For the first time in its 16-year history, Dry Dock Brewing Company (Aurora, Colorado) is selling its highly acclaimed craft beers in an out-of-state market. A selection of the brewery’s beers is now available at retailers, restaurants and bars in Kansas.

“We’ve considered adding a new state for a couple of years,” says Dry Dock co-owner Michelle Reding, “but it had to be a good fit with the right distributor and the right beer lovers in that state. We’ve found that in Kansas.”

The beers are distributed in Kansas by Worldwide Beverage Group. “This came about,” says Worldwide president Chad Rolofson, “from Kansas beer drinkers, retailers and people on our staff who have traveled to Colorado, loved Dry Dock’s beers, and asked us to carry them.”

“Colorado,” Dry Dock co-owner Kevin DeLange says, “is a popular vacation spot for people in Kansas. For years they’ve visited our tasting rooms and taken beer home with them, and we’ve heard about them stocking up at our Colorado accounts. Now we’re bringing the beer to them.”

A Kansas connection with Ryan Call, Dry Dock’s sales director, played a key role in the brewery’s move into the Jayhawk state. Call is a Kansas native and entered the beer industry while attending the University of Kansas. “In college,” Call says, “I worked in liquor stores, worked for distributors, and moved up to running the largest beer delivery route in the state.”

He went on to oversee Kansas sales for Colorado’s Left Hand Brewing and became the brewery’s national accounts manager. He joined Dry Dock in 2021 and dreamed of bringing the brewery’s beers to his old beer-selling ground. “Our move into Kansas is very surreal and exciting for me,” he notes. “I’m captaining Dry Dock’s maiden voyage outside of Colorado right in my home state, where I got my start in craft beer.”

Dry Dock will offer these beers in Kansas in kegs and sixpacks of 12-oz cans:

Apricot Blonde: Dry Dock’s flagship beer, a refreshing American blonde ale brewed with apricot puree that features fresh apricot flavor and aroma. Winner of three Great American Beer Festival medals and one World Beer Cup medal.  5.1% ABV, 17 IBUs.

Sour Apricot: The flagship’s kettle-sour sister beer, it delivers fresh apricot flavor and a refreshing tartness and acidity thanks to addition of Lactobacillus Brevis. 5.1% ABV, 17 IBUs.

Drift Awhile IPA: An assertive and deftly balanced double dry hopped West Coast IPA.  Notes of tangerine, peach, grapefruit and honey in a golden beer of 7% ABV and 70 well-hidden IBUs.

Amber: An acclaimed and malty English-style ale brewed with Maris Otter malts, UK hops and an English ale yeast. Winner of two GABF medals and one WBC honor. 5.5% ABV, 49 IBUs.

Blueberry Smoothie: Made with blueberry puree, vanilla and lactose, a velvet-bodied and semi-sweet beer that calls to mind a blueberry treat from an ice cream shop. 5.2% ABV, 22 IBUs.

Dry Dock is also sending its Fruit Booty mixed 12-pack to Kansas. The box contains three cans each of Apricot Blonde, Sour Apricot, Blackberry Blonde and Pineapple Mango Blonde.