Boulevard Brewing Company
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Boulevard Brewing Company is a
brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of bee ...
located in Kansas City, Missouri. The
Brewers Association The Brewers Association (BA) is an American trade group of over 5,400 brewers, breweries in planning, suppliers, distributors, craft beer retailers, and individuals particularly concerned with the promotion of craft beer and homebrewing. Two of ...
currently ranks the American arm of Boulevard's parent company, Duvel Moortgat USA, as the 12th largest craft brewery, and the 18th largest active brewery in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
based on 2014 sales volume. Boulevard is the largest craft brewery in the state of Missouri. Boulevard's beers are available in select markets across the United States and Canada. In 2013, Boulevard was acquired by
Duvel Moortgat Brewery Duvel Moortgat Brewery (Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat) is a Flemish family-controlled brewery founded in 1871 in the Antwerp Province (Belgium). Its strong golden pale ale, Duvel, is exported to more than forty countries. Duvel is Brabantian, Ghent an ...
. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but industry publication Beer Business Daily estimated the sale price exceeds $100 million.


History

Boulevard began in 1988 with the construction of the brewery in a turn-of-the-century brick building on Kansas City’s historic Southwest Boulevard. A vintage Bavarian brewhouse was installed with used equipment from a closed brewery in
Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
, Germany, and the first batches of beer were produced in the fall of 1989. Based on the historic example set by the local and regional breweries that were once common throughout the United States prior to
Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...
, the brewery has a focus on providing locally-brewed beer for the Kansas City region. The brewery's first half-barrel of Boulevard Pale Ale was delivered in a pickup truck to Ponak's Mexican Kitchen, located nearby. In 1990, Boulevard Wheat was added to the product line. Wheat and Pale Ale remain the company’s strongest sellers. Introduced in late 2007, the "Smokestack Series" joined Boulevard's family of beers with year-round, seasonal, and limited edition lines of artisanal selections packaged mostly in 750 ml bottles, while some are also available in 12 oz. bottles and on draft. These bold, complex varieties were inspired by Belgian
Trappist beer Trappist beer is brewed by Trappist monks. Thirteen Trappist monasteries—six in Belgium, two in the Netherlands, and one each in Austria, Italy, England, France, and Spain—currently produce beer, but the ''Authentic Trappist Product'' labe ...
, and share several characteristics including their higher alcohol content. Year-round Smokestack beers include ''The Calling'' double ipa, ''Long Strange Tripel'', ''The Sixth Glass'' quadrupel, ''Dark Truth Stout'', ''Tell-Tale Tart'' a slightly sour ale, and ''Tank 7'', a farmhouse ale. Additional Smokestack beers have been released, including some limited release and some that are available year-round. In mid-2009, the company introduced Boulevard Pilsner to its core brand family. The brew is a nod to the full-bodied pilsners of Kansas City's historic breweries of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the spring of 2013, Boulevard Pilsner was rebranded to KC Pils. In 2018, Boulevard teamed with Kansas City native and rapper
Tech N9ne Aaron Dontez Yates (born November 8, 1971), better known by his stage name Tech N9ne (pronounced "tech nine"), is an American rapper. In 1999, he and business partner Travis O'Guin founded the record label Strange Music. He has sold over two ...
to create a new beer. The beer, which is named Bou Lou and is a wheat beer with pineapple and coconut flavors, is named for and inspired by his song "Caribou Lou". It was released on June 18 in Kansas City, Wichita,
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, and
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and on July 9 in
St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
. With capacity reaching an estimated 600,000 barrels from an expansion project completed in 2006, the brewery is now one of the largest craft brewers in the Midwest. In the U.S., Boulevard Beer is available in 41 states. Internationally, it can be found in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. In 2013, many of the brewery's beers were certified kosher by the Vaad HaKashruth of Kansas City.


2021 sexism and harassment scandal

In January 2021, a female
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user reported leaving the brewery in 2020 because of harassment, and a " sexist work environment", detailing numerous examples of
prejudice Prejudice can be an affective feeling towards a person based on their perceived group membership. The word is often used to refer to a preconceived (usually unfavourable) evaluation or classification of another person based on that person's per ...
against women. The post was shared widely, gained media attention, and less than one week later Boulevard's president Jeff Krum resigned, along with two other high-level employees. The brewery's founder, John McDonald, returned to run the company to "make things right" shortly after. An outside company was hired to conduct an investigation, which "affirmed
hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
instances of harassment and problematic behavior had occurred."


Brewery expansion

Boulevard underwent expansions in 1999 and 2005. In March 2006, Boulevard broke ground on a $20 million expansion project that increases brewing production capacity by an estimated 60,000 barrels/year. The new brewing and packaging building was constructed adjacent to the existing plant. Designed by
360 Architecture 360 Architecture was an American architectural practice acquired by HOK in 2015. The firm provided services for a range of project types including corporate headquarters and commercial office buildings, sports arenas, stadiums and ballparks, mun ...
, the new addition is and includes a two-story state-of-the-art brewhouse and a kegging/bottling facility with a skylit atrium. The third floor, in addition to housing Boulevard Brewery offices, has two large hospitality rooms, with a terrace overlooking downtown Kansas City. A glass skywalk links both pedestrian circulation and beer piping between the old and new brewhouses. The completed expansion facilitates the brewing of Boulevard's ''Unfiltered Wheat Beer'' and ''Pale Ale'' beers, which together comprise more than 60 percent of Boulevard's sales. ''Unfiltered Wheat Beer'' is the best-selling beer of its style in the Midwest. In Fall 2011 Boulevard began a $3 million expansion of its original brew house at 25th Street and Southwest Boulevard in Kansas City. The expansion required Boulevard to remove six 105-barrel fermenters in order to replace them with eight new 300-barrel fermentation tanks from the Paul Mueller Company of Springfield, Missouri. The expansion allowed the brewery to produce an additional 35,000 barrels of beer a year, increasing capacity by about 20 percent. In order to accommodate the new tanks, the original brew house at 25th Street and Southwest Boulevard needed to be raised about 35 feet. Boulevard offers daily tours where visitors may sample their brews.


References


External links

* * {{commons category-inline Manufacturing companies based in Kansas City, Missouri Beer brewing companies based in Missouri Tourist attractions in Kansas City, Missouri Buildings and structures in Kansas City, Missouri