Kansas City's Largest Independent and Locally Owned Brewery Now Among Top 3 Percent of U.S. Breweries Jan. 10, 2020 – Kansas City, Mo. — KC Bier Co., Kansas City's largest independent and locally-owned brewery, announces that it has advanced from microbrewery status to regional brewer status, per definitions set by the Brewers Association (BA), the national trade group representing the craft beer industry in the United States. The brewery attained this status with its production volume of 15,500 barrels of bier in 2019 — a 20 percent increase over 2018 — which also outpaces the 4 percent national average growth rate for independent craft brewers. As a regional brewer, KC Bier Co. is now part of a class of breweries representing approximately the top 3 percent of all breweries in the U.S. According to the BA 2018 data, there were 7,346 total breweries operating in the U.S., of which 7,116 breweries, or approximately 97 percent, are defined as brewpubs and microbreweries, while only 230 are defined as regional breweries. Per the BA standards, a brewery must produce more than 15,000 barrels annually to be considered a regional brewery. (2019 data is not yet available). Steve Holle, KC Bier Co. founder and managing owner, said the brewery's growth into regional status is a testament to its commitment to brewing high-quality and genuine German-style beers using time-honored traditional German brewing methods and only four ingredients: water, yeast, and all-imported German malt and hops. "Our mission always has been to brew authentic-tasting German-style beer and deliver it with the same character, flavor and freshness as beer brewed and consumed in Germany," Holle said. "We're grateful for the consumers, retailers and our distributors who helped us achieve this milestone in only six years even through our distribution area included just one major city, Kansas and western Missouri." Other brewery highlights from 2019 include the brewery's Helles Lager being named one of the 19 Best Beers of 2019 by Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine, a national trade publication; being named one of the Top 10 Small Businesses of the Year by the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce; and the brewery's KC Oktoberfest, which drew more than 11,000 attendees to Crown Center on Oct. 4-5, was named Favorite Beer Festival in KC in VisitKC's 2019 Visitors' Choice Awards. https://kcbier.com ###
As a Kansas City local, this is one of three breweries people need to visit if they visit town. Although their flagship beers are available around town, KC Bier also does several fun seasonal and limited releases at the brewery. As for the brewery itself, it's located in a quiet neighborhood adjacent to a multi-use trail. Combine this location with a huge outdoor patio and it's a friendly and convenient place for families, runners/cyclists, business workers, neighbors and anyone else to visit and enjoy a beer together. It's great to see them advance up. All the best to them in the future. Side note: there have been lots of complaints about the lack of Alt biers on these forums recently - KC Bier makes an excellent version.
I don't think it is. It's certainly not a flagship at least. Should I stumble across it in a to-go format (tragically, only seen it on tap), I'd be more than happy to send some your way.
Every time I'm in MO for work I will stop by the liquor store to pick up 2-3 6-packs of KCBCo. The Altbier is great but the store didn't have any in stock when I was there on Wednesday, so I picked up a Dunkel, Helles, and the Winter Bock. The Dunkel and Helles are my highest rated beers in those styles, and I'm excited as hell to try the Winter Bock.
Their Helles is my desert island beer. It is absolutely perfect in every way. We always take out of town guests to KC Bier Co. because it's such a great venue. The food there is delicious and almost everyone can find a beer they like! Congrats to them for their elevated status.
Wish they'd distribute in St. Louis so I could get it there. What I've had from them has been really nice. Hopefully this will lead to them eventually making their way eastward across Missouri.
Well, they are just now reaching "regional" status so maybe the distro will start soon? They are available across Kansas and the west of Missouri:
Based on the definition above, "regional" has to do with production capacity specifically, not geographic range. But, yeah, you would think with that level of production you'd be getting your beers at least to the main markets in your state.
Hmm interesting distro choice. I do get that as @denver10 mentioned this is a classification based on production not actual distribution but I wonder why they wouldn't have kegs in stl
Just speculation but St. Louis is already 'covered' as regards 'traditional' beer styles via Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. Cheers!
Yeah, the Brewers Association not only bases their "Regional" designation on barrelage (not capacity or a brewery's actual distribution region), it's pretty broad range. So, nationally-distributed Pabst Brewing Co., with a current (2018) ever-shrinking barrelage of 4.5M bbl. AND KC (~15k bbl.) which doesn't even have full distribution in its own state are now both in the same "Brewing Industry Market Segment" as far as the B.A. is concerned.
That is probably a pretty good guess. And honestly that distribution map gives me the impression that the folks at kcbco not only make solid beer but also are very practical and thoughtful in their ambitions. That distro footprint is one built for the long haul not one built to create an artificially inflated sales boom and a subsequent glut of old kcbc beer on shelves across the country. Cheers to them
I do think it is interesting the Lafayette County, directly east of Jackson where KC Bier Co. is located, doesn’t get it. I know that’s a fairly small population county, but so are a lot of the counties they distribute to
Along with Schlafly and Civil Life. St. Louis has some great traditional options on shelves. That being said, there are at least 40 IPA options on any beer store shelf ... would 4 or 5 traditional options be too many?
Likely due to how the state's distributors have divided up the state in multi-county regions. Jackson may be serviced by a distributor that covers it and a handful of those states to the east and northeast of it. For whatever reason, the brewer doesn't have or choose to deal with a distributor in that section of MO. (Its another example of why I hate when breweries have these "Find our Beer" pages but don't simply list their wholesale distributors, too.)
