Hays, Kansas: Gella’s Diner & Lb. Brewery

Lb. Brewery Co. & Gella’s Diner: Hays, Kansas

Distance Traveled from Manhattan, Kansas: 318 miles (round trip)

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I’m going to be be frank, I did not expect to come away with such high opinions of Gella’s Diner & Lb. Brewery after my visit. When I initially heard about a new brewery in Hays, Kansas, I’ll admit, I was more than skeptical. I guess you could say I have and East Kansas bias. However each time I mentioned my beer blog to folks in the “know” (whatever that means) I was consistently recommended to try out Lb. Brewery & Gella’s Diner.

So I decided to conduct a little research before making the long trip out to Hays and found out some startling information about their brewery. Since their opening in 2005, they have received six awards in the World Beer Cup.

• 2010: Oatmeal Stout (Gold)
• 2009: Liberty Stout (Gold)
• 2008: Oatmeal Stout (Gold), American Wheat (Bronze)
• 2007: American Hefeweizen (Bronze)
• 2005: Oatmeal Stout (Silver)

A record this, well, award-winning is something I could not pass up. So after work on Saturday evening, my girlfriend and I made a little date out of the trip and never looked back. Read about our experiences after the jump:

Lawrence, Kansas: Free State Brewery

Free State Brewery: Lawrence, Kansas.

Distance traveled from Manhattan, Kansas: 170 miles (round trip).

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I made the trip down to Lawrence, Kansas last week to visit Free State Brewery. There were two things I noticed right off the bat before trying their beer:

1. Free State was packed at noon on a random Monday morning. Impressive. This either meant the food or the beer is delicious. Either way I’m down.
2. The brewery itself was a piece of art inside and out. From the two-story stone entrance, to the classic wood bar, or even the view of their brew house through the large glass windows in the restaurant. Definitely not a lack of things to look at while you are enjoying some beer.

Interview with Jeff Gill of Tallgrass Brewery

I had the chance to sit down with the owner and creator of Tallgrass Brewery, Jeff Gill. He was kind enough to take thirty minutes out of his busy day to talk with me about what is new with Tallgrass, the craft brewing industry, and also he gave some tips to home brewers thinking about brewing as a profession. If you haven’t had the chance to try any of the five Tallgrass beers yet, I would recommend starting off with their first beer, Tallgrass Ale, and then moving on to Buffalo Sweat, my favorite beer by them.

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Beer Conquest: What is your favorite Tallgrass Beer?

Jeff Gill: It depends what mood I’m in. I don’t really have a favorite beer, Tallgrass or otherwise. I’m very much a mood drinker. In the winter, it could be our Buffalo Sweat. But…I could also be taken in by the IPA on tap.

BC: Where did you develop the passion to start brewing beer?

JG: I always had an interest in those sorts of things from an early age. Like a lot of rural Kansas kid’s at that time, it was instilled to me from the people I was around. My dad made homemade wine and so did the neighbors. When I graduated college in the mid 90′s, craft beer was just becoming known. So once I tried it and liked it, I thought, “I think brewing beer would be kinda neat.” I had always been interested in barbecuing and cooking, and brewing is a lot like those things. Since I knew I was interested in that, I bought a kit when I was working in Utah [after college]. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was illegal to home brew in Utah back then. (laughs) When I moved back to Kansas, my boss was a very good home brewer and he taught me how to do it right. From there it just took off and I just wanted to keep on doing more and more.

BC: Tell me about your newest beer, Oasis. What style is it?

JG: We’re not that concerned about styles although that is the first question everybody asks about beer. (laughs)  But really it’s just a bigger beer that is fairly well-balanced. Although it is definitely tilted towards the hoppy-end of things. It’s 93 IBU which makes it 50% more bitter than our IPA in terms of measured bitterness. But in perceived bitterness, it’s a little bit more bitter than our IPA because we load up the beer with a lot of malt, which gives it more balance and moreish. It has big hop aroma, nice malt taste, so it is just an enjoyable beer.

Welcome to Beer Conquest!

Since this is the first post for my humble, little beer blog. I will first begin by explaining how this blog came to fruition. Then I will state my blog mission statement/purpose, and finally what to expect from this blog.

This blog was created as a class project for my Food Writing class at Kansas State University. My blog, and a few others, will be featured in the Kansas Food Journal this year. The Kansas Food Journal is an online webzine produced by the Food Writing class at Kansas State University each year.

The purpose of this blog is to feature small, local breweries in the Midwest, specifically (but not exclusively) Kansas. My hope is this blog will help people become more aware of their local, craft brewers AND then support them. This blog can be used as a great reference for creating beer road trips with friends, which if you haven’t taken one yet, you should think about it for your next vacation. Beer road trips are the best way to discover unknown beers that you will love forever.

With each post you should expect either a review of a specific beer (or beers) and/or a complete feature on a specific brewery. Also I hope to schedule interviews with the owner’s of some of the breweries to get an inside look on the craft brewing industry from their point-of-view.

If this sounds like something you will be interested in (and who doesn’t like good beer?) then make sure to keep checking back in the upcoming days when Beer Conquest is fully operational.

-Beer Conquest

Currently Drinking: Boulevard’s Boss Tom’s Golden Bock