BKS Artisan Ales

BKS Artisan Ales is an independent, family-run craft brewery founded in Brookside in December 2017 by born-and-raised Kansas Citians Brian and Mary Rooney — the first brewery in the neighborhood, named for it (“BKS” = Brookside), and nationally recognized for its hazy IPAs and Great American Beer Festival medals.

Description

BKS Artisan Ales is a small, independent craft brewery in the Brookside neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri, located at 633 E 63rd St #120.¹ It opened in December 2017 as the first brewery in Brookside, and its name is an acronym for the neighborhood it calls home.² The brewery occupies an old building that previously housed the Barkley Evergreen advertising firm.²

The brewery is known for hop-forward, hazy New England-style IPAs alongside stouts, and a range of classic and modern ales and lagers, drawing on both traditional and experimental influences.³⁴ Its beers have earned national recognition: BKS won a silver medal at the 2021 Great American Beer Festival for its Clouds Double IPA, and a gold medal at the 2022 festival for Rockhill & Locust in the English Mild or Bitter category.²

In late 2025, BKS opened a second tasting room in the Crossroads Arts District at 1701 McGee St #400, a 16-tap nanobrewery space with extended weekend hours.⁵⁶ The original Brookside location remains the brewery’s production home and flagship taproom.¹

Ownership and history

BKS Artisan Ales was founded by Brian and Mary Rooney, a married couple and Kansas City locals.² Brian’s homebrewing began when Mary gave him a Mr. Beer kit; the insurance worker pursued the hobby seriously, entering homebrewing competitions with the dream of opening his own brewery.² On a 2012 road trip home from Oklahoma, Mary — who had worked at the Kansas Small Business Development Center at the University of Kansas while earning her MBA — began drafting a business plan on her laptop.²

The Rooneys signed a lease on the former Barkley Evergreen building in Brookside, choosing their own community deliberately, and launched BKS in December 2017.² Originally it was meant to be a part-time operation alongside their corporate jobs — open just four hours on Saturdays with six taps — but overwhelming demand (lines out the door) led the couple to leave their day jobs two months later to expand the business full time.²

Links

• Official site: https://bksartisanales.com/
• Untappd: https://untappd.com/BKSArtisanAles
• Visit KC: https://www.visitkc.com/listings/bks-artisan-ales-brookside/

Sources

Disputes

None at this time.

Footnotes

1. https://www.visitkc.com/listings/bks-artisan-ales-brookside/ — Visit KC listing. Asserts: address 633 E 63rd St #120, Kansas City, MO 64110; Brookside neighborhood; production + tasting room; second Crossroads location opened 2025. ↩ ↩²

2. https://www.hopculture.com/bks-artisan-ales/ — Hop Culture feature. Asserts: owners Brian & Mary Rooney; Mr. Beer kit homebrewing origin; 2012 road-trip business plan; Mary’s KU MBA / Kansas SBDC background; Barkley Evergreen building; “BKS” = Brookside; December 2017 launch; part-time-to-full-time expansion; 2021 GABF silver (Clouds Double IPA) and 2022 GABF gold (Rockhill & Locust). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

3. https://www.yelp.com/biz/bks-artisan-ales-kansas-city — Yelp. Asserts: beer focus (NEIPAs, stouts, hazy IPAs); Brookside hours. ↩

4. https://www.visitkc.com/listings/bks-artisan-ales-brookside/ — Visit KC. Asserts: “hop-forward, classic and modern ales, as well as lagers”; traditional and experimental influences. ↩

5. https://www.kcur.org/arts-life/2025-02-16/bks-artisan-ales-craft-brewery-kansas-city-crossroads — KCUR. Asserts: Crossroads nanobrewery plans; hobby-to-business growth narrative. ↩

6. https://kccrossroads.org/explore-the-crossroads/bks-artisan-ales/ — KC Crossroads. Asserts: Crossroads location at 1701 McGee St #400, opened late 2025, 16 taps; current hours effective January 2026. ↩