Boulevard Brewing Co.

Boulevard Brewing Co. is the largest specialty brewer in the Midwest, founded in 1989 by John McDonald, a carpenter with a shop on Southwest Boulevard who had come back from a holiday in France taken with European brewing tradition. He converted a historic railroad building into a small brewery and delivered the first keg of Boulevard Pale Ale to a restaurant a mile down the road on 17 November that year. His pitch to sceptics has aged well: I want to do something different, he would say — big beers, a variety of beers, beers with colour and flavour and aroma and body, beers for real beer lovers. The brewery joined the Duvel Moortgat family in 2014 and took Brewery of the Year at the inaugural Missouri Beer Cup in 2025 with nine awards. The public face is the Beer Hall at 2534 Madison Avenue, a 10,000 square foot room with thirty rotating taps, open from 10am on Sundays and 11am the rest of the week. It is card only — no cash is accepted.

What makes Boulevard genuinely useful to a non-drinker is range, because most breweries manage one non-alcoholic beer if any and Boulevard brews four distinct products. Flying Start is the flagship non-alcoholic IPA at 0.5% and a substantial 50 IBU, and the brewery makes the argument directly: there is no reason to sacrifice hop flavour and aroma when choosing a non-alcoholic beer, and you might just trade your NEIPA for their NAIPA. Space Camper is a second, separate non-alcoholic IPA at 0.5% and 30 IBU, brighter and more tropical — worth knowing about, since having two different non-alcoholic IPAs to choose between is close to unheard of at any brewery. The Non-Alcoholic Wheat with Lemon is a zero-proof take on the Midwest's favourite craft beer at 0.5% and 10 IBU. Quirk's non-alcoholic superfruit seltzer covers the non-beer option at 25 calories, built on yellow papaya and acai berry juices. All are poured at the Beer Hall alongside the full taps.