hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr1646.txt

Episode: 1646
Title: HPR1646: 5150 Shades of Beer 0003 River City Brewing Company and Wichita Brewing Company
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1646/hpr1646.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 06:18:02

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It's Monday 24 November 2014.
This is an HBR episode 1646 entitled 5150 Shades of Beer 0 0 0 3 Reversity Brewing Company
and which it are brewing company and is part of the series 5150 Shades of Beer.
It is hosted by 5150 and is about 36 minutes long.
Feedback can be sent to 5050 at linuxpacement.com or by leaving a comment on this episode.
This episode of HBR is brought to you by an honesthost.com.
Get 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code HBR15.
That's HBR15.
Better web hosting that's honest and fair at an honesthost.com.
Is this a growler which I see before me?
The handle toward my hand?
Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not and yet I see thee still.
Aren't thou not fatal vision sensible?
To feeling as to sight or are thou but a growler of the mind?
A false creation?
Proceeding from the heat oppressed brain.
I see thee yet inform as palpable as this which the beer now I draw.
Thou marshals me the way that I was going and such an instrument that I was to drink.
Mine eyes are made of the fools of the other senses.
Or else worth all the rest I see thee still.
And thou, on thy beer and thy glass, gouts of beer.
Howdy folks, this is 5150 for Hacker Public Radio.
And I'm coming you tonight with an unexpected second edition of a very special 5150 Shades of Beer.
And I'm able to bring this to you because on the last week or so,
I was tasked to make three trips into the big city of Wichita for a rather sad errand,
which you may devise, but I shall not dwell upon here.
And being also pragmatic, I was about 30 miles out on the first of the three trips
and was kicking myself for not bringing the one grower that I mentioned I retained
in the last beer cast from the Wichita Brewing Company.
And I was thinking where a waste that would be and I thought, well, maybe I can go by there and
I'll get another grower, maybe two.
And then it occurred to me, well, I've been wanting to visit the other brew pubs
around Wichita. I've got to eat anyway before I go home.
So I did a little search on my phone and came up with the River City Brewing Company.
The River City Brewing Company is right down there in Old Town. And
Old Towns for those of you not from Kansas, that's sort of this pre-fab manufactured
party district that the citizens of Wichita create contributed a great number of tax money
to create. It's essentially the refurbish, the dead parts of downtown Wichita.
And, you know, puts some businesses in some old buildings. I mean, they've turned
old keen cutter factory into a, you know, sort of a high-tone hotel. And really, I meant to go walk
through the lobby and was down there a couple times. I should have walked through the lobby.
I never did. Sometime where I've got some more time in Wichita, I've got to do that.
And to the trouble, well, the keen cutter had, you know, had some big open spaces that they could
divide up into rooms. You know, the trouble with your old hotels. We've got the same problem in
Pratt. You know, we've got an old eight-story hotel that nothing, nothing has been in
all 25, 30 years. And even what was in there never went above the first floor. I think we had,
we had, we had, oh, when when when on is in high school, I think there was a video arcade for a while.
And after that, there was an ice cream shop. This is a place that had, you know, a big ballroom
and stuff and restaurants and all that. But when you go upstairs, the rooms, they're all meant
for what we used to call drummers. You know, these were, you know, traveling sales when we'll go
door to door, you know, in each town, they would have businesses that they would visit. And they
carried like their sample case and whatever. And they wrote it and they travel on the train. They,
you know, it's before cars, really. They come in on the train and maybe maybe take a taxi or whatever
downtown or something was there or a hack or whatever you call it in those days. And get
themselves a room. And the room wasn't, probably wasn't much bigger than the bed that they were
sleeping in. And the, you know, toilet was all, you know, one on a floor and, you know, down the hallway.
You know, I'm assuming, I've never been upstairs in that old hotel. But I'm assuming that's
pretty much the way it was set up because a lot of those old hotels were set up. And so the rooms
are really too small, even to make apartments out of, even if you could fill the place. And it's
been owned by the local bank for years. I don't know what they expect to do with it. If anything,
but all the windows have boarded up, I mean, it'd be a great place to go up and explore. I would
think if you didn't fall to your death right through the floors or something. But this is the
trouble in revitalizing these old spaces. You have all these, you know, just from the 30s and 40s
or 20s, where, you know, hotels with these incredible common spaces. But then you get up into
the rooms. There's not room enough to turn around in them. And just doing anything with them,
you know, even if you could do something with them, nobody's going to come there and stay in their
rooms. So, you know, it's cost prohibitivity to mess with them. And it's, you know, it's sad
because you've got all these incredible old buildings and showplaces just going to waste. And
here I've been talking about old architecture for five minutes and you folks wanted to hear
about beer. Okay, so let's go, you know, so I went down to Old Town, the University of Brewing
Company. And this is an old two-store bedroom. I don't know what was originally in it.
But they fixed it up. I'm told by some folks I met there the first time I went. Yeah, actually,
I went two nights. The first time I went that, you know, the second story used to be like an old
70s lounge. I mean, you know, Merid Ball or whatever, you know, whole disco type thing. And
in fact, downstairs, it still shows, you know, logos for two different bars, like one more
downstairs and one more upstairs. But they were all the same place. And apparently in the last
year, they've opened up the upstairs. Whether you used to be just one little door to get on the
balcony they've added, you know, they've ripped out a whole side of a wall, so you just walk right
out there. I will say something about the balcony. You know, would you've got a balcony on outside
the building, that, you know, a whole thing is timber and whatever. It should not vibrate when
just anybody walks down it. So, you know, that's where I had my dinner in the first night.
And while I figured nobody else has fallen to their death yet. But I'm not completely
precluding that possibility. So, if you ever hear of huge balcony tragedy in what you talk
Kansas, you know, I would not rule out the Roof City Brewing Company. I'm not saying it's going
to happen. I know nothing about architecture. I'm just saying places where I'm sitting should not
vibrate when people walk past. That's all I'm saying. As far as the beers, you know, because I
talked to you the last time about the Wichita Brewing Company. And, you know, the River City
offerings are every bit as good if not better. And I'll tell you what happened. I like to go to
Wichita three times in, you know, about five days. So, the first time I went by Roof City. And,
well, I'll tell you about the food. I collect, you know, as far as food, you know, of course,
Wichita Brewing Company is pretty much a pizza-read type place Italian food. And I have to tell you,
you know, I think they got the edge on the food because I've had pizzas at both places.
And the pizza at the River City Brewing Company, it was good. It was really, really good.
Was the man happy? You know, I said, I didn't pick one that tragically hit like chicken fajita
pizza or whatever. I picked an Italian pizza at both places. And I said, if the Manhattan
from River City Brewing Company, and it was good. But, you know, compared, and maybe I was more hungry,
I don't know. But compared to the pizza that I had at River City, I described last time,
the one River City was almost like a religious experience by comparison. I have to tell you,
when I went to the River City Brewing Company, the first time, I actually ate twice because I talk,
well, I'm sitting there, either about six o'clock, and I talked myself into having three beers,
which is one more, and I knew I should have driving home. It's fair if I'm sitting there,
why missed lunch? So I thought I was going to have, uh, say to have another dinner. Yeah. Okay,
don't judge me. Uh, you know, so the first dinner I had was the pork chops, excellent, excellent.
It's hard, as a thick cut pork chop, it's hard to get that where it's not a little bit dry in the
middle. But I mean, it's great sauce on it and everything. And then you had like the little
fried potatoes with it, and just incredibly seasoned. And then, you know, the best part,
really, I thought was the vegetables, because then just the green beans on there, you know,
you had like this vegetable medley, and it included fresh peppers and everything,
like green pepper, yellow pepper, red pepper, bell peppers in there, you know, with your vegetables,
oh, that was, that was so good. So, you know, that, that was a good dinner. And like I said,
I, well, I'll tell you about the beers in a minute, but I, you know, I had, I, I sat down and I,
I saw two beers on them in New York, really one to have, and I tried those. And then I went for
a third one of them, man, I got to go drive through Kingman County on the way home. And
you folks not from Kansas won't know, but Kingman County has a reputation. It's like,
I want to get a little food more food in me, and give it a little more time
before I go home. So, I ordered the Manhattan pizza. And say, it's good. It was, it was real good.
But compared to the pizza I'd had, you know, like a week and a half, now there's a two,
just these two weeks before at the Wichita Brewing Company. It just, it just did not compare.
Now, now I have to tell you, because I'm, I'm going to tell you about food too. And, you know,
Ken's comments on the, on the first part of the, now 51, 50 shades of beer said, yeah,
if you're going to, you know, I don't drink much beer, so I want to make sure I get a good one,
and I'm sorry folks, these, these are all beers you're never likely to have,
unless you're, you live in Kansas. I'm sorry about that. I won't tempt you on that, but just,
you know, brew up, stay in business because they have good beer. So probably whatever you got
locally, you can find some awful good selections, and you can do a podcast, tell me about it,
make me jealous. So let's see. Oh, let's say I had to go fry, that was Friday night,
that two dinners after River City Brewing Company. And to go back to Saturn in a different
place then, I'll tell you about that. And then, oh, I went back to Wichita, it was more like late
Monday afternoon for eight nights that I didn't have lunch, so I went there by the Wichita
Brewing Company, and by that time I'd emptied all three growlers. Yeah, the first Friday night,
I bought two new growlers, filled them up, and then Saturday I went back and went by the
Wichita Brewing Company, filled up my empty growler from them. Don't judge me,
by Monday they were on purpose really. They were all three empty again, so I took all three of them
to the River City Brewing Company. They weren't bashful about filling up the competition's
growler. In fact, looking at them, I'm pretty sure they buy them all from the same company,
they're identical except for the labels. Okay, so that Monday afternoon, I got there,
what was about three o'clock in the afternoon, and I looked at the menu and I sighed on the Cuban
sandwich, and you know, it's described on the menu as porcloid and ham, oh my goodness. I'm
certain if I ever go down the floor to a Claudio Miranda could probably show me where to get a
real authentic Cuban sandwich, but I tell you what, this one ahead in Wichita, it will suffice
till I get down there. Oh my goodness. And I, before I talk about it first, let me see that, uh,
well, this was Saturday, and I thought, well, I've already eaten it. I know it's going to go
by the Wichita Brewing Company to have a couple beers filled with my growler, but I thought,
well, I've already eaten there. I want to try something different, and I was there on South
Rock Road, and I'd gone by this. My destination all three days is pretty much the same
place, but I'd gone by this on Friday. It's the Byway Asian Buffet B-A-I Space W-E-I.
So if you're there on Wichita, you know, and I would say if you want, like I would know,
but if you want an authentic Asian experience, you know, it's kind of a little percent themselves,
and yeah, I would say this is pretty good, because I went in there and I had the roast duck,
and I always thought maybe I was allergic to duck. I didn't, but this one I didn't have any,
any, uh, problem with it. Maybe the orange sauce on all the duck I've had before. But, uh, yeah,
I'm not saying this is the best meal I've ever had, but it was a very interesting experience,
because they roasted duck, and, you know, I think after it's roasted, and they cut it up in the kind
of slices, you know, cross and lengthwise, and they said, well, you got to pick it up. You know,
I asked for a knife and forks, and now you don't want to do that. You just want to pick it up and
eat it like, uh, hot wings. Well, it wasn't so much like hot wings as it was, like spare ribs,
you know, so sauce kind of had some soy in it, you know, I'm not, I'm not sure how to describe it,
but, you know, I said it, it was maybe not the best Asian meal I've had. I mean, it was good. I
wouldn't say it was the best Asian meal I've ever had, but I'm thinking it may, maybe,
uh, towards the end of one of the most authentic, and they said, well, you know, you get done,
and then you take all that sauce, and you pour it on all the big old bowl sticky rice, you know,
so I did that, and, you know, they, they seem kind of impressed, I was able to finish the whole thing.
They don't know me too well, they don't think I can finish the whole meal, but,
you know, uh, as I walked out, they said, well, do you like spicy food? Oh, yeah, I like spicy food,
well, you need to, you need to come back and try the little main some time, you know,
if I could tell, well, there's so many darn restaurants, and I don't get to Wichita so often that
probably I'm not going to get back to this one again, but if you're, maybe we've got some
listeners in Wichita, and go down South Rock, it's kind of a little shopping center there,
they're right next to the road, in that shopping center, and, uh, try the byway Asian buffet,
so it says on it, I was expecting sushi, because it said sushi buffet, and I think there might
have been some kind of buffet in my, in behind the counter or something like that, I,
I really should have looked at it closer, but I didn't, you know, I didn't, it didn't look
like it's publicly accessible, maybe it was, and so I just wound up ordering off the menu,
so, you know, I think there's, there's a lot of great material to be explored there, okay, well,
told you I was going to talk about beer, and I've talked about nothing but food, so we've got,
we've got them for all the food I ate, so we'll start with, these were the River City beers I
brought home, uh, in the growler, and, uh, this first one I'm drinking is, probably, where, where is it?
Is it on here? I thought it was, because it's, it's a, it's, it's, it's not their main,
uh, sour, it's like a blend of the sour and, and, uh, brown ale, I thought it was on here,
maybe not, shoot, uh, do, do, do, oh, from around the other side,
oh, Flemish Red, yes, yes, the Flemish Red, and Tracy Holtz, this, this would be one,
this, this is a beer that, that, uh, it brings the funk, man, you know, as, this is a funky town beer,
so, you know, I like it, it's choir taste, I said, either one of these places, I don't think
you can sit down, uh, which top rowing company or River City, I do not think you can sit down and
have a bad beer, but, you know, the, uh, sellers are definitely an acquired taste, so, it's,
there's a blend of young beer and 18 month old wine, barrel aged beer, dark sour and mysterious,
so, it is, it's, it's like a, you know, mix of brown ale and a sour, you can, you can,
taste both in there, but it is just every bit almost as much funky as their group,
which I also had, uh, that I had on the premises, that first night, and, I told you that
the, uh, sour from the, uh, which top rowing company, you know, it, it was more sour, but it didn't,
it didn't have the sweet, like I, the fruity taste, like I expected, and the group, you know,
definitely it has that, it, uh, if you were to mix about 50% orange juice and lemon juice,
you'd be somewhere in the ballpark, uh, of the, uh, flavor, and you want me right there,
because it's not, you know, it's beer, but, uh, yeah, so definitely both the sellers,
from the, which top rowing company, I, I'm sorry, from the River City Brewing Company,
I do prefer, uh, to, to the, uh, uh, the one, the one from the, which top rowing company.
Okay, um, another one I, the next, well, that first night, I brought the flimish home,
that last night, and wow, I do like it, uh, that first night when I went by the River City Brewing
Company, I had the group first, and oh, I just loved it, then I had the, uh, which top wheat wine,
you know, so anything, you know, in the neighborhood of 9 or 10% they call it barley wine,
but this is wheat beer, so I don't know how that works, but they call it wheat wine,
9% ABV, I had that, and it was like, oh, man, it just took me up to an IV, and I'll just sit here and
meditate forever, that's why I want. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that, I brought some of that home
to the night, still have some of that left, so we'll, we'll taste of that later on,
all that is so good, so good, and I have to contrast, uh, and really smooth, that's the thing,
man, it is just silky smooth, but it's for the lighter colored beer, whereas the analog on the,
the Wichita Brewing Company, uh, I had theirs when I was there, I had a cup, you know,
I went there the second night, they had to go to Wichita, and had two beers there and brought one
home, and one of the ones that I had was, yeah, I don't see it on there, but they have a, uh,
barley wine wheat beer as well, and again, it's just, but it's darker, much, much darker, so,
you know, like coffee dark, um, smooth, oh, incredibly, you know, just, just like this, incredibly
smooth, uh, you know, I brought the, where I brought the, uh, Wichita Wheat Home in the, uh,
from River City Home in the Breller, I don't know, I wasn't as enchanted with it as it was,
when I had it there at the, at the pub, uh, maybe I was just more thirsty at the pub, I mean,
it's, it's excellent, it's, oh, man, it is excellent, uh, but, you know, I didn't say,
hook me up to an IV or anything, but, so, I think it's probably a draw between the two, you know,
if you go to get their wheat wine, both of them have a wheat wine, you know, either one you walk
into, definitely try that man, you will not be sorry, okay, uh, and then what else did I have,
that, uh, that first night, um, they never had the raisin beer, I wanted that, you know, except for
the wheat wine, both places, they're always out of the stuff of higher APV, but, I didn't,
I didn't notice, both of them are doing, you know, are doing some of a nanny thing, you know, because
the stuff of higher APV comes in a smaller glass, so I got to tell you, just get, go, go to either one,
get the growler, take it home, so nobody can tell you how big a glass you can have,
uh, what's the, uh, I'm trying to figure out what, what else did I have that first night?
Well, I think probably the blitzkrieg, yeah, talking to Imperial Octopus Logger,
no, no, no, Animal City stout, that's what I had, uh, rich fence of dark chocolate and espresso,
um, so yeah, that, that was good, I can tell you that one's good, I said, I'm, I'm more in half
way through either the beer menus from these two places, and like I said, I believe there's a
third brew pub up there in Wichita, some place, okay, so, and then I think that, yeah, that first
night, I brought home, well, I got the two growlers, I brought home the big six, uh, malt liquor,
and so, so some guy, it works there, his name big said, and he wanted a brew malt liquor,
and I have to, you know, uh, usually I buy this old cheap, uh, uh, two, ten, uh, you know,
malt liquor, because I do, I do like a multi-tasting beer, and it's powerful, and it's not,
not expensive, this, this was like the same stuff, except a whole lot smoother, so,
I got to tell you that, what else did I bring home that first night, because I got two growlers,
uh, maybe it was a blitzkrieg, I think it was, yeah,
October Festlager, rich caramel notes, bicegerman hops,
let's see, was that it, seems like I've had that, uh, see, I'm working off being
too far away from this, you know, this was two weeks ago, so, okay, then the next night,
I said, I took the integreller from the Wichita Brewing Company, and even though I ate it by
away, I went to, uh, the Wichita Brewing Company, and I've already told you I had the, uh, uh, the
Wheat Wine, and let's see, I think I had the, uh, 502 Amber to bring home, or, you know,
had that, and what did I bring home, uh, oh, yeah, the Halfwood Wheat, I wanted to bring
the Wheat Wine Home, and they said, oh, that's in the oak cast, and, uh, you know, we, we only
limit you to a couple, a couple, uh, beers out of there, you can't take it home, so if you want
to take something home, you, you can take the Wheat Wine Home from the River City Brewing Company,
because I did, so I brought the Halfwood Wheat Home, that, you know, that was good, uh, I didn't
get the taste of lemon and orange, uh, for, from the, high fwise, and so much as they advertise,
but still, it's, it's not a bad beer, uh, I, I, I'm sure you'll like it. Okay, and then,
went back on the Monday afternoon, ate their hat, hat, that's when I had the, uh, uh, the,
the Cuban sandwich, and when I had the, at the cafe, a latte, uh, what was it, there, there's two
of them, uh, from the River City Brewing Company, that are, that have, uh, cola flavor, let's see,
was that yet, or was it the only other ones? Uh, oh okay, it's Old Town Brown, yeah,
I didn't want so much coffee, so it's, you know, it's, uh, advertised carnal,
mojagini color, nutty flavors, and a hint of coffee in the finish, and yeah, you, you can, you can
taste the coffee flavor in there, so I didn't have the cafe latte, the Old Town Brown,
and what else did I try? Well, I was there. Well, sometime I had the stout, maybe it was them,
I had the city stout when I was there, uh, rich with dark hints of, dark chocolate, and express
so, creamy texture, and I definitely had that at one point, so, and then when I brought home,
at the Wichita Wheat, which I've raved on, of course, you know, the wheat wine,
uh, and the flavor shred, that's, that's the one with the funk, uh, and then there's Seeson,
and it's a, you know, it's a, it's a peach flavored Seeson, and I'd say it's Dead Heat probably,
with the Wichita Brewing Company Seeson, so, you know, either, either, see, go, go both places,
you can, you just cannot go wrong, you know, if you got to label, lay over the Wichita over here
and fly over the country, make sure it's long enough, seeing jump in a cabin, go both places, and
so they can roll you into the plane, you know, before you leave bid continent, uh, you know, that's
the, that's absolutely the best you can do. Okay, well, incredibly, I'm still on my first beer
here, I'm at the finish, they're, uh, all the rest of these growlers tonight while I was talking,
and, well, getting kind of late, so, and I probably kept you folks quite long enough,
so, as always, at least when I'm the host, I've been 5150 for Hacker Public Radio, and this has been
your third installment of 5150 Shades of Beer, which means can it as a series,
and I'll catch you next time of, you know, I've got, uh, more beer reviews on tap as it were,
so it won't be too long before you hear from me again, and until then, I'll catch you folks on
leaflipside.
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