About To Tear It Up: Torn Label Brewing

Torn Label Brewing

You know the feeling when you put in years of hard work, effort and toil and it finally pays off? Studying, learning, internships. You’re waiting for the call and it finally comes.

Travis Moore received two such calls within days of each other. Travis had just finished his law degree and had been waiting to hear back from the firm he interned with. They were offering the job. The other call came from a friend, Chad Troutwine, who was putting together a team that would become Torn Label Brewing. Chad wanted the creativity and craft Travis had shown in years of home brewing. Both law and beer were obvious passions. Which would you choose?

Torn Label Brewing

Torn Label BrewingWay back in August, I walked to the back of the Studio Inc warehouse and found two sweaty men ready to talk beer with me. Rafi Chaudry and Travis Moore returned to Kansas City to start Torn Label Brewing, and on that late-summer day, they were still working on the 15-barrel brewhouse.

Both men grew up in Johnson County and spent days and nights talking beer and coffee at the now-closed Daily Dose, but life took them elsewhere. Rafi had been a film producer in Los Angeles, while Travis was earning his law degree in Chicago. Beer kept them coming back home. Before, it was an annual New Year’s Eve bottle-sharing parties. Now it’s a brewery.

Travis, Rafi and Chad obviously share a love of all things beer. Travis is the brewer. He’s an accomplished home brewer and spent years working for Pipeworks Brewing in Chicago getting to know a professional system, and helped them transition from 4-barrel to a 10-barrel system. Chad is a graduate of the Siebel Institute in Chicago and had previously run beer distributors in the area.

Torn Label will be an American-style craft brewery focussed on packaging their beers for craft beer lovers around the area. The dusty area we stood would eventually house a small tasting room, but their first priority was getting beer out the door to bars.

The core group of year-round offering will be kegged and canned (woo hoo, cans!) for the Kansas City area. House Brew is a coffee stout made with a toddy from Thou Mayest on 18th St and a healthy portion of wheat in the malt bill. Alpha Pale is a tropical, hoppy, and sessionable IPA. And Monk & Honey is an abbey-inspired, Belgian-style single made with honey sourced from Peculiar, Missouri.

An array of seasonals will compliment these. A hoppy yet sour beer. A imperial version of the coffee wheat stout to kick off a barrel-aging program. Most interestingly, the Quadjillo – a Belgian-style quadrupel with earthy, fruity, guajillo chilies.

Torn Label Launch Week: January 5–9

Torn Label is kicking off in grand style with events every night of the week of January 5. These will be awesome.

If you can’t wait that long, you can get a sneak preview at Bier Station’s Best of the Midwest 2: Electric Kegaloo event on Saturday, December 27.

Whew! What a way to kick off the new year.

By jimmywags

I began the path through good beer in college. Exploring different sixers and bombers based on packaging and label design (art student, mind you), I weaved my way around the continental lagers and Colorado craft ales. My knowledge and interest exploded upon receiving a homebrewing equipment kit as a graduation gift from my parents. Twelve years later, I've brewed most styles, experimented between them, and hunted for the perfect pint.