Kansas

Tallgrass is a small brewery in Manhattan, Kansas that has been setting beer in Kansas City for a few years now. They've got a half dozen beers in cans now and they're starting to do some pretty interesting things. One of their least interesting beers, an unfiltered wheat, was retired a little while back by the brewery after citing "shelf instability." Halcyon is the reincarnation of Tallgrass' original, horrible, unfiltered wheat. After about a year off the market, why did Tallgrass decide to even make another Wheat Beer? Boulevard pretty much has the market cornered with their Wheat, so if you're going to introduce a new unfiltered wheat, you've got to do something different in order to get people to pay attention to you. So, is Halcyon worth picking up instead of Boulevard Wheat or is it just another iteration of the original Tallgrass Wheat?

Free State is a small brew pub in the town of Lawrence, Kansas. Known more for its Jayhawks than its beer, Lawrence is not a frequent stop for me by any means. I've never had a bad time at Free State, and I've been probably twenty or more times in the past four years. Free State has a great dinner menu on top of having a respectable number of house brews on tap. My one complaint with Free State has always been the location. I hate Kansas, I hate the University of Kansas, I hate the Jayhawks and I hate all things "Rock Chalk" ... so when I go to Lawrence it's usually to stop at Free State, then maybe go to a concert... but that's it. There's really only one reason I go to Lawrence anymore, the beer. But I really hate Kansas... Luckily for me Free State recently started bottling its beer, which is how this Oatmeal Stout found its way to me, in the form of a six pack of longnecks.

This is the first Free State beer I've been able to give a real review. Until lately it's been difficult to get Free State anywhere other than at the brew pub in Lawrence. Earlier this year Free State started sending kegs into the Kansas City market and now they are finally starting to bottle. Ironically, this Free State found its way to me in a growler, something they've been doing for years. Nonetheless, I'm excited to give it real review and see how this Hefeweizen stacks up.

Tallgrass' Buffalo Sweat is marketed as a Cream Stout but I had a hard time finding much sweet cream or milk flavor in this beer. That doesn't mean this is a bad beer, but it might not scratch the Milk Stout itch you've got. If you're judging this as a standard Stout you'll have a much richer experience. After pouring this beer into my pint glass I quickly noticed all the roasted malt and coffee aroma. The flavor was almost exactly the same as the aroma, you'll notice a lot of coffee flavored roasted malt and just a hint of sweetness.

Tallgrass is a young brewery, especially considering the relatively short history of modern craft beer in America. Established in 2007, Tallgrass has a pretty modest line up of five brews. The Tallgrass Ale, an English style Brown Ale, is their flagship beer. This style of beer isn't one that is easy to get excited about, but I'll give the Tallgrass folks credit for choosing this as their first commercial beer. The Tallgrass Ale has a rich brown body with red highlights and very little carbonation. The aroma is a little sweet but mostly earthy with hints of almonds and cashews. My initial impressions of the flavor were that is quite heavily roasted and almost burnt. This subsided as a drank more of the beer and began to pick up on the malt and brown sugar sweetness.