River North Brewery comes to Kansas City with stops at Bier Station, Flying Saucer and more

Denver’s River North Brewery is now available in the Kansas City area and in Lawrence.

River North owners Matt and Jessica Hess, with partner Patrick Annesty, are in KC this week for the rollout, its first to areas outside Colorado. It’s a bit of a homecoming for the husband-and-wife team. Matt grew up in McPherson, Kansas, and attended the University of Kansas and, for his master’s degree, the University of Missouri-Columbia. Jessica grew up near Hannibal, Missouri, and graduated from MU. 

“Colorado is an awesome place to run a brewery, but it seemed like Kansas City would be a perfect fit based on the fact that we like the city and we know so many people here, and obviously there are also a lot of other good breweries around here,” Matt Hess says. “So we thought it would be a good place to take our beer outside of the state.” 

River North is bringing its full line of Belgian- and Belgian-American-inspired, year-round beers — 22-ounce bombers of J. Marie Farmhouse Ale, Quandary Quadrupel, Hoppenberg Uncertainty Principle Belgian Double IPA, Avarice Imperial Stout, Unified Theory Oaked Imperial Witbier; and cans of River North White (Witbier) and River North IPA (Belgian red IPA) — to Kansas City, via Central States Beverage. 

“I think of our beer as yeast-driven, in terms of flavor,” Matt Hess says. He likes using just yeast, as opposed to fruit or other spices, to brew his beers. “I love hops, and we do the Hoppenberg double IPA, but it’s just so cool to see what a crazy over-hopped, West Coast double IPA can turn into when you add a Belgian yeast strain to it.”

Jessica Hess says they’re starting with the main line, but special releases won’t be far behind. “Our next shipment will probably have quite a few of our special releases,” she says.

“We do a lot of limited-release, barrel-aged beers throughout the year,” Matt Hess adds. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to bring Kansas City a special barrel-aged beer, or something that’s limited, every month or two throughout the year. We really like to play around with some of the more exotic, barrel-aged beers and have fun with it.”

Those exotics include beers aged in Boulevardier cocktail barrels and rum barrels. They’re also working on a Manhattan-barrel-aged beer and sour beers made in wine barrels. And they’re playing with aging beers in tequila barrels. 

“We’re working on all kinds of crazy stuff in the barrels,” Matt Hess says.

“We’ve got a good relationship with a barrel broker,” Jessica Hess says. “He’ll call us and be like, ‘I just got some barrels. Do you want some?’ We’ll find a beer to put in there.”

“If there’s an exotic barrel that we’re able to get our hands on, we’ll definitely want to try aging something in it,” Matt Hess says.

Annesty says the first barrel-aged beers to expect in Kansas City are Rum-Barrel Quandary (a rum-aged quadruple) and Barrel Blonde (a third of it aged in bourbon barrels, a third in Boulevardier barrels and a third in Manhattan barrels, then blended together).

Matt Hess started as a homebrewer. He was also an engineer with Lockheed Martin. Jessica Hess worked as a full-time veterinarian until recently. The Hesses opened River North in February 2012, giving the brewery its name from the up-and-coming River North Art District, north of downtown Denver.

“When we first opened up, about two and a half years ago, there were no other breweries in the neighborhood,” Matt Hess says. “There are about a half a dozen now that are either open or in the works.”

“There are eight and about to be 10 within 2 miles,” Annesty says. “It’s kind of becoming the brewery hub of downtown Denver.”

Annesty was River North’s first employee, hired after the taproom’s opening weekend. He started as the original taproom bartender and helped brewing. He has since taken on a PR and marketing role.

“We brought him on as a partner at the beginning of this year,” Jessica Hess says. “He’s been very key in helping us grow the brewery. And we’re not letting him go.”

River North has a staff of eight, including the Hesses and Annesty. Last year, the brewery made about 900 barrels of beer. This year, the partners expect to double that number.

“We just want to keep making good beer and, as long as we can, find new places that want to drink it,” Matt Hess says.

“We wouldn’t deny them,” Jessica Hess says.

“Yeah, there’s thirsty people,” Matt Hess says.

At 5 p.m. today, River North hits taps at Bier Station (120 East Gregory Boulevard). Wednesday night, River North puts on a social-media pub crawl (follow @rivernorthbrew for details) touring the brewery’s new accounts around town. And Thursday, River North comes to Flying Saucer (101 East 13th Street) for Tap Nite at 7 p.m.