Need an excuse to try Wichita’s breweries, coffee shops? This challenge starts Friday
If you’ve been looking for an excuse to try out some of Wichita’s breweries and coffee shops, that excuse arrives on Friday.
Visit Wichita’s Wicked Brew Tour — an event now in its sixth year — invites people to visit local coffee shops and breweries, order beverages, and collect at least 10 stamps on a special passport. The tour starts on Friday, and those who complete it will get a Wicked Brew Tour T-shirt. The offer continues until Visit Wichita runs out of the T-shirts it ordered.
Visit Wichita first came up with the promotion in 2016 as a way to get people out to try Wichita’s many local coffee shops and breweries. The first year, five breweries and six coffee shops participated. This year, the tour includes eight breweries, 10 coffee shops and two kombucha brewers.
New to the tour this year is White Crow Cider Company, the new cidery that owners Denise and Kenneth Gardner are almost ready to open in a cavernous new space at 1236 E. Waterman. The couple had hoped to be ready to open their tap room in time for the start of the Wicked Brew Tour, but some of their necessary inspections were delayed. They now hope to be open by the weekend of June 10 and encourage people to start visiting for the tour then.
People who want to participate in the tour can pick up “passports” at any of the participating businesses. Once they’ve collected their 10 stamps at whichever stops they choose, they can return their passports to Visit Wichita’s visitor center at 515 S. Main St., suite 115, and pick up their T-shirts. The hours for the visitor information enter are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
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The breweries participating are: Central Standard Brewing, Hopping Gnome Brewing Company, Nortons Brewing Company., PourHouse by Walnut River Brewing, River City Brewing Co., Sweet Allie B’s Limestone Beer Co., Third Place Brewing and Wichita Brewing Co. & Pizzeria (West & East). Also on the tour are Apollo Fermentation, Inspirit Kombucha Brewing Company and White Crow Cider.
The coffee shops on the tour are: Churn & Burn, Cocoa Dolce Chocolates (east, west and downtown), Espresso To Go Go, Fairmount Coffee Co., Il Primo Espresso – (east and downtown), Kookaburra Coffee, Leslie Coffee Co., Reverie Coffee Roasters, Sunflower Espresso & Food Truck and The Donut Whole
Visit Wichita is also launching another tour on Friday — this one called the Wichita Attractions Tour.
It was started last year and works similarly to the Wicked Brew Tour. Participants pick up passports at the Visit Wichita visitor center or at any of the participating attractions. They have until Labor Day, Sept. 5, to collect stamps at at least six of the locations. They’ll then be entered in a drawing to win a season pass to all 13 participating attractions and to a Wichita Wind Surge home game.
Completed passports must be returned to Visit Wichita by Sept. 12. Out-of-towners who want to participate can mail their passports for both tours to Visit Wichita, 515 S Main St., Ste. 115, Wichita KS, 67202. In-town participants must drop them off in person.
The stops on the Wichita Attractions Tour are B-29 Doc Hangar Education and Visitors Center, Botanica, Exploration Place, Field Station: Dinosaurs in Derby, Kansas Aviation Museum, Mid-America All-Indian Museum, Museum of World Treasures, Old Cowtown Museum, Sedgwick County Zoo, Tanganyika Wildlife Park, The Kansas African American Museum, Wichita Art Museum, Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum, and Wichita Wind Surge.
For more information on both tours, got to www.visitwichita.com
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