A Tour of the Kansas Beer Industry Breweries in the state of Kansas are opening at a fast pace, in communities from Council Grove to Olathe. As the industry grows, the opportunities for craft beer fans to enjoy the communities and beer abound. Check out Ryan Triggs and Nick Feightner at Tall Trellis Brew Co. where you can enjoy a pint while sitting next to hop bines. Visit Fields & Ivy Brewery, the only brewery in the state with an active grain silo. Author Michael Travis traveled for a year and visited every brewery, capturing the heartbeat and story behind the owners and head brewers who make the magic happen.
Set out with a true aficionado and affable guide to sample a dizzying array of beverages made in America's heartland. Expedition of Thirst maps routes that crisscross eastern Kansas and western Missouri, with stops at some 150 breweries, wineries, and distilleries along the way. Pete Dulin, a seasoned writer on the subject, explains how and why these businesses produce beer, wine, and spirits tied to regional terroir and represent the flavors of the Midwest from the Flint Hills to the Ozarks. More than a travel guide, his book is a cultural journal exploring the people, places, and craft that make each destination distinct and noteworthy. Dulin shares the stories of many of these brewers, winemakers, and distillers in their own words. Expedition of Thirst captures the character of the small business owners and makers and offers insight about their craft. For good measure, Dulin delves into the history, culture, and geography that have shaped these producers and their practices, from the impact of Prohibition to the early influence of immigrant winemakers and brewers, regional agriculture, and politics. As informative as it is engaging—even intoxicating—his Expedition is sure to work up readers' thirst to travel and discover firsthand the singular regional pleasures so richly described in these pages.
Meet the mayor of Kansas City as he's called upon to remove the spell of an evil hypnotist. Meet Bottles, the beer guzzling canine, as he makes his way around town on the streetcars. See a tiny Russian prince fall in love, celebrate the birth of the Gypsy King's son, and relive the days of vaudeville and ragtime with these true, whimsical, Vintage Kansas City Stories, taken from the pages of The Kansas City Journal during the years 1907-1909. More than 75 illustrated stories go beyond the history of an American metropolis to tell what it was like to live in an age where old-world people were meeting new technologies, embracing modern thought, and facing a century that promised a world of possibility. Includes a bonus, The Story of Kansas City, the town's early years as seen through the eyes of John Henderson Miller, who moved to Kansas City in 1857 as a small child and grew up as the town was growing, through the Civil War and the birth of the railroads.
In this candid autobiography that seamlessly incorporates political philosophy, the life story of Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Sylvester "Sly" James is told in a fast-paced, entertaining, informative, and authentic style. Elected to the mayor's office in 2011 as a political outsider, James immediately made his mark with his unflinching candor. That tone carries over to this book, as James holds nothing back when detailing the life experiences that shape his core values and beliefs. James strongly believes the only government that runs efficiently is local government, and he details how politics on the civic level should be implemented on the state and federal stages. Although he was elected in a nonpartisan process, James reveals his strong and reasoned political leanings. A fierce advocate for children, James has targeted reading proficiency for third graders as a benchmark for success in later life. Consistent with this, Education is the first of the "4 E Agenda" he created as mayor, along with Employment, Efficiency, and Enforcement. The product of all-black neighborhoods, James always felt comfortable interacting with people different from himself--whether it be in forms of race, religion, ethnicity, or beliefs. In an era when segregation was still the norm, James attended a predominantly-white Catholic high school, was the sole black member in a rock band, and later entered into a mixed-race marriage. When he became the first black lawyer for a prestigious Kansas City law firm, James immediately thrived by showcasing his intelligence and work ethic. Along with his service during the Vietnam War era, these experiences laid the foundation for James to become mayor of a city that still bears the signs of an unofficially-segregated past. When he won re-election to the office in 2015 with an amazing 87 percent of the vote, it was a crystal clear indication that James is first and foremost a unifier of the people. A Passion For Purpose serves not just as the title of this revealing and perceptive book, but also as the mantra by which Sly James based his tenure as mayor--and his life.
“The only book you need to understand the world’s most popular beverage. I swear on a stack of these, it’s a thumping good read.”––John Holl, editor of All About Beer Magazine and author of The American Craft Beer Cookbook Imagine sitting in your favorite pub with a friend who happens to be a world-class expert on beer. That’s this book. It covers the history: how we got from gruel-beer to black IPA in 10,000 years. The alchemy: malts, grains, and the miracle of hops. The variety: dozens of styles and hundreds of recommended brews (including suggestions based on your taste preferences), divided into four sections––Ales, Wheat Beers, Lagers, and Tart and Wild Ales––and all described in mouthwatering detail. The curiosity: how to read a Belgian label; the talk of two Budweisers; porter, the first superstyle; and what, exactly, a lager is. The pleasure. Because you don’t merely taste beer, you experience it. Winner of a 2016 IACP Award “Covers a lot of ground, from beer styles and brewing methods to drinking culture past and present. There’s something for beer novices and beer geeks alike.”––Ken Grossman, founder, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. “Erudite, encyclopedic, and enormously entertaining aren’t words you normally associate with beer, but The Beer Bible is no ordinary beer book. As scinitillating, diverse, and refreshing as man’s oldest alcoholic beverage itself.”––Steve Raichlen, author of Project Smoke and How to Grill
Forty cookie recipes from chefs, breweries, and bakeries across the U.S. and suggested beer pairings for each. Whether you’re a baker or a drinker with a baking problem, these pages will provide a series of guideposts for how to put together forty rockin’ cookies—collected from celebrated chefs, bakers, and bakeries across the country—with craft beer. The information provides the building blocks for then experimenting with your own cookie and beer combinations. Each cookie, like Steven Satterfield's Chocolate-Almond, Coconut Macaroons, gets its own specific beer (Avery's Brewery Company’s The Reverend) as well as a general style pairing (a quadrupel). Along the way, Cookies & Beer will teach you how to make your own beer syrup for beer milkshakes, make it a night of Girl Scout cookies and beer, and even how to acquire and bake with spent grain (the by-product of beer brewing). And in the end, when you're ready for it, eight cookie recipes actually made with beer and devised by some of the vanguard craft breweries in the United States, are waiting to be baked. This is Cookies & Beer. And you, are about to be popular. Praise for Cookies & Beer “Jonathan Bender brings together two of my favorite subjects—cookies and beer—by weaving together thoughtful and witty stories and anecdotes with honest-to-goodness great recipes from some of the best bakers in the country. Now excuse me while I go and make another batch of these Chocolate Oatmeal Ale Cookies.” —Erin Patinkin, co-author of Ovenly: Sweet and Salty Recipes from New York's Most Creative Bakery “Beer drinkers and cookie lovers unite! This is a collection of some seriously mouthwatering recipes that are taken to the next level by the perfect beer pairing. From Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies complimented by smoked porter to beer syrup milkshakes, this book is a delicious celebration of Bender’s love for all things baked and brewed.” —Agatha Kulaga, co-author of Ovenly: Sweet and Salty Recipes from New York's Most Creative Bakery
A National Bestseller! “The perfect pick-me-up on a hot summer day.” —Washington Post “[A] charmer of a tale. . . Warm, witty and--like any good craft beer--complex, the saga delivers a subtly feminist and wholly life-affirming message.” —People Magazine A novel of family, Midwestern values, hard work, fate and the secrets of making a world-class beer, from the bestselling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest Two sisters, one farm. A family is split when their father leaves their shared inheritance entirely to Helen, his younger daughter. Despite baking award-winning pies at the local nursing home, her older sister, Edith, struggles to make what most people would call a living. So she can't help wondering what her life would have been like with even a portion of the farm money her sister kept for herself. With the proceeds from the farm, Helen builds one of the most successful light breweries in the country, and makes their company motto ubiquitous: "Drink lots. It's Blotz." Where Edith has a heart as big as Minnesota, Helen's is as rigid as a steel keg. Yet one day, Helen will find she needs some help herself, and she could find a potential savior close to home. . . if it's not too late. Meanwhile, Edith's granddaughter, Diana, grows up knowing that the real world requires a tougher constitution than her grandmother possesses. She earns a shot at learning the IPA business from the ground up--will that change their fortunes forever, and perhaps reunite her splintered family? Here we meet a cast of lovable, funny, quintessentially American characters eager to make their mark in a world that's often stacked against them. In this deeply affecting family saga, resolution can take generations, but when it finally comes, we're surprised, moved, and delighted.
While some cities owe their existence to lumber or oil, turpentine or steel, Kansas City owes its existence to food. From its earliest days, Kansas City was in the business of provisioning pioneers and traders headed west, and later with provisioning the nation with meat and wheat. Throughout its history, thousands of Kansas Citians have also made their living providing meals and hospitality to travelers passing through on their way elsewhere, be it by way of a steamboat, Conestoga wagon, train, automobile, or airplane. As Kansas City’s adopted son, Fred Harvey sagely noted, “Travel follows good food routes,” and Kansas City’s identity as a food city is largely based on that fact. Kansas City: A Food Biography explores in fascinating detail how a frontier town on the edge of wilderness grew into a major metropolis, one famous for not only great cuisine but for a crossroads hospitality that continues to define it. Kansas City: A Food Biography also explores how politics, race, culture, gender, immigration, and art have forged the city’s most iconic dishes, from chili and steak to fried chicken and barbecue. In lively detail, Andrea Broomfield brings the Kansas City food scene to life.
