Beer report: Amerisports Brew Pub, Kansas City

Posted by Patrick under Beer Travel

I’m in Kansas City today for a little play, beer and barbecue. How lucky for me that there is a place that has them all under one roof — Ameristar Casino in North KC.

The barbecue (Arthur Bryant’s, an outpost of the well-known local joint) was interesting enough, if the “original recipe” sauce was a bit strange. It had what I would call a weird mix of spices that I didn’t like. Their “sweet heat” sauce, on the other hand, was a nice mix of hickory and buffalo sauce flavors. Yummy.

Back to the beer. The “Amerisports Brew Pub” is the outlet here for five varieties of house-brewed accompaniments to your slot pulling or card playing activities. In the sampler pictured here, I tried three of their offerings — the Knock Out blond, Face Off pale ale and the Hard Ball dark. The blond, billed as a bohemian pilsner, had too much of a floral, fruity finish in my opinion to carry that pedigree. That said, it was enjoyable. The pale was somewhat hoppy and well-made as far as English pales go. The real treat was the dark lager. This tasty Müncher style dunkel had really nice mocha notes and would’ve merited a full pint, had my need to drive not interfered.