Brewery Review, April 2018

Beer Gremlin here to conduct a brief brewery review.  Recently I had to travel for work, which is not the most desirable thing in my opinion.  The trips are short, the free time is minimal, and I am away from my family.  However, while I am out I might as well make the most of the situation.  After all, it is a slight break from the norm and my expenses are essentially covered, so the little extra freedom is I use to my advantage.

For this trip I was in Kansas City.  While there I popped into the new (2-3 month old) brewery called Casual Animal, close to the heart of the town.  I tried a total of six (out of nine) different drinks before heading straight to bed.  The six were their lager, honey ale, wit style, Belgian spiced ale, the double IPA, and the brown ale, which I will discuss briefly.

Cutting to the chase with the three light beers; they were alright.  A little light on flavor for my taste, but I think they would make excellent choices in the summertime.  Of them the wit was my favorite, and the honey ale was the one I thought could use more kick.

The darker drinks I found more to my liking.  The brown was nice, but needed some extra malt to really pull the flavor through.  The two winners, hands down, were the double IPA and the Belgian spiced ale.  The IPA was not too bitter, still had a solid hop crispness to it, and packed a ton of juicy flavor.  If you like IPAs that are not just a cyclone of bitterness and you live in Kansas City - that is your move right there.  The Belgian was strongly spiced, now I know that can rub some the wrong way, but its something I like.  It reminds me of the darker Belgian styles, something to really get you ready for the fall.

Casual Animal is new on the scene; having worked in a brewery I realize there are kinks to sort out, but they are starting out with strong promise.  They had a lot of variety, and its clear they have done well on a wide variety of styles.

Have you been there, had any favorites lately?

- Gremlin
- Full disclosure, I like all styles of beer though my favorites in no particular order are pale ales, Belgian style spiced beers (dubbels, trippels), sour beers, IPAs, German style lagers, hefeweizens, and creamy stouts.  So really I do like them all, though some are much better seasonally.