After 8 years of obstacles, KC area brewery finally opens. See what’s on the menu
From conception to its debut last month, Strawberry Hill Brewing Co. took eight years to open. Why so long?
“Children, pandemics, government shutdowns, spine injuries,” said Ben Murray, who founded the Kansas City, Kansas, brewery at 601 Central Ave. with his brother Larry Murray, Philip Kuzila and Joseph Collins.
Spine injuries?
“Yeah, three of us have dealt with spine issues in recent years,” Ben Murray said. “We actually named our fermenter tanks Lumbar, Thoracic and Cervical because of that.”
Alas, there’s no “Coccyx Kolsch” on the menu at Strawberry Hill Brewing Co.
But they do have four original beers on tap: an oatmeal stout called Long Road Ahead; a not-quite brown ale, not-quite amber called a Bramber; a malty IPA called WyPA (a nod to Wyandotte County); and a Gaslight Lager, which is actually a cream ale, named after a long-gone bar that once operated a few doors down.
The founders, all KCK natives, used to live in a house together.
“We would buy kegs all the time and eventually thought it would be cheaper to just make our own beer,” Murray said. “That actually didn’t really turn out to be the case, but we liked it and just kept doing it.”
No food at the brewery. “But Slap’s is conveniently located right next door,” Murray said. “You can order online, grab it from the window and bring it right back over. And the KCK Taco Trail is all around us, too.”
Everybody involved has day jobs, so for now Strawberry Hill Brewing Co. is open 4-9 p.m. Thursday, 4-10 p.m. Friday, and 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday.
“We’d like to expand to Sunday and maybe eventually Wednesday,” Murray said. “But that probably wouldn’t be until spring.”
This story was originally published October 23, 2024 at 1:43 PM.
