Popination Perambulation

a series of unhinged personal essays disguised as pub reviews. Today, a Wichita pub crawl: an experience of several taphouses and breweries.

I’ve come out to Wichita a few times now to visit my friend from grad school, whom I mentioned before in my last Popination (Aviation). We’re calling him JQM, and he was the first friend I made that first day at the Summer Writing Program at Naropa U. sitting there on the steps of the Victorian house that makes up the central building of the main campus. Our friendship has lasted this long—longer than my marriage which also happened just around that time, and across state lines and into a podcast called The Outrider. JQM has bought himself a house, and so I go to Wichita (go ahead and hum this bass line with me; I know you want to) and stay in his guest room, shoot the shit, record a live ep of Outrider, and have him show me the coolest parts of Wichita. Last visit, I went to a bunch of breweries, saw the Keeper of the Plains light on fire, and experienced the surreality of the Museum of World Treasures.

Where are we going next, JQM?

This recent visit, since now I’m jogging well in the reins of regular Substack posts, including Popinations, I requested—nay, demanded—we do a bigger pub crawl sampling the best Wichita breweries JQM could think of. But not to worry—there were several dive bars and taprooms and bistros and a martini/cigar bar that I haven’t gotten to yet, so there are still several Wichita Popination possibilities for my next visit. But! Since this was a multi-pub Popination, I have kept the structure of this essay in not an essay format at all, but still in its outline mode. I hope that makes it a bit more organized and easy to follow, just as if you were following us on our journey. 

For now? Make sure you’re hydrated, have eaten a good meal, and come wander Wichita with me & JQM. First stop:

This was a very yummy coffee stout, with which I managed to pretend I was having breakfast, not beginning an entire day-drinking sesh that would last till evening.

1. Hopping Gnome

   1. My first choice was their Design District Coffee Stout, which was a rich coffee-y chocolatey delight that was not sweet nor syrupy. An excellent brunch beer, and perfect for the first pint of the day.

   2. The decor was comfy, colorful, charming, and very classic brewery: steel chairs and some comfy corners and exposed ceilings and such. But on one of their TVs they played the Bob Ross channel continually, and I knew I’d found my happy place.

   3. I wanted to sample more from Hoppy Gnome, so we also got a flight: the Salty Gnome gose (a crisp delicious cranberry ginger), an IPA I forget the name of, a snappy pomegranate sour, and an amber ale called Sepia. All delicious, all enjoyable, and the vibe was a very good one.

JQM said this was his favorite brewery in town, and I can see why. After an entire day of popinating, I think this one was my favorite out of all of them.

2. CSB

   1. I picked a double IPA that wasn’t ideal but not awful. It was the only one I sipped on, because we wanted to move on to the next place which had food.

   2. I’ve been to Central Standard Brewing before, the very first time I came out to visit, actually. Their flagship Wizard of Hops IPA is actually much better than the hazy one I had on this trip, but I didn’t realize they had it tapped today or I would’ve had that instead. The one I had was…fine. Not as warm a place as Hopping Gnome—I didn’t feel quite as chill or as welcome to hang a bit.

   3. CSB also sports the classic brewery decor, but then pretty much every place we went to that was a brewery had classic brewery decor, so.

Cheers!

3. River City Brewing Co. 

   1. This is apparently the oldest brewery in Wichita. And it’s good! Less a brewery than a restaurant, but I’m still counting it as a Popination, since it is indeed a brewery also. 

   2. This was Stop Three, which means we were hungry, and so we had lunch at RCB—good pub grub, especially the vaguely green chile laced stuff, which much of it was. I’m glad I ate a big meal—it was good timing, even though dipping my waffle fries in the queso nearly put me to sleep at the table.

   3. I had an IPA that had been brewed for an anniversary of friends of the place. It was fine, but I was slowing down and didn’t finish it, especially after the big lunch. Nothing wrong with it—it was exactly the way I like my IPAs; I was just in a food coma. Good thing we had a little crisp walk to get to the next place.

   4. This was part 1 of my experience with River City Brewing Co. Part Deux happened at the airport as I waited for a delayed flight back.

4. Leprechaun’s Lab

   1. This brewery used to be called The 3rd Place, and JQM sez it was better when it was that. I believe him. It was a bit cramped, kind of spare, not super comfortable nor cool & funky. It felt not-quite-put together, if that makes sense.

   2. We sampled a few of the Leprechaun’s offerings, including a chocolate mint stout* & a cranberry sour. Those two were pretty enjoyable, but the others I tried (which, I don’t even remember what they were—a Pale Ale and a Red Ale? I think?) were pretty meh. 

They had a tiny leprechaun doll puking a rainbow into a toilet full of gold coins in the bathroom. If, yanno, that says anything about the place. I have a picture of it—wanna see? Let me know and I’ll go find it.

*they have a similar classic at Mountain Sun in Boulder called Girl Scout Stout which I find is much better. Am I biased? Maybe. But I dunno. I’ll be reporting back from Stout Month over there very soon, so I’ll let you know.

These were all…fine. 

5. Norton’s 

   1. I love Norton’s almost as much for its Metal themed decor and brew names, as for the beers themselves. But the combo makes for a great time, and a rockin vibe. I tried three beers while here this time, each poured in a small 5oz glass so I didn’t get too floothered before the pub crawl was done. At Norton’s we were met by JQM’s old friend from high school, one Guy, who’s a very nice guy (Guy?) who engaged with us in good conversation and good company both here and at our next and final pub of the day. At this visit, I was swayed by seeing all the merch displayed and had to buy an oversized Norton’s baseball tee with the name of the brewery in illegibly spiky death Metal font on the front, and Norton’s battle axe logo on the back. It rocks.

   2. The first beer I tasted was called ‘WTF’s Up, Denny’s?’ and was a very tasty IPA. Bitter and not hazy and kinda savory, just the way I like ‘em.

   3. Next I tried something of a dessert beer, called ‘Don’t Poke the Bear.’ It’s a coffee stout that was very nice and not too sweet and very pleasantly drinkable. 

   4. My third and final Norton’s beer was ‘Until Death.’ It’s a Vienna lager, which is a dark lager that has all the crisp refreshingness of a regular lager, with an added (quite nice) smokiness and dark color.

Gotta love a place with a battleaxe for a logo. So metal, dude…

6. Tor brewery 

   1. This was the final pub of the day, and was a perfect closure on a successful multi-popination. I had a dark lager and JQM and Guy and I had a long chat and and all in all reflected on the day. Tor was very nice and I can see how this would be a good evening hangout, but I still could envision myself hanging out at Hopping Gnome all afternoon. It was a lovely day overall and a fun trip in general. 

That comfy couch was where we hung out and chatted about stuff at the very end of our crawl.

Thanks, JQM and all these amazing Wichita establishments, for giving this Colorado girl with extremely high beer standards a good tasting time.