Way back in June, some of you may remember that the Husband and I headed to Kansas for the wedding of one of our favorite couples we met in Charlotte.  The wedding was in a tiny, tiny town in which the bride had grown up.  As such, she recommended that we stay in Kansas City and then drive down (about 3 hours) to the town of the wedding the day of and stay there the night before heading back to KC the next morning to catch our flight.  The Husband and I arrived to KC on Friday early evening and weren’t scheduled to leave Sunday until 6pm.  Before we arrived, he did some research on breweries and brew pubs in the area and came across the Boulevard Brewery.  He made mental plans for us to go there on Friday after we arrive – however, he didn’t do enough research and we found it closed by the time we got there! (He thought it was a brewpub, not a brewery.)  Thankfully it was right around the corner from a number of Mexican restaurants and we ended up dining at at La Fonda el Taquito (which we blogged about way back then).  There is where we tried our first Brewery beers and we tried a few more later that evening when we headed to another bar with our friends.  Based on those tastings, we knew it was a priority to try to get into the brewery on our return trip from the wedding on Sunday.

At the wedding on Saturday, we recruited two friends to join us on Sunday so we woke early enough and headed back north.  During the drive, I began to do some research on the brewery’s website (at least while I had data service on my iPhone wandering through the vast farmland).  As I did so, I discovered reservations were required and the brewery books up 3 months in advance!!!! What?!?!?! We had never heard of such an occurrence at a brewery! The website mentioned that spots might open up the day of if you showed up for a tour but there was no guarantee.  The group of us (we had two cars) stopped for a quick fast food lunch and I shared the news with the others.  Our good friend, though, assured us she’d get us in.  She has extreme luck (or skill more likely) that when she talks to customer service individuals, she can convince them to give her what she wants… so we headed to the brewery (what’s the worse that could happen? they could say no?) and sent our friend in.

And it worked! We got spots on the next tour… A few quick shots of the outside and we headed into the gift shop which is the waiting area for the tours.

As I explored the gift shop, I discovered that they make wine too.  We learned during the tour that in order to serve wine in their event space (which is gorgeous!), they needed a permit and to get a permit, they need to make a certain amount on site each year (or something like that).

After a bit of exploring in the gift shop, we were given our bottle caps for the tastings later…

…and got our hands stamped certifying we were at least 21 years of age.

Into the brewery we went with 20ish or 30ish other beer lovers   The tour was incredibly well set-up.  The tour guide was very knowledgeable and throughout the tour, in addition to seeing the brewery and having him explain Boulevard Brewery’s process with us, we saw videos on tv screens set up throughout the space.

Within the brewery, there are two event areas.  The first one is for the employees.  If I recall correctly, either every day after work or every Friday the employees can gather in this area and have a few beers on the house.  It was a cool area that I would imagine enjoying hanging out with my colleagues after a long day of brewing or office work.

The floors were just breathtaking in my opinion.

The next floor up is the main event area at which many weddings and other parties occur.  They were actually setting up for a wedding reception which was to begin shortly after we completed our tour (the guests began arriving just as we were about to head back downstairs)

The last stop in the brewery was viewing the bottling plant, which was not in operation the day we were there.

Luckily, the video taught us all about the last step in production.

Then we headed to the best part of brewery tours – the tastings!  The tasting room was immediately adjacent to the gift shop and was adorned in dark wood trim and fun signs (as well as windows looking back into the brewery).  I loved the vibe of this room (which was just large enough for our tour group).

Amongst the four of us, and including the other beers during the weekend (we only had Boulevard beers at each bar/restaurant we visited), we were able to sample every beer they had and we enjoyed them all.  In particular, I remember enjoying the porter and the amber and I believe the Husband enjoyed the Pale Ale and IPA.

As with nearly all breweries we hit up, we got ourselves a pint glass to remember our experience.  Our glass collection is growing quite nicely! (Stay tuned for a few more breweries we visited this summer!)

And for your viewing pleasure, here are some of the other beers we had throughout the weekend

So, if you like beer and you find yourself in Kansas City (Missouri or Kansas, though technically the brewery is on the Missouri side), try to make it a point to get to Boulevard Brewery.  If you know at least 3 months in advance of your trip, be sure to call and make a reservation!! And if it’s less than 3 months in advance, give them a call just in case there’s a spot.  And if all else fails and you have time to spare, stop by and take your chances.  If a brewery tour doesn’t work out, though, don’t hesitate to order your favorite style at any of the local restaurants/bars in the Kansas and Missouri area (and likely a good amount of the midwest).