Crane Brewing Company

A great little brewery east of Kansas City. The taproom has ample seating including a bar with full liquor service. More seating outside at picnic tables. Large parking lot. Classic rock on the stereo, classic Ghost Busters on the tv…friendly welcoming staff.

The beer skews sours, with 13 taps overall, plus 1 cider. I liked my IPA and Baltic Porter, both above average. Bagged snacks like pretzels, popcorn, etc. for sale. Canned beer to go. A worthy visit if you have already sampled the area’s other breweries.

 

 

Cool place, i’ve been meaning to get here for a few years, and finally made it. Raytown is pretty out of the way of the usual KC circuit. Somehow i’ve had nearly a couple dozen Crane beers in the meantime, they're well distributed, so they have that going for them. Fruited & kettle-soured berliners and gose are their bread & butter, but they seem to be branching out a little with their taproom selection. Non-sour styles especially, had a couple IPA’s and a decent IPL, though the biggest stars were a melon cucumber saison, beet weiss, and their 100% spontaneous wild ale, Township 49. Those deserve high marks for quality.

The space itself is fairly utilitarian, but the bar was comfortable. A dozen plus house brews on draft, and several more in bottles. Crowlers available of most drafts, not all.

Service was great, it was clearing out and the bartenders were really friendly and chatted with us for a bit, offering tips on local places and exchanging intel. Free snack mix but we didn't partake.

Overall this is a worthwhile KC area destination with some creative beers worth making a detour for.

A little out of the way, but well worth the visit. Nice interior with plenty of room. Excellent service. Nice selection of their beers and a cooler of things to go. Quality of their beers is outstanding. An excellent place to visit.

Awesome little spot on the out skirts of town, small building in a non descript kinda area

Down home and down to earth tasting room, with just a few tables and a friendly atmosphere....pours of their funky and tasty beers, bottles to go...this place has some serious potential. Gonna be interesting to see em grow.

 

Went here on a Sunday. Good crowd. Not the greatest location but inside it's nicely done in sort of a rustic industrial vibe. They make mostly sours so not a big variety of styles here. I had the Kumquat weiss, Tea weiss, Festiweiss, Farmhouse IPA, and Apricot weiss. They were all very good. Great service and great music too.

 

 

Crane was #2 of 5 KC area breweries we visited on a beer and BBQ weekend in March 2017. They are located about 20 minutes from downtown KC, and you literally have to drive on a dirt road (long driveway) to get there which can be messy if it's raining. The outside looks a little run down, but inside you'll find a very cool spot for drinking some very interesting and nice beers. We were there on a Saturday afternoon, and it was full but not overly crowded. We liked all of the beers we tried, except for the porter/stout. Crane focuses on gose, lambic, and saison styles, using local yeast in many cases. The staff was friendly and excited to talk to us. I invited Michael Crane himself to our table, and he told us the "long version" of how he got started brewing and the transition from home brewing to establishing a well regarded brewery. A fun and memorable time for all of us. Bottom line: Crane brews great beers, and it's a cool spot. Absolutely worth a visit, whether you are a KC local or visiting from out of town.

Really well designed and laid out small taproom. The taproom is really a 60'x50'x30' triangle, so not too big. The mirror behind the bar gives it a much bigger feel. Tap list is easy to read and current. A little fridge in the corner displays all the available bottles for consumption or to take-home. Lots of great beers on tap, some of which were only bottled once, some were never bottled at all. Current tap lists are available on each table as well. Proper glassware is used, with teku used for the more expensive pours. A few locally produced hard liquors are also available. Some goldfish and pretzel snacks are available, otherwise there is a BBQ food truck around a few nights a week. Just make sure to call first, since the website isn't 100% accurate. Live edge, wooden tables, and a 30 or 40 foot live-edge bar give it an earthy feel. Only artwork on the walls are simplified canvas prints of the origami on Crane's beer labels. Seating area is packed full of regular 4-chair tables, and a couple high tables with 6 seats. The bar features its own seats as well. Staff is knowledgeable and quick to provide service. Location is near the city, and also links well with the suburbs, but is a little off the beaten path - it's in a sort of industrial alley with a gravel parking lot. Definitely a great place to visit while in KC, or to visit once a week for locals. Great experience.

 

the beer these guys are making is incredible, and they finally put a taproom together. its a little minimalist at the moment, but they are working on a a new one on the other side of the building from what i understand. for now its some tables and chairs and a tiny bar with only a few seats, but its all about the beer in here, definitely some of the best i have had around the midwest. they have a nice range of very good and interesting sours, the dry hopped grapefruit gose was divine, and the tea weisse was a curious tea infused berliner that was awesome. other styles like oat based saison and porter were available as well, and the dude behind the bar was real cool to chat with. the quality of the beer is next level, and thats really what its all about. a little out of the way from kansas city proper, but well worth the effort to get out here for some of the more unique offerings that have not made it to bottle yet. huge fan of these guys, and thinking they well be on every beer nerds radar before too long if they keep it up!