Boulevard Beer makes list of top craft breweries in America

Boulevard Brewing Company, Kansas City’s hometown beer company located in the Westside neighborhood of Downtown, took the No. 3 spot on the TheDailyMeal.com’s latest ranking of The Best 25 Craft Breweries in America.

“TheDailyMeal.com, a top food and drink website, asked 57 craft beer experts from across the country to submit nominations. They came up with 72 craft breweries in 21 states that they considered the best. Then the public placed 11,500 votes to pick the 25 “best” among those nominated,” according to today’s edition of The Kansas City Star.

Boulevard was rated third in the selection process, following top ranked Dogfish Head of Lewes, DE and Stone Brewing Company of Escondido, CA.

Boulevard Beer began in 1988, when founder John McDonald started construction of the brewery in a turn-of-the-century brick building on Kansas City’s historic Southwest Boulevard. A vintage Bavarian brewhouse was installed, and the first batches of beer were produced in the fall of 1989. That November, the first keg of Boulevard Pale Ale was delivered—in the back of John’s pickup truck—to a restaurant just a few blocks away.

In 2006, a major expansion adjacent to the original brewery raised Boulevard’s brewing capacity to approximately 600,000 barrels per year—a sizable increase from the 6,000 barrels contemplated in John’s original business plan. The new brewing and packaging facility is a model of sustainable urban architecture and engineering; a three-story, 70,000 square foot building housing a new, state-of-the-art 150-barrel brewhouse, packaging lines, administrative offices, and hospitality rooms.

“There’s that moment when you try a better beer, a beer that’s not your average Coors/Bud/Pabst/Enter One-Syllable Beer Name Here, and you’re hooked. Not everyone may remember exactly where, or when,” according to Marcy Franklin, editor of TheDailyMeal.com “You may not even remember what beer it was. But much like a 1-year old who tries his first bite of birthday cake and has his first real taste of sugar, you know you’re never going back to that other beer again.

TheDailyMeal.com reported the following about Boulevard:

“Boulevard Brewing Company is not only the second largest brewery in Missouri, but also one of the largest specialty brewers in the Midwest. Founded in 1989, Boulevard’s mission consists of producing fresh and flavorful beers, by using the finest traditional ingredients. The company uses old and new techniques, but is always known by their full flavors and high quality. ‘What really sets Boulevard apart for me is the Smokestack Series,’ says Tom Rotunno, of CNBC. ‘I haven’t had one I haven’t liked. They constantly surprise with a great variety of styles and each is as good as the last with releases like Love Child, Saison-Brett, Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale and Coffee Ale.  The consistency in which the Smokestack Series delivers amazing results is impressive.'”