75th St. Brewing Company - 75th St. Brown Ale

75th Street's Brown Ale is brewed with a 5 different malts including two-row pale, munich, crystal, chocolate, and carapils. The brewery hops it up with cluster hops for bitterness, cascade primarily for flavor and then Willamette hops for their aromatic contributions. Look for a big malty toasty nose in this dark brown, filtered Ale. We found the taste in this beer to liken that of a roasted porter, definitely more roasted than your typical brown ale. Note a toasty nutty flavor, a distinct maltiness and a bit of hop bitterness. This brown ale is more balanced on the malty side than bitter. You should pick up an ever so slight hop bitterness in the finish in this malty, clean finish.

Opened in the fall of 1993, the 75th Street Brewery was Kansas City's first brewpub. As you may have guessed, the brewery is located on 75th street in the historic Waldo District.
The 75th Street Brewery has earned its place in the hearts of beer connoisseurs capturing Best Brewpub honors in Pitch Weekly's and the New Times Best of Kansas City Poll. The attraction must be the warm, cozy atmosphere inviting people of all ages and backgrounds into a friendly camaraderie rooted in the mutual admiration for good beer.

Fans may enjoy a wide range of handcrafted ales including the Brown Ale, which has earned a Gold Medal at the Great American Beer Festival 1997. Bronze at world beer cup in 1998. The food mirrors the environment -- warm and comforting yet exciting and adventurous.

At the 75th Street Brewery, crowds in the lounge and dining areas constantly keep the staff hustling. Red brick walls combine with painted yellow plaster to host a decor that includes hanging beer label posters and long strung lamps draped from the painted ducting. The brewhouse is literally the centerpiece of this operation; it stands glass-walled, in the center of the large split-level room. The brews start life in the second-story loft above the bar, overlooking all activities below. Here the bags of two-row Briess malts are opened and fed to the mill just below. Once ground, the grains are again elevated via a flexible auger that carries the grist across the ceiling and down into the brewhouse. There, the hydrator attachment mounts to the 90 gallon Mash Tun to blend water with the incoming grains. Assistant Brewer Shay Baker reports that city water analysis data is reviewed monthly and normal pH adjustments involve an acid treatment while hardness is tweaked using Calcium Chloride. All brews but the Wheat see a single temperature step infusion mash, the Wheat gets two steps. The Great American Beer Festival gave the brewery the Gold for the Brown Ale featured this month and so you'll have a chance to be the judge! Enjoy!