RAYTOWN, Mo. -- The fifth annual Boulevardia Festival kicked off Friday in the Stockyards District of Kansas City.
Since its inception in 2014, the event has grown every year with dozens of brewers set to attend. And for local breweries like Crane Brewing in Raytown, it’s a great time to attract new customers and grow the brand.
Chris Meyers is one of the co-founders of Crane Brewing.
“We do brew all kinds of beers, but we're definitely known for more sour beers, wild beers,” Meyers said.
Meyers and his fellow Crane brewers started at home and now operate their brewery, tap room, and packaging all in one building in Raytown.
“It is a lot of work,” Meyers said.
This year, for the second time, they're one of the dozens of brewers invited to Boulevardia. Meyers said it's just as much of an experience for the brewers as it is for the people who buy tickets.
“We get the opportunity to spend the afternoon with people who love our beer,” Meyers said. “And with people like us from all over the country.”
The festival also means Crane gets to work on something special. They're taking four of their beers this year, including “Township 49,” named after Raytown. They make it using air and bacteria from the air around their building.
“That's one that we brewed the beer, had it in our boil kettle, and then we opened it up to the environment around us,” Meyers said. “We set all our fans in the warehouse to create back pressure, to suck air into the kettle.”
The work on that beer, and all the others at Crane, is worth it for every Boulevardia sip.
“We're happy at the end of the day if people said they had Crane Brewing, and they're going to keep trying our beer,” Meyers said.
Crane Brewing hosts its own festival in September. Meyers said they support Boulevard Brewing by attending Boulevardia, and Boulevard will do the same for their “Festival of the Lost Township.”
Click here to download the Boulevardia app.
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