Tap List | St. Patrick’s Day Party Guide for KC Beer Lovers A Green Beer Gusher

St. Patrick’s Day is one of the biggest drinking days of the year. Bars and restaurants pour green beer, Guinness and shots of Jameson and serve up plentiful amounts of corned beef and cabbage.

If craft beer is more your speed, however, there are plenty of local breweries doing their version of a St. Patrick’s Day celebration. Here’s the rundown in the Kansas City area.

ExBEERiment in Gardner, Kansas, is adding green dye to its cream ale for the quintessential St. Paddy’s Day drink. The brewery also will have plenty of giveaways such as beads, buttons and bracelets. You can make lasting memories with your drinking buddies with the photo booth backdrop on site.

Olathe’s Red Crow Brewing has a family-friendly event happening in the taproom. The brewery will have green beer on tap as well as Brigid, which is their Irish stout. Irish nachos and other Irish-themed foods will be available for you to nosh on throughout the day. Kids and adults can participate in fun activities such as a scavenger hunt, temporary tattoos and games with prizes. They’ll have a photo booth/selfie station with the opportunity to win a prize so long as you tag Red Crow in the social media post of your picture. If you’re a basketball fan, fear not. They’ll be showing college hoops all day long so you can keep up with the tournament play.

To help celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, Pathlight Brewing in Shawnee will be opening early. The brewery will be running specials on a couple of Irish beverages. You can snag pours of Vaughn’s Irish stout and/or shots of Jameson for $5. Point & Flat BBQ will be there serving up a popular twist on a Reuben, which is smoked barbecue style.

A little up the road in Shawnee you can find Servaes Brewing Co., which will be doing a beer release and pop-up shop event. Servaes is releasing In The Moonlight – Shamrock Whip. It’s a 5% ABV sour blonde ale that was made with lemon, lime, pineapple juice, magically delicious marshmallows, mint and vanilla. They added wheatgrass to help color the beer. You can snag some sweet treats from Sugarfold, which will be selling delicious macarons from 5-8 p.m.

If you head to the Crossroads, you can participate in a two-day St. Patrick’s themed bar crawl. Border Brewing will be offering $5 green beers, hard ciders and hard seltzers. Double Shift will have $5 green Yard Beers, $6 green Proto Geist and specialty Irish ale releases. And Red Sash will be offering $6 Hammer 7 IPAs, $6 Faugh a Ballagh and $6 Los Vaqueros. Additional locations participating in the bar crawl are Howl At The Moon, DoubleTap KC, Johns Big Deck, KC Daiquiri Shop, and KC Wineworks.

If you’re downtown to attend Planet Comicon, you won’t feel left out of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. The convention partnered with Boulevard Brewing to throw a Space Patrick’s Day Comicon After Party. The event will feature exclusive samples of Saison Brett, Churro Grande, Quirk Pineapple Orange Whip hard seltzer, and a sneak peek of the new Space Camper: Terror from the Deep. The event will also feature live music, party games, clowns and more. While the party is free, it’s exclusive for Comicon attendees. You can pick up a wristband at the Boulevard booth earlier in the day.

Last, but certainly not least, is the party being thrown at East Forty Brewing in Blue Springs. The brewery will have special releases of Rare Ould Red (an Irish red ale), World Record (dry Irish stout) on nitro and Green Stout (chocolate-covered pistachio stout). The kitchen will be serving up Reuben sandwiches and pizza. The best part is it’s a two-day celebration. If you can’t make it on Friday, they’ll be celebrating on Saturday too.

Beer Releases

BKS Artisan Ales — 633 E. 63rd St., Kansas City, Missouri — has three new beers just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. First up is their Hops of Gold, a hazy double IPA. It comes in at 8.5% ABV and has notes of tangerine, lime, mango and rose petals. Also available is Counterculture (Green Edition). This 7% ABV IPA was double dry hopped leading to flavors of grapefruit, passion fruit, pineapple and pine. Last but not least is a brand new Irish-style lager from their Pivo Project. At just 5% ABV it’s the perfect beer to sip throughout your St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.

Alma Mader Brewery — 2635 Southwest Blvd., Kansas City, Missouri — released the 2023 version of Tides Turn. The beer is the brainchild of the women of Alma Mader, who brewed it in honor of International Women’s Week. The beer, a 6.8% ABV New England-style IPA, uses the Pink Boots hop blend along with Cryo Pop and Citra. A portion of the proceeds from this beer will be donated to the Pink Boots Society.

Boulevard Brewing Co. — 2501 Southwest Blvd., Kansas City, Missouri — added a brand new beer to their year round Smokestack Series. Joker’s Wit is a double witbier. The beer features flavors and aromas of orange peel, coriander, peppercorn, lavender and cardamom. Be careful of the 7.5% alcohol percentage as Joker’s Wit is very easy drinking.

Diametric Brewing Co. — 949 N.E. Columbus, Lee’s Summit, Missouri — has a brand new juice bomb available. World Wide Hopper: The Sophomore Album is a 6.9% ABV New England-style IPA. It was triple dry hopped to ensure maximum juiciness.

Grains & Taps — 10 S.W. 3rd St., Lee’s Summit, Missouri — celebrated the Chiefs’ Super Bowl win by brewing a beer. The result is Eff You, Congratulations! It’s a malt forward red ale that is fermented atop cinnamon. This small-batch beer comes in at 5.9% ABV and tastes just like victory.

Free State Brewing Co. — 636 Massachusetts St., Lawrence, Kansas — has a new hoppy offering. They just released Juicesylvania, a 5.3% ABV IPA. The beer lives up to its name with juicy citrus notes of grapefruit, tangerine, peach and orange. It uses four newer hops including the not-yet-named experimental hop 17701.

Pathlight Brewing — 11200 W. 75th St., Shawnee, Kansas — brewed a beer in honor of Johnny C’s, the family owned pizza shop that occupied their brewing space for nearly 40 years. The beer, also called Johnny C’s, is a 6.9% ABV hazy IPA. It was double dry hopped with Citra, Cascade and Comet, leading to lots of orange and peach flavors and aromas. It pairs perfectly with pizza and sunshine.

Beer Events

Saturday, March 18

Not Lost Brewing Co. — 229 S. Main St., Ottawa, Kansas — is celebrating its fourth anniversary with an all-day party. Not Lost plans on doing a limited release of their Irish Ale as well as slushies to coincide with St. Patrick’s Day. They’ll also be giving away limited edition anniversary glassware while supplies last. The brewery will be doing food specials throughout the day as well.

Apex Aleworks — 4356 S. Noland Road, Independence, Missouri — is hosting a comedy show for a good cause. The Dream Seekers Comedy Show Fundraiser will be benefiting the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. While the show is free, funds from food and beverage purchased throughout the show will be donated to the society.

Sunday, March 19

Outfield Beer Co. — 10953 Kaw Drive, Edwardsville, Kansas — is hosting a bingo fundraiser for the Bonner Animal Rescue. A portion of the proceeds from each bingo card sold will be donated to the nonprofit. The cost is $15 for 15 games and includes being entered into a 50/50 raffle. Unfortunately, this is not a family-friendly bingo event as players need to be at least 18 years of age.

Limitless Brewing — 9500 Dice Lane, Lenexa, Kansas — will be throwing their fourth annual .1k Fun Run. The short run lasts about the length of their parking lot and is all for charity. The race, if you can call it that, supports Transformations by KC Kansas Angels, which supports foster families. Participants will receive a t-shirt and one free beer. Limitless will have live music and a food truck once the event wraps up.

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.