For our second installment in the Breweries of Kansas tour, we’ll take a look at Lawrence’s 23rd Street Brewery. This brewery, related to but independently operated from 75th Street Brewery in Kansas City, is the only other brewpub in Lawrence apart from Free State Brewery (showcased in the first installment of this series). 23rd Street Brewery beers are on tap at bars and restaurants across Kansas, but they currently have no plans for bottling distribution.
I was recently able to interview Bryan “Bucky” Buckinghamt, 23rd Street’s resident brewmaster. Bucky shares a few similarities with Barnyard Brewing’s own brewmaster, Heath Hoadley. They were both born in Oregon, and previously worked together at several other breweries. Also, they both produce a top-notch Irish Red. 23rd Street’s Crimson Phog Irish Red Ale won a 2007 Silver Medal in the “Irish Style Red Ale” category at the Great American Beer Festival.
Bucky moved to this area in 1992 to attend college, and began working at Free State. “I started working as a dishwasher and bussing tables at Free State, and kind of fell in love with the whole thing,” he said. “I wanted to get into the brewing aspect and learn everything else about brewpubs.”
Buckinghamt moved to Kansas City at one point, and worked at all the different breweries there.
“I homebrewed, and most of the breweries I worked at I was good friends with the brewer, so I was always in the brewhouse and looking around,” he said. “I did my time before I felt I was ready to go into the brewery.”
He began brewing at 75th Street Brewery in Kansas City, and did so from 2000 to 2006. Bucky became brewmaster at 23rd Street Brewery in Lawrence in July 2007. He said he has created about 15 new recipes in two years. “We normally run nine beers,” Buckinghamt said. “There are four flagships and five seasonals.”
Buckinghamt said one of the perks of the job, besides the obvious one, is that he has a lot of freedom. “I work when the beer needs me to work, I go with how the beer is flowing,” he said.
“The owner gives me a lot of freedom, and I can pretty much brew whatever I want. Obviously you have to make sure you’re not doing some crazy $200 barrel, and I always have the flagships on, and a couple seasonals I’m expected to have on, like our Octoberfest, and Oatmeal Stout,” Buckinghamt said. “But I’ve got the time and space that if I decide I want to brew a new recipe I’ve usually got no problem whatsoever.”
When I visited 23rd Street Brewery last month, I ordered the beer sampler. The waitress brought out six beers in a wooden plank like a pillory. She suggested I drink from light to dark, in this case drinking through “Wave the Wheat” Ale, “Rock Chalk Raspberry Wheat,” “Sunflower Blonde Golden Ale,” “Bitter Professor IPA,” “Crimson Phog Irish Red,” and “Bartertown Brown.”
To my taste, the beers got better as they got darker. The wheat and golden ales were refreshing and much lighter than the other beers. The “Bitter Professor IPA,” is purely Buckinghamt’s creation, and is the second best seller. He changed it to an American West Coast IPA, from an English IPA. The waitress described its aroma as, “flowery.” Buckinghamt also created the golden ale. The award-winning Irish Red had a very nice caramel flavor. The brown ale on the end was like the dessert beer of the progression, as it had a dry chocolate flavor. It was a thoroughly delicious experience.
“I think a good brewer is going to be someone who’s willing, even if its beer styles they don’t like or care for, to still brew them and care about them and taste them,” Buckinghamt said. “As a brewer you should know your craft. Just like a cook, if you don’t like a certain flavor or spice you should still know a little bit about it.”
Bucky said even though there can be long hours, and lots of repetitive grunt work, there’s no other work he’d rather do.
“I can bust out a 14 hour day and it feels like I haven’t done six hours,” he said. “I love what I do, I couldn’t imagine doing anything but brewing beer till I die.”