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Category: Brewery Review

Review: Ghost Runners Brewery, Vancouver WA

Ghost Runners Brewery, Vancouver WA This last week on Friday night (Oct. 2nd) we stopped by the Ghost Runners Brewery in Vancouver WA on our way to drop off some friends. I’ve had a few chances to sample their beers over the past couple of years as they have been producing and distributing in the local area and was excited to check them out. We were really happy that they finally opened up a tap-room at their production facility off of NE Minnehaha in an industrial area of Vancouver, the local brewing scene is growing with a strong showing of brewers that have a clue. The brewery is located along the 2nd row of the building complex, not visible from the street. They have a 10 barrel system with a couple of storage tanks inside behind the bar area. If you ask one of the interns or bartenders, they will show you around and explain their setup. I’m really glad that they opened up the opportunity to visit their production site and try their beers on site. I would highly recommend visiting them if you’re in town and have a few extra minutes in the evening to give them a …

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2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: The Saint Louis Brewery, Schlafly Bottleworks, St. Louis, MO (June 29, Brewery Stop #14)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: The Saint Louis Brewery, Schlafly Bottleworks, St. Louis, MO (June 29, Brewery Stop #14) The 14th brewery that we visited on the cross-country beer discovery tour (click to read about the whole trip) was Schlafly Bottleworks in St. Louis MO. After a great KC BBQ lunch, we hit the road and headed to St. Louis. There was a little bit of traffic out of KC, and a whole bunch of traffic trying to get into St. Louis which pushed out travel time to over 5hrs. We ended up getting off the freeway and taking some side-roads into the SW part of town as their rush hour freeway traffic is horrible. The Schlafly Bottleworks location isn’t hard to find, just be ready to drive a bit through residential areas to get there. Note, that there are two locations, we went to the production facility to meet up with one of Gary’s former students that lives in the area in the suburbs and not the main downtown restaurant and bar. I had never heard of Schlafly before our trip, it was selected by Devin and I’m glad he picked it out for us to stop at. They have …

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2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Boulevard Brewing Company, Kansas City, MO (June 29, Brewery Stop #13)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Boulevard Brewing Company, Kansas City, MO (June 29, Brewery Stop #13) The 13th brewery visited on our cross-country beer discovery tour (click to read about the whole trip) was Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City MO. This well known brewery is one of the oldest and largest micro-breweries in the mid-west and we were really looking forward to visiting the location. We left Lincoln on Sunday morning and headded south to KC. The trip wasn’t too bad, just about three hours with a bit of traffic and construction detours in KC itself. We timed it just right and got there as they opened on Monday before lunch. The brewery complex is located just south-west of the KC MO downtown area and is quite large as you can see. The main facility has a small-ish taproom next to their swag/sales area that has both stuff with their logo on it, lots of bottles, growlers, hats, local goods, t-shirts, etc. for sale. The taproom has 10 or so tables and a bar you can stand at. Typically people use this area for pre-post brewery tour sampling as it turns out, but we just wanted to do the tasting. …

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2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Modern Monks Brewery, Lincoln NE (June 28, Brewery Stop #12)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Modern Monks Brewery, Lincoln NE (June 28, Brewery Stop #12) The 12th brewery we stopped at on the cross-country beer discovery tour (click to read about the whole trip) was Modern Monks Brewery at Misty’s Steakhouse in downtown Lincoln NE. After a great Sunday of beer discovery and hanging out with the family, we went to dinner at one of Lincoln’s oldest steakhouses, Misty’s. I had never been to their downtown location, which as it turns out, has a brewery inside, called Modern Monks. I wasn’t able to get a lot of pictures as we got there as the dinner crowd was picking up and it got dark in the area. It’s suggested to get reservations as they do fill up quickly. There’s a brewery production area behind some larger windows on the north side of the restaurant area. They have a small bar and some seating at the front of the restaurant as well, but we got sat way in the back so we didn’t get much of a chance to check out the scene up front. They have six regular beers on draft at all of their restaurant locations, and one or two seasonals …

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2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Ploughshare Brewing Company, Lincoln NE (June 28, Brewery Stop #11)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Ploughshare Brewing Company, Lincoln NE (June 28, Brewery Stop #11) The 11th brewery to be visited during the cross-country beer discovery tour (click to read about the whole trip) was Ploughshare Brewing Company in downtown Lincoln NE just a few blocks from the UNL campus. This was one of the first true surprises during the road trip, we had no idea it existed until earlier that day when we started looking at what was open in town for breweries and this new brewery came up. We had no idea what their beers were like, but we were pleasantly surprised and truly glad we stopped by before going to dinner that night. The brewery has a large main area and bar to sit at. They don’t have much in the way of food (or didn’t at that time), but they did have 10 distinct and great beers to sample from. The server was excited to hear that we were new to their beers, and made sure to answer any questions we had about them. They did mention that they were getting ready to ramp up production and keg so they can start distributing around the area. We …

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2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Granite City Food & Brewery, Lincoln NE (June 28, Brewery Stop #10)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Granite City Food & Brewery, Lincoln NE (June 28, Brewery Stop #10) The 10th brewery we stopped at during the beer discovery tour (click here to read about the whole trip)was Granite City Food & Brewery in Lincoln NE. We slept in a little bit (as it was a Sunday) and decided to go out for lunch to Granite City out by the mall. This is a corporate chain in the mid-west that can be found in most major cities. It’s sort of like the “Appleby’s of Breweries” as the food is ‘ok’ and the beer is drinkable but not outstanding. We got there about 11am, forgetting that they actually do a Sunday brunch, but we were going to do some tasting so eggs with beer, not a good call. We decided to sit up at the bar and chat up the bartender to see what he thought about their beers and the local scene. He was happy to pour us the full lineup, and give us his opinions of them, which surprisingly wasn’t that great considering that there isn’t a lot of choices in Lincoln when it comes to locally made beer. The food we …

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