Tap List | KC Breweries Set to Celebrate Halloween Spooky Options Abound

Since Halloween falls on a weekday this year, many local breweries are taking full advantage of the weekend before. This upcoming weekend will see nine different events throughout the area that range from simple to macabre.

Here’s your spooky selection.

Crawl With Us is putting on a bar crawl across eight different spots in the city starting at 4 p.m. on Friday. The crawl includes Red Sash, Double Shift and Border Brewing in the East Crossroads. The event also takes place during the same timeframe on Saturday in case you can’t make the Friday crawl.

Saturday features five Halloween events taking place at local breweries.

Servaes Brewing opens at 11 a.m. and will be releasing four Halloween-themed beers. Servaes will also put on two guest beers that fit the theme. Bootleg Bourbon Balls will offer five variations along with BBQ available from Point & Flat.

Three different breweries have events starting at noon on Saturday. Out in Blue Springs, you can head to East Forty Brewing for their 6th Annual Halloweenie fest. The family-friendly all-day event will feature new beer releases, a wiener dog race, a costume contest, live music and more.

KC Bier Co. is keeping it simple and fun by encouraging customers to dress in their best costumes. Bram will be playing live polka in the Bierhall from 3-5 p.m. After the music ends, the brewery will be doing a movie night featuring “Hocus Pocus,” “Nightmare Before Christmas,” and “Beetlejuice” starting at 5 p.m. Customers who dress in costume will receive 10% off their tab all day.

In addition to the Halloween bar crawl event on Friday and Saturday evening, a few of the breweries in the East Crossroads are banding together for an all-day party as well. The Brewer’s Alley Halloween Bash is being put on by Red Sash and Double Shift. The annual party will feature food trucks, games, live music and a costume contest.

You can finish off the day down in Gardner, Kansas, at ExBEERiment, which is hosting a fun but simple Halloween party. ExBEERiment is inviting customers to bring a dish of their choice for a potluck from 6-8 p.m. They’ll have one special round of Halloween bingo at 7 p.m. before wrapping everything up with a costume contest at 9 p.m.

After you’ve slept off the beer and candy from Saturday, you’ll want to wake up Sunday and head to either of Rochester Brewing & Roasting Co.’s locations for an annual pumpkin carving event. The event starts at 10 a.m. and goes until 4 p.m. The ticket cost is $20 and includes one fully gutted pumpkin, carving tools and a drink ticket. They’ll be featuring themed drinks such as a pumpkin spice martini plus any of their specialty teas, coffees or beers.

If your idea of Halloween fun includes cute things, you’ll want to swing by Casual Animal. They’re putting on a Howl-oween costume contest. This is not a costume contest for people, but rather for pups! You’re encouraged to dress your dog up in a costume that celebrates their style and personality. Fun prizes will be given out to pups across a couple of categories. Casual Animal will be donating $2 from every pour of their Local Motive to Shep’s Place Senior Dog Sanctuary.

Last, but certainly not least, is Tall Trellis’ Lost Wax Halloween Benefit Bash. The event will benefit the Kansas City chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters. Members of the band Lost Wax will kick the event off with solo acoustic sets from 1-3 p.m. Tall Trellis will then pivot to the Chiefs Kingdom by showing the game at 3:25 p.m. Once the game ends, the Halloween fun kicks on again. They’ll be doing a costume contest from 6-9 p.m. along with more live music from Lost Wax. This set will feature the full band. Perhaps the best part of the party is that all proceeds will be donated to Big Brothers Big Sisters. 

Beer Releases

Vine Street Brewing — 2010 Vine St., Kansas City, Missouri — has a new beer that pays homage to both Kansas City and New Orleans. Tricou Street is a 5.8% spiced brown ale brewed with a little bit of vanilla and cinnamon. The blend of flavors is a perfect combination that represents a bit of the Big Easy and the Fountain City.

Callsign Brewing — 1340 Burlington St., North Kansas City, Missouri — brought back a fan favorite for the fall. Now available is their Pumpkin Pie Pale Ale. This light to medium-bodied beer is an easy sipper for these cooler fall days. The 6.4% ale has a mouth-watering flavor profile of pumpkin pie, cinnamon and other warm spices.

Pathlight Brewing — 11200 W. 75th St., Shawnee, Kansas — knows Oktoberfest may be over, but that doesn’t mean German beers have to go away. They just released Hund, which is a traditional Munich dunkel. The beer is loaded with a spectrum of flavors ranging from toasted bread to toffee to chocolate. While the 5.3% lager may be dark, it’s ultimately an easy drinker.

Fields & Ivy Brewery — 706 E. 23rd St., Lawrence, Kansas — may have released a new pale ale, but it was made to represent the pale ales of yesterday. Evoking the original American pale ale, Liberty Ale from California’s Anchor Steam Brewing, the beer uses classic brewing ingredients. The 5.9% pale ale starts with lightly floral and piney aromas that lead to slight malty and caramel flavors with balanced hop flavors to round it out.

Crane Brewing Co. — 6515 Railroad St., Raytown, Missouri — released two new beers last Saturday. The first is Playground Politics. It’s a 7.5% hazy IPA hopped with Galaxy, Enigma, Citra and Vic Secret, giving it tons of fruity notes. If you prefer a wheat beer, spring for Vast Lands, which is a hoppy wheat ale. The beer uses 100% malt sourced from Kansas Malt Co. You’ll get an explosion of nectarine and grapefruit on the nose with a crisp body.

Discourse Brewing — 7211 W. 97th St., Overland Park, Kansas — released two new beers this past week. The first is Purple Pretender, a sour made with lavender and blueberries. The combination of lactic acid, soft lavender and tart blueberries is incredibly well balanced in this 5.4% beer. You can also snag Nelson’s Brain, a 7% New England IPA. The beer is a trifecta of well balanced, juicy, and easy drinking. 

Beer Events

Friday, Oct. 27

Big Rip Brewing Co. — 216 E. 9th Ave., North Kansas City, Missouri — is finally throwing a party for the release of the collaboration beer they made with Yoli Tortilleria several months back. The beer was made with a hefty amount of heirloom corn imported directly from Mexico. Yoli Tortilleria will be at the brewery serving up tasty treats that’ll pair perfectly with the beer. To add to the fun and theme of the event, you’ll have the opportunity to meet some real life Luchadores!

Alex Andujar is a former beer sales rep turned personal trainer. When he’s not training clients you can find him trying new beers at many of Kansas City’s great local breweries.