It’s CoMo Good: the 2013 Missouri Beer Festival

Tasting glass of beer.
Mmm ... something.
Missouri Beer Festival 2013
Very blurry view of one leg of the Missouri Beer Festival.

My wife and I have a couple of friend who both graduated from the University of Missouri. After graduating, they moved to Kansas City, but one of their jobs took them back back to Columbia a few years ago. When the four of us get together, we catch up with discussions of new restaurants or events we’ve been to recently. Often, the assessment of a restaurant, bar, or event we hear from our friends is, “It’s CoMo good”. The food was nice, or the beer list is sparkling, but some aspect of it just wouldn’t fly in KC or St Louis. You know, CoMo good.

When the four of us met up last weekend for the second third annual Missouri Beer Festival, I didn’t know what to expect. This tasting event was held at the Parkade Plaza Event Center (somewhere I had never heard of, despite spending lots of time in Columbia). Apparently, it’s a strip mall on the north end of town with an “event space” that looks eerily similar to the walkway through a mall. A very narrow mall. This wasn’t the best or most efficient set up. But the very reasonable $20 entrance price and the list of Missouri breweries that were attending made the cramped space worthwhile.

Tasting glass of beer.
Mmm … something.

We saw some familiar faces there. Boulevard had a tent, though it didn’t seem like they brought their A-game. Schlafly had several new beers to taste that will be rolling out soon. Mother’s from Springfield had several experimentals to complement their standards. Tallgrass was the lone Kansas brewery to venture over.

Many of the breweries at the festival do not distribute in KC or distribute at all. Some we knew from our travels around the state: Public House in Rolla, Broadway Brewery in Columbia, Piney River from Bucyrus, Prison Brews in Jefferson City. They brought good to excellent wares.

Most of the new crop of St Louis breweries were in attendance. Perennial brought a barley wine that ran out before I got a taste. (A killer, I was told.) 4 Hands had good stuff, too. The best beer I had was from 2nd Shift. It was a funky, sour, and delightfully bretty beer named Katy.

There were other breweries I hadn’t heard of showing off what they had. Horseshoe Bend Brewing, in Lake Ozark, brought a delicious Belgian-inspired beer aged on cherries and a spiced hefe-weizen that was the wheatiest-tasting wheat beer I think I’d ever had. Bat Creek Brewing, in Bowling Green, had a tasty (and surprisingly strong at 7%) blonde ale named Midwest Farmer’s Daughter. It was being poured by two servers playing the part in Daisy Dukes and flannel shirts tied up above their midsections.

The second Missouri Beer Festival was rather enjoyable. There was a good turnout by lots of Missouri breweries, many of which would be news to KC drinkers. The price was excellent, the lines for beer were short and quick (despite the crowded space) and we got very handsome taster glasses to add to our collection. The breweries brought enough of their beers to last the length of the event, so there were few that we didn’t get a chance to try. Even Shakespeare’s Pizza attended, and was handing out free pizza from their table.

However, the festival still has some growing pains. First off, they have to find a better venue. The walkway was terribly crowded and far too narrow. I did my best to take notes, but with the very few seats and tables located only in the central bend of the dogleg-shaped space, it was very, very difficult. Just sipping and speaking was hard sometimes, if a crowd was flowing around you at that moment. Most of the serving tables were missing dump buckets and pitchers of water. These are an absolute necessity for any tasting, whether around your dining room table or at a large beer festival. It’s good to get a shot of water between tastes of beer. And sometimes you need to be able to dump the last bits of that mediocre brown and get a good rinse before moving on to a fresh taste of something new from the next tap. These are growing pains of any festival. I truly believe the third fourth Missouri Beer Festival will address some of these issues.

All in all, we made some discoveries that are worth following up on. High marks go to Horseshoe Bend, Mother’s, Public House, Piney River, 2nd Shift, and Perennial. We are at the beginning of a craft brew explosion in this region. Why not seek out beer from these smaller breweries when you inevitably venture out to the lake, park, or river as the weather warms up. And maybe check out some of them at an upcoming festival nearby.

Swag from the Missouri Beer Festival 2013
Swag from the Missouri Beer Festival 2013.

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.

2 comments

  1. Good review. This was actually the 3rd Missouri Beer Festival. It keeps getting bigger every year. I agree they will once again need to find a bigger/better venue. Piney River is one of my favorite MO brewers. Their Black Walnut Wheat was voted “Best Beer” at this years event.

    1. Thanks, Dr. E. The article has been corrected.
      I’ve been very impressed with about everything Piney River has produced. I really enjoy the Black Walnut Wheat, especially since the nuts complement the flavor of the dark wheat beer without taking it over. We have plans to visit their BARn in Bucyrus this summer.

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