight House at Union Station, Q39 is a short drive, and Buffalo State Pizza Company is great.

Awesome! I seen Torn Label on the map.

The Peanut downtown have the best wings you may ever have, but when I was there in November it was over an hour wait due to staff shortages.

Beer selection sucks but the wings are legit.

Pro tip: if you hit The Peanut for wings, they're whole, so 6 is 12 at low quality places

https://i.imgur.com/8MgyZ7O.jpg?1

Strange Days is also really, really good. Since they recruited a new head brewer/ownership partner, the quality is through the roof and I think they're a top 5 spot now. It's down by the City Market area, just a stone's throw really from downtown.

Crossroads Art District has Emperial, City Barrel, Torn Label and a few others that are decent. The best food/beer spot around there is definitely City Barrel but it can get spendy (food is top notch though). I'm a bit biased though as I've spent a lot of time helping that business since they started to build out that space over three years ago. The owners are good dudes that care about putting out great beer and creating a fun experience. I don't always like the way that they market but they still sell a ton of beer.

Alma Mader and Boulevard are both a bit west of that area on Southwest Boulevard. Alma Mader is probably my favorite down in the city currently. Nick just doesn't brew bad beers. Boulevard is fun too; their bier hall has a lot of taps and they generally have quite a few Test beers on tap.

Cinder Block, Outlaw Cigar & Brewery and Big Rip in the Northland. All three in close proximity.

Brewery Emperial down by the Art district.

That was going to be my answer.

As far as quality of BEER outside of Boulevard.... Brewery Emperial.

Disclaimer: I've not tried Alma Mader.

Cinder Block is amazing if you like barrel aged beers. They had three of them on tap last weekend. They have also collaborated with 610 sports to create Il Padrone, which is an Italian pilsner, for the Chiefs playoff run. If you want something unique, try one of their ciders. Cinder Block is 3.2 miles from Power and Light district in downtown KC.
Website

Another great place that's close by, had a grand re-opening last weekend. Callsign Brewing is a veteran owned brewery that just moved into a larger building. Last Saturday, they had BBQ and live music. It might be worth checking them out as well. It looks like their website is having issues, but the new address is 1340 Burlington St, North Kansas City, MO.

There are two other breweries over in that vicinity, Calibration and Big Rip. Neither are my cup of tea, but both are within a mile or two. Chappell's is also very close by and worth a look if you are into sports memorabilia. It's a restaurant and a sports museum.

Food at City Barrel is really good.

Brewery Emperial is indeed good, but, they only have outdoor seating right now. They have fire pits, but if there's any sort of a breeze, you're going to be freezing! I do love me some Ursa Major though. I'm sure they've sold through it by now.

Looks like City Barrel might be worth a try, re: big stouts?

And I really like the selection at Oak and Steel, plus you can play What do you Meme.

Tim Barnett and Neil Smith were at Outlaw today.

They have two DECIBEL UP brews & stogies, light and dark.

In the area, ranked (not up for discussion):

Alma Mader
Nimble
Boulevard
City Barrel
Double Shift
Torn Label
Rochester
Casual Animal
Border
Brewery Emperial
Red Sash

Have yet to try Outlaw. Can you smoke indoors?

Yes.

They have an expansive filter system. Plus the ceilings are 45-50 ft up.

Killer humidor and selection.

Feel the barrel in City Barrel is more of a wild ale program than big stouts but phisherman can likely provide greater insights into that.

Yes, sours and IPAs. And some solid lagers.

Lots of hops on right now. You can never go wrong with fresh Rad AF and the Rad on draft there will be very fresh. Haz-E Boy and Hop Machine are both fun and super fresh.

Don't sleep on the City Pils or the Good Luck, which is a foeder fermented lager. Super soft mouthfeel, just stupid crushable.

Two stouts, Darkstar is barrel aged with peanut butter and chocolate and Cosmos is just a straight imperial stout.

Also a couple sours on. I think Chambourcin Geiser is on right now; it's one of my favorite wilds that they do (and they've done a lot).

Nimble has no business being over anyone else on this list, except for maybe Red Sash, Border or Calibration (not on the list).

Give Strange Days a chance. They turned a lot of people off before the new head brewer started there. He does solid hops and amazing lagers. He originally came to KC to be head brewer at City Barrel and Strange Days poached him when they started having issues with their brewer at the time.

The Darkstar raised an eyebrow when I saw it on their tap list.

They're pretty lucky they didn't get a C&D for it. Several other breweries have variations on that name, the most famous being Fremont and their amazing Kentucky Dark Star (absolutely one of the most OG barrel-aged non-adjunct imperial stouts).

It's pretty good too. I'm kinda past the heavy adjunct pastry stout phase and this isn't to that end. The peanut butter and chocolate integrate well.

I'm not up there every Friday afternoon/evening but anyone interested should holler if you're up there and I'll buy you a beer.

I like strange days, but haven’t been there awhile. Didn’t really consider it “in the area” tho.

I wish it were. I'm a huge fan of barrel aged stouts, but IMHO, both Darkstar and Cosmos are ruined by the addition of adjuncts. Cosmos has 'Ethiopian cacao nibs and Mexican vanilla' according to their website. Great food and other styles there though.

Strange Days impressed when I was back in mid-2021. Great space as well.

I also like City Diner next door for pre-game breakfast grub.

It's in City Market which, while not downtown per se, isn't all that far. Maybe 2 miles at most.

Check it out, you'll dig it.

Good to know. I usually give breweries a year or two to settle in before judging them. I gave Strange Days two chances, a little over a year apart, and both times, the beer was pretty awful. I never went back. On this recommendation, I will try them again.

Fully agree about Nimble. I don't understand the fuss. Beers weren't bad, but there are many better breweries around town. Calibration is pretty awful too, but they have a nice patio in the summer. I will go there on occasion after loading up on good Cinder Block beer and enjoy some sun.

Good catch on that one. That's different from last year (2020) when they released a base stout and then a bunch of individual adjunct treatments. The first plain batch was the best. The Coconut variant tasted like Coppertone sun tan lotion.

Not many great BA stouts around town if you're into the classic big dogs. Ursa is pretty good and I'm glad that it got brought over from McCoy's. BKS did Derelection last year which was very good. Alma Mader is releasing one at some point this year, not sure when though. I was just bugging Nick about this on Saturday. I know Cinder Block releases Black Squirrel yearly but I've never cared for it. Too much of that musty oak funk.

The first barrel aged stout I had (as probably did a lot of people) was BCS. The first year it hit the KC market, nobody knew what it was and it was super easy to get 4-packs of it around town. It used to have this light, but delightful butterscotch flavor on the finish. Black Squirrel used to have that when it was first released too. I feel like Black Squirrel and BCS get a little more mild each year. The bourbon flavor doesn't come through quite as much anymore.

My favorite beer there currently is their Wheat Wine. If you aren't a fan of the oak funk, it might not be your cup of tea. The bourbon and barrel flavors definitely shine through though. It's unique and worth a taster if nothing else.

I'll keep an eye out for Alma's BA stout. It's sort of nice that some release early and some release late in the season. Keeps them around for a good part of the year these days.

I’ve never been downtown before. Can I drive and park at these places or what’s the best way to get around. Might only have time to hit 2 or 3

Crossroads Art District is probably your best bet. Torn Label, City Barrel, Emperial, Double Shift, Border, Nimbus and Casual Animal are all within a half mile of each other as the crow flies. KC Wineworks is also down there as well as Restless Spirits and Tom's Town if you're feeling like cocktails instead of beers.

Here's a map of the most of the places in Crossroads that have been mentioned. As you can see, all of them are pretty close.

[Click to see full image]
https://i.ibb.co/tMPjP5c/crossroads-pinned.png

Green Lady Lounge is also right in the neighborhood. They have great cocktails and live jazz.

Question:
1st time coming to Arrowhead from Kentucky, are there places within a mile of the stadium to park or should I just buy a parking pass? I am concerned about waiting for hours trying to get out of the parking lots around the stadium. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

the peanut's wings are very good but you do have to wait for them even on a good day

order an appetizer or something to tide you over

e: tie you over?

yeah if you're going to KC hit up a jazz joint, there's a lot of really great jazz clubs in KC and it's lowkey one of the best things you can do while here.