The Tappening: A Beer Event; Saturday June 11th, Port of Dubuque

April 12, 2016April 12, 2016Leave a comment

As part of America’s River Festival will be “The Tappening”. A beer festival mixed in with some great live music will be taking place Saturday June 11th from noon-4 in the Port of Dubuque. There will be more than 25 breweries, live music, and food. If you are in the Dubuque area make sure you check out this event! Stay tuned for more info on breweries that will be in attendance.

tappening

Participating Breweries:

Another Road Brewing

Baraboo Brewing Co

Bent River Brewing

Big Grove

Blaum Bros. Distilling Co

Confluence Brewing

Exile Brewing

Franklin Street Brewing Co

Generations Brewing Company

Goose Island

Granite City Brewing

Jubeck Brewery

Kalona Brewing Co.

Millstream

Mississippi River Distilling Co.

Paradise Distilling

Potosi Brewery

Rockford Brewing Co.

Shock Top

Stella Artois

Third Base Brewery

Turner Alley

Buck Creek Hops Growers Alliance Meeting Set for April 16th; Coralville Marriott

April 8, 2016April 8, 2016Leave a comment

Interested in midwest hops and would like to learn more? Buck Creek Hop Grower’s Alliance is having a meeting on April 16th @ the Coralville Marriott. Become a member also listen to guest speakers Bill Heinrich of Kickshaw Barrel Works and Diana Cochran, Specialist in Horticulture from Iowa State. More info below, sounds like a great time!:

Blackberry Farm Releasing Buckwheat Strawberry and Tennessee Cream Ale

April 6, 2016April 6, 2016Leave a comment

Anytime I see Blackberry Farm news I get pretty excited. I’m a huge fan of their saisons and recently came across their Noble Cuvee Dry Hopped Saison which I absolutely loved. According to mybeerbuzz.blogspot.com they are releasing 2 more beers for distro and hopefully, and I stress hopefully, we will see them in Eastern Iowa.

The two new releases are Buckwheat Strawberry and Tennessee Cream Ale. It looks like both will come in 750 mL bottles and hit 6.3% ABV. These two beers are part of their “Native” series. Here’s more on that series from Blackberry Farm:

Our Native family of ales feature a wide range of styles and flavors that share one extraordinary, common component: native wild yeasts harvested from across Blackberry Farm’s 9,200 protected acres at the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains.

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Best Non-Iowa Brewery on Iowa Shelves?

April 5, 2016April 5, 20164 Comments

With the addition of Odell this week and Firestone Walker’s imminent appearance, the shelves of Iowa liquor stores sure have a cramping issue! A great problem for us consumers to have this many options. So, thinking of the newest additions to the state I was wondering who everyone thinks is the best non-Iowa brewery on our shelves? I’m thinking their whole portfolio that we see, or if you just have a particular favorite. Who’s the best? I know we could get into an oversaturation conversation easily here and pick the worst, but let’s look on the brightside. Your favorite brewery on our shelves? Would love some discussion on this one! Let me know if I’ve left anyone notable out, cheers!

Big Grove Tapping “Hop Lopper” Double IPA this Friday! (4/8)

April 4, 2016April 4, 2016Leave a comment

Big Grove Brewery will be adding another IPA to their already impressive portfolio when they tap Hop Lopper Double IPA this Friday, April 8th when the doors open! Here’s more on this beer:

Brewed using honey and wheat malt, local honey, and decapitating amount of Cascade, Wakatu, and Green Bullet in the Dry Hopping. This beer will come in at 8%.

The rollout of this beer will start next Tuesday, April 12th, at the Bar’Ber Shop in Coralville.

Get out and get yourself a taste!

Reds Alehouse Tapping Bell’s Hop Grandslam Tuesday April 19th

April 2, 2016April 2, 2016Leave a comment

reds If you are a Hopslam lover then this is right up your alley and will be a can’t miss event. Red’s Alehouse in North Liberty is bells receiving 1 of the 3 kegs supplied to Iowa from Bells of their Hop GrandSlam! Hopslam dry hopped and more honey added, it comes in at 10.5% and Reds wants to try to set their personal best record of emptying a keg. Can 14 minutes be topped? Here’s more from Reds on this exciting event!

BREAK THE RECORD WITH BELL’S BREWERY!

Most likely, the majority of you know of a little beer made by Bell’s known as Hopslam. But, we’re guessing the majority of you have not heard of

BELL’S HOP GRANDSLAM!

The first year Bell’s has made this mystery beast of a beer, it’s Hopslam dry-hopped at twice the rate and even more Michigan honey and coming in at a whopping 10.5%. The kicker? Only 3 kegs were sent to this state.

So, what should we do with it? Obviously, throw a party!

April 19th, we’re hoping to break our personal best time of emptying a keg from start to finish! Can we finish this keg in under 14 minutes? We sure gosh-darn think so! But we need your help!

To even further incentivize you to show up and help us, we’re tapping the following the same day:

Bell’s The Wild One

Bell’s Barrel Aged Consecrator Dopplebock

Milchkaffee Milk Stout

Two More Odell Release Party Announcements: Reds Alehouse + Oakland Rd. Hy-Vee in CR

April 2, 2016Leave a comment

Per Reds Alehouse email:

More and more renowned breweries keep popping up in our state and we couldn’t be happier!! Odell Brewing from Fort Collins is launching in the Hawkeye State this

Tuesday April 5th.

Reds will be one of the first places in Iowa to tap Odell beers along with having owner and co-founder Doug Odell in the building!

“Well, what beers will you have Reds?”

Good question beer nerd!

Reds will be tapping the following brews on Tuesday:

Mycernary DIPA

Treeshaker Peach DIPA

Cutthroat Porter

IPA

90 Schilling

Friek

Pina Agria*

The Meddler*

Russian Pirate*

*limited release

Come hang with us, the cool folks from Odell, grab some free swag and delicious beers and have a grand ol’ time!

From Oakland Rd Hy-Vee email:

Please join us in welcoming Odell Brewing Co. to Iowa, we will be receiving many fantastic beers from them on Monday and on Tuesday a couple of brewery representatives will be on hand from 4:00-5:30 to sample through their beers.

Coralville Hy-Vee Hosting Odell Release Party April 7th

April 1, 2016April 1, 2016Leave a comment

odell Odell will be rolling into Iowa next week and release parties are taking shape. Hy-Vee in Coralville will be hosting one on April 7th. More info is listed in the flyer below:

Exile Blood Orange Sour Bohemian Coming Soon!

April 1, 2016April 1, 2016Leave a comment

exile Fans of Exile Brewing’s sours will be happy with the news that they will be releasing another sour in the Fruit Revue series called Blood Orange Bohemian. The label art is below courtesy of Exile’s Facebook page. Stay tuned to release details. Pretty excited for this one!

Coming soon in our Bohemian Fruit Revue series: BLOOD ORANGE BOHEMIAN!!

Beer Review #124: Surly Xtra Citra Pale Ale

March 28, 2016March 28, 2016Leave a comment

Surly was nice enough to pass along a few cans of their latest beer, Xtra Citra Pale and after tasting the cans over the weekend it’s safe to say that Iowa will have another great session brew to choose from for this spring and summer. Definitely a lawn mower beer if there ever was one!

The citra hop continues to shine and be a prominent hop in many releases and with this beer it really takes center stage. Citra on the nose, citra in the taste..citra, citra, citra! My first can tasted pretty solid, but that was after I had already been drinking a bit, so tasting this one with a clean palate really helped and the citrus zest really shined. Like most session IPA/Pales I expected that the flavor would have started with a great burst of sweetness and then tail off a bit. But this one, like, All Day, had that resinous that clung a bit longer making this very refreshing brew.

Coming in at 4.5% in 16 oz cans and rumored be hitting a $7.99 price tag, this beer will be a welcome addition to many of your refrigerators this spring and summer. Not to mention it will be a great addition to any baseball/football tailgate as well. Surly adds to the session ipa/pale market and with their beer, they just might have added one of the better ones. Here’s more from Surly:

Xtra-Citra will be hitting shelves and taps in all our markets starting this week. One of our lead brewers Jerrod Johnson noted that like all our beers, this one is hard to pin down in terms of a specific style: “It’s just a great sessionable beer. People really love the fruitiness of Citra hops, but this one has a nice body too from the Golden Naked Oats.”

Xtra-Citra is refreshing with tropical, citrusy hop notes and a pleasant bitterness and body. “I call it a low altitude beer,” added Johnson. “It’s perfect as the days get longer because it’s a beer you can drink all night.”

You might have noticed that we (quietly) debuted Xtra-Citra at a few bars and restaurants in the Twin Cities Metro a couple of weeks back. Team Surly turned out in force around our hometown to help unsuspecting folks forget the snow and #GetSunny instead. In exchange for an Xtra-Citra and a pair of Surly shades, we asked people to grab a crayon and show us their sunny side. We were super impressed with your #GetSunny art and we’ve stuck them all up on the refrigerator…

STYLE: Pale Ale

ABV: 4.5%

PURCHASED AT: N/A

POUR: Yellow/gold pour, nice medium sized white head. Lots of lacing. Very fresh.

AROMA: Citrus zest, lots of it.

TASTE: More citrus, citrus peel. Very refreshing.

RATEBEER.COM RATING: N/A

BEERADVOCATE RATING: N/A

OVERALL: B

My recommendation: Have this on hand all spring /summer! Keep some in your garage fridge, basement fridge, kitchen fridge and just grab one we need something cold, delicious, and refreshing after a long day of working in the yard! Cheers!