Capt Keith's Beer Blog

Its hard to believe it has been four years since we drilled through the penny wall and opened the doors at our location in the Power and Light District of Kansas City, MO.  Matt Gardner and his gang of Brew Barons and Beer Goddesses have put together a strong day of rare beer tappings every hour on the hour from noon till 9pm on Sunday May 6th.  While I cannot speak to the times these kegs will be tapped, I do know a few of the gems.

Boulevard Saison Noir (Unrated, have you tried it yet?  Didn’t think so.)

Boulevard Chocolate Ale (Ratebeer.com 96/98)

Stone Smoked Porter with Vanilla Beans (Ratebeer.com 98/99)

Bell's Batch 9000: Brewed once, released January 2010 (Ratebeer.com 98 overall)

Founders Backwoods Bastard: Bourbon Barrel Scotch Ale (Ratebeer.com 99/100)

Evil Twin Imperial Biscotti Break: Imperial Porter with Vanilla, Coffee and Almonds (Ratebeer.com 98 overall)

Evil Twin Ron & The Beast Ryan: Brettanomyces finished Saison (Ratebeer.com 97 overall)

Green Flash 30th Street Pale Ale: An IPA by most standards (Ratebeer.com 95/98)

In addition to cracking into all these hard to find and world class kegs each guest will receive a free raffle ticket upon entry for an all day raffle featuring beer themed prizes from the Saucer and many of your favorite breweries.  Its going to be a great day, go check it out of you are in the neighborhood.  You won’t regret it.

One of our favorite breweries is having a landmark birthday this year.  The mascot of Brasserie D’Achouffe is a little gnome that graces the packaging of all their brands and has quite an interesting back story. Chouffe actually can be translated as gnome from the Waloon dialect of the Belgian Ardennes region.  According to local legend, there was a goblin brewery nestled in the woods that produced a river of beer that satisfied all of Belgium.  The goblin brewery went dry and the river began to run only with water, but that is the water that is used by the Brasserie to this day!  Austin and Addison celebrated this anniversary already, but keep your eyes open for another opportunity to drink in a gnome hat!

Jake and his team down in Sugar Land turned it up to 11 for their beer dinner last night.  Their special guest speaker was Erik Ogershok of Real Ale, who really is one of the most passionate people in the Texas Beer scene.  Erik has a back ground in beer that is longer than his flowing locks and despite being a laid back guy, when he speaks, people listen.  Bartender Ben Rabbani shared some culinary expertise to help lay down some dishes that looked as good as they tasted.  If you ever have the opportunity to make it to a Sugar Land Beer Dinner don’t walk.  Run.

It’s that time again, our annual 4:20 glass hits the bartop tomorrow night.  This year the glass will pay homage to the old school Reefer Madness flick.  This classic 1 hour plus 1936 American Propoganda film originally called “Tell your children” is easily found on the web in its entirety, but there are some shorter trailers floating around out there too.  If you haven’t seen it, watch the movie tonight then get to your neighborhood Saucer Wednesday BEFORE 7pm, because this is one of our biggest glasses of the year and are sure to go quickly.

Get em before they are gone!

Big Texas Beer Fest is being held in a few weeks by some of our good friends. This event will be held in Fair Park and should be a great time. Buy tickets here before they are gone!

Come to Addison Saucer tonight to taste Deep Ellum’s new Double IPA. Let’s toast Tait Lifto from Deep Ellum as he drinks his 200th to make it to the Ring of Honor!

Cheers

It is hard to believe that it has been 16 years since we opened Addison Flying Saucer. Our first  beer joint in Fort Worth  had only been open for nine months at that time. (Which BTW will be moving into the 8.0 space across the street – in May) It did not take us very long to figure out that the world wants better beer! So, we decided to keep growing – and now look what happened, we have 15 Saucers. AND we have our sites on a few more locations…..

Sunday is the day to celebrate BEER in Addison, TX. Join us all day for beer and good times.

Let me list a sample of what you can expect tomorrow:

Ranger Creek Le Bestia Aimable

St Arnold Farmer Brown in Chardonnay Cask

Real Ale Kraken

North Coast Grand Cru

Avery Rumpkin

and more……..

Tapping Schedule will be posted on site and check out Facebook for more detailed information. Plus – check this out: We’re also doing a canned food drive for the North Texas food bank and giving away raffle tickets for prizes to those that participate – tshirts, beer swag, glasses etc. Grand prize is going to be a 3L Double Bastard signed by our friend Greg Koch himself. Be there! We are hoping to see you.

FINALLY, they decided to release some of the cellar….. Jake and Asa have been holding back mountains of great beer for a LONG time and it looks like they’ve planned a fun week around Valentine’s Day. So, mark your calendars and come try some exceptional vintage beers. See the line up below which includes Real Ale Sysphus ’07,  Stone ’08 Double Bastard & Sierra’s Ken & Jack’s Big Barleywine which most of you know is a collaboration between Ken Grossman – owner of Sierra & Jack McAuliffe – who started (New Albion Brewery in 1976 – dude was a pioneer of American Craft Beer for certain.

I had a break in schedule so I decided to fly up to KC and visit Matt G and his good people at the Saucer. I planned my trip around the tapping of a seasonal favorite from Bell’s Brewery out of Kalamazoo, MI. The beer is called Hopslam Ale and it has somewhat of a cult following. It is a tasty IPA that will sneak up on you……….10% abv but hardly noticeable. The draught version is on the wall right now @FlyingSaucerKC (twitter) but Monday’s tapping was a firkin of this nectar. Our friend from Bell’s, Jim O’Connor was on hand to tap the bung. And that, my friends is Matt Gardner pouring beers as fast as a man can go. He drained that 10.8 gallon firkin in around 15 minutes (minus a few for us later…..)

This KC visit turned into a double header………….. Yesterday, we unleashed some Boulevard Chocolate Ale. Boulevard Brewing Company is just a few miles from us and they are great friends of ours. Everyone loves a local beer, but this seasonal release certainly has amassed a cult following. We hardly opened the doors for LUNCH and sold our first keg of this jewel of a brew. Surprisingly, it doesn’t look like any chocolate ale I’ve ever seen before, but take one whiff and you will know that is going to taste chocolatey. Neil Witte – the Quality Manager for Boulevard told us it was an Amber Ale that is brewed with Cocoa Nibs – 10% abv.

A few facts about Boulevard: launched by John McDonald in 1989 and is the largest specialty brewery in the Midwest and 10th largest craft brewery in the US. A transplant from Belgium,  Brewmaster Steven Pauwels is at the helm and he couldn’t be a nicer guy. Try his beer and you’ll see why there is such a buzz about Boulevard, especially their limited editions….