Local brewery strikes gold in Kansas City
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) -- In a recent KC Star competition, River Bluff Brewing in Kansas City's River Market was voted by the people as Kansas City's favorite brewery.
General manager at the River Market location, Hootie Wales, said this was a competition they did not push for.
"To get that type of accolade without pushing the regulars to do it is kind of a really fun and exciting thing," Wales said.
In 2018, River Bluff Brewing opened at 1224 Frederick Ave. in Downtown St. Joseph. It didn't take long for the new business to get recognized.
In 2019, the St. Joseph location won silver with their beer "Sandy Dunes Saison" in the Great American Beer Festival in the Belgian-style pale strong ale category.
"Most brewers go their whole career with maybe never getting one of them," Co-Founder and Director of Operations Chris Lanman said. "So we were just surprised to get one in our first year of operations here in St. Joseph."
In 2022, River Bluff Brewing opened a location at 201 Main St., Suite 101, in Kansas City's River Market. That year, they won "The Pitch" best new brewery in Kansas City. Also, winning silver in the Great American Beer Festival.
2024 was a golden year for the business, winning gold in the Great American Beer Festival with their Yankee Doodle Shandy. This was just the start. River Bluff Brewing won gold in "The Olympics of beer competitions."
"Going up against over 2,000 worldwide breweries and there were over 9,000 beer entries in that," Lanman said. "Just extremely humbling to be able to do that."
Lanman said the wide array of beer styles allows the brewery to have a beer for everybody.
"We have amazing brewers that have always done a good job for us," Tasting room manager Justin Alvarez said. "Our front of house staff works hard to make sure everything is on point... Every time we get recognized for anything that we do, it makes us extremely happy and we're very proud of it."
Both locations have 12 taps, giving a diverse set of beers to visitors. With many accolades achieved in a short time and the newest in the Kansas City location, Lanman said the company will keep "following the river."
"Our hashtag follows the river, we can keep following the river," He said. "Wight now we're happy where we are, but we're always looking forward to new things, potentially new locations. We really just want to get our beer out there to as many people as we can."
