FREE COMPLIMENTARY COPY September 9, 2016 • Volume 3, No. 46
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Join The Beet Generation With Crane Brewing Co.’s New Beet Weiss Beer It’s the beet generation at Crane Brewing Co. The local craft brewery renowned for its sour beers, saisons and IPAs will introduce its newest flavor, Beet Weiss, on Sept. 17, at the second annual Festival of the Lost Township. The beer, food and music festival will be held in Raytown on the city’s green space at 63rd Street and Raytown Road, just a stone’s throw from Crane’s home base. For tickets and more information, visit www. festivalofthelosttownship.com. Starting the week after Sept. 17, Crane’s colorful Beet Weiss will be available in bottles at area liquor stores and on tap in restaurants. Crane Brewing credits Michael Crane, brewery co-owner and president, and his family for coming up with the beet beer that inspired Beet Weiss. A couple of years ago, Michael’s vegetarian son, Joey, was making a meal with beets and jokingly suggested his father add some to his homebrew. Crane took him seriously and added boiled beets to a batch of cream ale he was brewing. He was impressed by the fermentation that quickly ensued due to what he describes as “the formidable sugars in the beets.” This new recipe turned heads at its first competition. Judges loved the color but it tasted like dirt, they said, so it received average scores. After Crane realized his beets first needed to be peeled and once he added the purplish mash to a base of Berliner Weiss, he discovered he had a big winner in craft beer competitions. Beet beer is what made Crane famous. “When I was a kid growing up, my grandmother made beet borscht served cold with sour cream on top which I never liked it. I’ve been thinking this is a perfect tribute to my grandmother because the lactobacillus in the sour beer is also
A Conversation On Race This week the Raytown-Brooking Eagle is starting the first of a fourpart series of articles stemming from a recent round-table discussion of current race relations organized by the Raytown Community Interfaith Alliance. This week’s article, entitled “The Gift of Raytown,” can be found on page 2. Crane Brewing Co-Founders Michael Crane and Chris Meyers with a bottle of their new Beet Weiss beer
in sour cream and the beet beer is made with the same stuff,” said Crane. Crane says he’s been asked repeatedly when the company is going to start producing beet beer yet the idea has been put on hold until his partners in the brewery decided it was time to bring back this beer as a tart Berliner Weiss style ale. The Beet Weiss definitely stands out in a line-up. “It’s fall-appropriate,” said Crane Co-Founder Chris Meyers. “It’s tangy, it’s earthy and it makes for great food pairings. Certainly, the color is unique. It got a lot of notoriety when we poured it at festivals, and we expect that to happen when we get it on tap around town.” Crane Brewing Co. plans to
produce Beet Weiss for a couple of months before shelving the recipe until at least next fall. The brewery intends to continue producing limited batches of beers using various fruits and zests. Crane Brewing Co. debuted with sales in Kansas in December, expanding to Missouri in January. The company now has distributors in Springfield, Mo., and Lincoln, Neb., as well as the local area. Crane Brewing was founded by award-winning homebrewer, Michael Crane, and a Biologist/Veterinary Practice Manager, Chris Meyers, with other partners Chemical Engineer, Aaron Bryant, Geologist, Randy Strange, and C.P.A, Jason Louk. The Festival of the Lost Township – named for Raytown’s mid-19th-
century status as an unincorporated territory – is sponsored by Crane and Raytown’s Three Trails Kiwanis Club. Most of the proceeds from the non-profit event will benefit Kiwanis children’s charities, with a small portion supporting the associated Brewtopia homebrew festival. More than 70 professional and 50 home brewers from around the country will offer samples of their beers, as will a half-dozen area distilleries, cideries, meaderies, wineries, coffee roasters, bakers, tea blenders, and kombucha makers. The VIP tent will host eight special beer and food pairings by seven Kansas City celebrity chefs. Several local food trucks will also be on hand. Live music, and local merchants will make for a fantastic one-of-a-kind festival.
Summer improvements boost Raytown South appearance
Jackson Co. Legislature approves jail audit, charges filed in sexual assault at detention center
By Kris Collins
The Jackson County Legislature voted Tuesday to hire an independent auditor to review the policies and procedures at the Jackson County Detention Center following reports of sexual assault at the jail Aug. 26. Jackson County Executive Frank White Jr. didn’t speak at length or in depth on the incident during the legislature’s meeting Tuesday, citing an ongoing investigation. “All parties responsible for these incidents will be held accountable,” he said. Joe Piccinini, corrections director, said his department, in an effort to follow recommendations handed down by a jail task force formed approximately one year ago after the FBI investigated alleged physical abuse of inmates by guards at the jail, made two new hires. The task force suggested the county seek accreditation from the American Correctional Association. On Tuesday, Piccinini told the legislature he hired Steven Raines, most recently assistant warden at the U.S. Army Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, to oversee the accreditation process.
Jail audit continued on page 3
Photos by Kris Collins
By Kris Collins When the school year started up again in mid-August, students at Raytown South High School returned to a re-energized building. Improvements made to the decades-old building as part of 2014 bond series projects gave the school a bit of a face lift. Travis Hux, assistant superintendent of support services, said the improvements, like the freshly
painted red awning support beams near the schools entrance and the Cardinal’s red and black graphics on the hallway windows, are not strictly aesthetic improvements. The graphics obscure view into the classrooms from the hallway, and, because the sicker graphics adhere to the glass, it makes it difficult to break the glass for entry. “The whole goal behind all of our safety features for the intruder are to resist long enough that first
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responders get here to take care of the threat,” Hux said. “It’s aesthetic, but it’s also got a safety feature built into it.” The district also coated the hallway walls with a new epoxy material that withstands the test of time, gives the school gives the school a modern look and deviates from what Hux described as a cold, institutional and sterile feel. “We don’t educate kids like we used to,” Hux said. “There’s no rea-
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son for the building to still feel that way.” The bathrooms at the school were also renovated. All the improvements, Hux said, have been warmly received by the student body. The improvements are part of a long-term plan to update all of the schools within the district. Hux said all but one of the schools in the district were built in the 1960s or prior.
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