John McDonald

John McDonald is the founder of Boulevard Brewing Company, which he started in 1989 in a converted railroad building on Southwest Boulevard and grew into the largest specialty brewer in the Midwest — a cornerstone of Kansas City’s craft-beer identity.

Biography

John McDonald graduated from the University of Kansas with a BFA in printmaking in 1976.¹ Working as a carpenter with a shop on Southwest Boulevard, he discovered the history, variety and flavors of European brewing tradition while on vacation in France in the mid-1980s; he started with a small home-brewing setup and “quickly developed a reputation for making unique — and delicious — beer on the Boulevard.”²

In 1989, McDonald founded Boulevard Brewing Company, converting a historic brick railroad facility on Southwest Boulevard into a small brewery; the first keg — Boulevard Pale Ale — was delivered November 17, 1989.² Boulevard’s Unfiltered Wheat Beer (introduced in 1994) became its flagship and a regional staple, and the company grew over the following decades into the largest specialty brewer in the Midwest, helping put Kansas City on the national craft-beer map.²³ McDonald launched the company in a Southwest Boulevard warehouse that had housed his father’s industrial supply business, and built it into the largest craft brewery in the Midwest before selling to Belgium’s Duvel Moortgat; the deal was announced in October 2013 and Boulevard’s own history dates the company “becoming part of the Duvel Moortgat family” to 2014.⁴² He first retired on that sale, then returned in January 2021 to lead the brewery as interim president.⁵ He also co-founded Ripple Glass, Kansas City’s glass-recycling enterprise, and is an inductee of the UMKC Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame.¹

Legacy

McDonald is one of the founding figures of the modern American craft-beer movement in the Midwest. Boulevard’s Southwest Boulevard brewery anchored the revival of the surrounding district, and the brand remains synonymous with Kansas City.

See also

• boulevard-brewing

Sources

Editorial note, 2026-09-08. This page states only that McDonald returned to lead Boulevard in January 2021 and cites the KCUR report by its accurate headline. It deliberately does not narrate the workplace-conduct allegations that surrounded the leadership change: those are claims about other living people, and Wiki-Living-Persons-Policy Part 2 rules 2-3 require two independent linked sources and precise status for any such claim. Trade coverage exists (Brewbound) but returns HTTP 403 to automated retrieval.

Footnotes

1. “John McDonald: Founder of Boulevard Brewery,” University of Kansas College of Liberal Arts & Sciences — 1976 KU graduate with a BFA in printmaking; the Lawrence and KU connection to the Boulevard story; Ripple Glass; UMKC Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame. Corroborated by the UMKC Bloch School’s Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame inductee page: bloch.umkc.edu ↩ ↩²

2. “About,” Boulevard Brewing Co — “In the mid-1980s, while on vacation in France, John McDonald discovered the history, variety and exciting flavors of European brewing tradition… As a carpenter with a shop located on Southwest Boulevard, he started with a small home brewing set up”; “He founded Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City in 1989, after converting a historic railroad facility into a small brewery. On November 17th, John delivered the first keg of Boulevard Pale Ale to a small restaurant one mile down the road”; the original 35bbl Bavarian brewhouse producing Pale Ale and Unfiltered Wheat; the 2006 expansion to a 150bbl brewhouse and the Smokestack Series; “In 2014, Boulevard became part of the Duvel Moortgat family of breweries.” [Note the date tension: Boulevard’s own page says 2014, while trade coverage dates the announcement to October 2013. The page now states both.] ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. “Boulevard Brewing Company,” Wikipedia ↩

4. “Boulevard Brewing Co. sold to Belgian beer firm Duvel Moortgat,” Craft Brewing Business ↩

5. “Boulevard Brewery Turns To Founder In Wake Of Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Claims,” KCUR 89.3, January 28, 2021 — McDonald’s return to lead the brewery in January 2021, after the resignation of the then-CEO. ↩