Beer Trip: Kansas City/Lee’s Summit, MO

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My wife and I recently returned from a trip to Kansas City, MO area where we stayed with some friends down there who I will refer to as Big Nuts and Moonbeam. While the trip wasn’t set out to be all about beer, but more of a nice, much-needed break, it turned out be a fantastic beer and food experience!

*Friday – The Flying Saucer – Kansas City MO http://www.beerknurd.com/stores/kansascity/

*Saturday – Pork N Pit (during Iowa football game) Sat. Night – Stuey McBrews http://www.stueymcbrews.com/

FRIDAY
When we arrived and Big Nuts and Moonbeam knew the perfect place to take us. The Flying Saucer is a place I’ve read about a few times in various beer magazines and websites and sounded like the perfect place for the weekend to begin….. and it did not disappoint. We started the evening with a few appetizers; the Rocket Tots, which are tater tots with peppers in them served with a side of chipotle sour cream. Sounds basic, but it was awesome! Along with that we had two giant soft pretzels served with a cheese sauce on the side. These weren’t your everyday pretzels, giant, soft, and chewy, a fantastic companion to a nice cold beer. One thing that the Flying Saucer does well is rotate seasonals into their massive beer lineup. I was excited to see Southern Tier Pumpking on tap and started off with that. Great pairing with the pretzel and tots.
Main course: I actually ordered the “Hungry Farmer” which was essentially a charcuterie plate. I went with the peppered salami, prosciutto, and a cheddar with chives in it. This was served with crackers and a mini loaf of fresh-baked french bread. I paired this with Lagunitas IPA and I honestly think I reached a moment of zen! The peppered salami was something I would go back to again; my wife got the Sheboygan side by side; which is two beer brats with kraut and spicy mustard. Great stuff! Would really love to see a german-inspired menu hit the CR/IC spot sometime.

SATURDAY
Iowa football game day. Nervous early and the game didn’t help, Hawks didn’t seem to play that great but to help matters we ordered some BBQ from a local joint in Lee’s Summit. The Pork N Pit, according to Big Nuts, has been around for a couple of years and seems to have a good following. I ordered something a bit different from my usual pulled pork sandwich. I ordered, for the first time in my life, the burnt ends and the smoked beef sausage. Besides marrying my wife this is the greatest decision I’ve ever made! Burnt ends are so amazing, words cannot describe, and I won’t try..you just need to order them sometime. If you don’t like them at the place you order them, then the place is shit hole and you need to find another. The smoked beef sausage was also amazing; juicy, smokey, and the perfect amount of fattiness to go along with a Boulevard Bob’s 47 Octoberfest brew. Their fries are also great; perfect amount of salt, excellent stuff. And I have to mention the smokey baked beans; they add pulled pork into the mix…wonderful! So, drinking during the game and eating copious amounts of bbq would make you lay down and take a nap, nope!! Let’s head out for some wings and tacos…onto Stuey McBrews!!  http://www.stueymcbrews.com/

I will say, walking into the place it looks like a college bar/pool hall. The atmosphere is not something I would correlate with a place that has amazing food, but this was some of, if not the best bar food I’ve ever had. The menu is huge, with wings, tacos, sandwiches aplenty. It took me a while to decide what we wanted since the menu has over 30 different styles of winds, 20 some different tacos, it was overwhelming. We decided to get 10 of the Bar-a-cha-cha wings, which are hot thai honey and BBQ wings. Big Nuts and Moonbeam ordered the award-winning Adobe, and they get them charred and double dipped! Awesome stuff! We also had the Jalapenoroll, which was egg roll stuffed with cream cheese, sour cream, pepper jack, and parmesan, and some bacon and fresh ranch dipping sauce; tremendous! The beer selection was small but still had the local go-to which is Boulevard and I was very happy to see Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale and Deschutes Black Butte Porter on tap. We also decided to order “The Real McCoi Spicy Fish Tacos” which were a fish taco topped with asian slaw and asian vegetables. Think, stir fry mixed with a taco. Great stuff! Add a game of darts to the mix and it was the perfect evening! 

Distribution News and New to Shelves: Stone, Deschutes, Founders

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Starting with distribution news; Stone will be on our shelves in Eastern Iowa on October 1st, keep checking back for updates on possible tasting locations and keg tapping parties for them. I’m guessing Reds Alehouse will have something as well as John’s Grocery. Also confirmed that Deschutes has signed on for Eastern Iowa, just not sure with which distributor yet. More to come on them and hopefully as the year winds down we will have more breweries stocking our shelves.

New to shelves this week: Very excited to say that Founders Breakfast Stout is now on the shelves at John’s Grocery and is ready for you to pick up and enjoy this fantastic brew!!

Beer Distribution News: Stone (again) and Deschutes

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First they’re coming, then they are not, now it looks like we can finally reconfirm that Stone WILL BE arriving in Eastern Iowa sometime in the future as Fleck Distribution will be responsible for getting that brew to out shelves. No date set, but it looks promising! Check out Stones’ products here: www.stonebrew.com 

Also, rumblings are that Deschutes brewing is in talks to maybe hit Eastern Iowa shelves. No timetable for this but the Baron will keep you posted on any further news. Check out their brews here: http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/age?redirect_to=%2F

 

New to Shelves: Sam Adams, Rogue, Fort Collins

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New to shelves this week in Eastern Iowa will be Sam Adams Fat Jack Double pumpkin ale along with many more bomber style bottles from them. Fat Jack comes in at 92 score on http://www.ratebeer.com
Commercial description: “This rich and luscious brew indulges in flavor with over 28Ibs of pumpkin per barrel, for a full bodied sweetness and deep russet color. Classic pumpkin pie spices of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice ignite a warmth and spark that’s deepened by an undercurrent of roasty smoked malts. The result is a delectable brew full of enveloping layers of flavor and spice. At Samuel Adams we love experimenting. This series of limited edition brews represents some of our favorite small batch creations. Style: Pumpkin Beer Hops: East Kent Goldings, Fuggle Malts: Samuel Adams Two-Row Pale Malt Blend, Caramel 60, Special B, Smoked Malt Extras: Real Pumpkin, Cinnamon, Ginger, Nutmeg, Allspice”

Also, look for Fort Collins Incredible Hop to hit shelves as well. This is a series of different beers including a Belgian Style IPA, Black IPA, Imperial IPA, Imperial India Wheat, etc. Check out more here: http://www.ratebeer.com/findbeer.asp

And last but not least, Rogue is finally getting Voodoo Doughnut Maple Bacon Ale to Eastern Iowa shelves. A good beer to experience with a mixed reaction from drinkers. A ratebeer.com score of 46, here’s the commercial description: “13 Ingredients: Briess Cherrywood Smoked Malt, Weyermann Beechwood Smoked Malt, House-smoked Hickory Malt, Great Western 2 Row, Munich, C15, C75 Malts; Applewood-Smoked Bacon, Pure Maple Flavoring, Rogue Micro Hopyard Revolution & Independent Hops, Free Range Coastal Water & Pacman Yeast Specs: 14º PLATO 30 IBU 76 AA 30º Lovibond World Class Package: 750ml painted bottle.”

Beer Review #87: Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA

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With the ever popular culture of craft beer continuing its fantastic uprising, there comes the Beer pros, snobs, critics, that love to throw bigger craft breweries under the bus. Reading blogs, forums, and magazines has become a chore for me lately. Reading about these “critics” bitching about Samuel Adams and Sierra Nevada and the amount of barrels they produce instead of giving them credit and praising them for helping create the landscape of the craft beer revolution has become quite tiresome. Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada may make a shitload of beer and have huge distribution, but they make a shitload of great beer and we deserve to drink it and now I’m cussing in my post and my wife is going to give me the red ass. Damn!
Okay…enough of ranting..Let’s review some brew.
Sierra Nevada is widely available just about everywhere now. In fact, Torpedo has landed in my tiny grocery store in Mount Vernon, IA to my pleasant surprise. A brewery I will always gravitate towards for an everyday brew, a weekend drink, or especially, their limited releases they are a constant in my fridge. Here’s the commercial description:
“Torpedo is an assertive American IPA deep reddish-gold in color, with a smooth and bready malt presence and over-the-top hop aromas. The beer has a solid bitterness and a massive hop flavor, yet remains easy drinking with a pleasant dry finish.”

This is a wonderfully balanced IPA. Piney hop flavor with sweetness of the malts to mellow it out works perfect. This is now available in 4 pack tall boy cans! Too dangerous for an Iowa Hawkeye tailgate? Maybe….but the Baron plans to give it a shot anyway.

REVIEW

STYLE: India Pale Ale (IPA)

ABV: 7.2%

PURCHASED AT: Gary’s; Mount Vernon, IA

Pour: Dark amber pour with a huge, fluffy, white head.

Aroma: Floral, pine, citrus, especially grapefruit.

Taste: Perfectly balanced! Huge amount of hops, resin, citrus, and pine flavor balanced by the sweet bready malts.

Overall: A-

My Recommendation: Buy it. Buy it now. Keep buying it and keep drinking it. An awesome beer, hop heads and IPA fans will love it!

Breweries on the Horizon: Coming Soon…….

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Wow, looking at the Iowa Craft Beer tent website setup for the Iowa state fair, there are quite a few new breweries that are looking to make their way into Iowa in the coming year. Below is a list and links to their websites or facebook accounts. This is a wonderful thing!

*C.I.B. Brewery; Carson, Iowa: http://www.cibbrewery.com/

*Confluence Brewing Co.; Des Moines, IA: http://www.confluencebrewing.com/

*Exile Brewing Co.; Des Moines, IA: http://exilebrewing.com/

*Heartbreak Brewing Co. Des Moines, IA: http://www.heartbreakbrew.com/

*Mason City Brewing Co. Mason City, IA: http://www.masoncitybrewing.com/

*New American Brewing Co.; Ankeny, IA: http://www.newamericanbeer.com/

*Number 7 Brewing Co.; Ankeny, IA: http://www.number7brewing.com/Beer.htm

*Slew City Brewing Co.; Cedar Rapids, IA: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Slew-City-Brewing-Company/248911668522012

*Van Houzen Brewing Co.; Newton, IA: http://vhbrewing.com/

Wow!!! Things are looking promising. If you get a chance to hit up the state fair and get to try any of these breweries please drop me a line and let me know your thoughts!

Beer Review #86: Stone Levitation Ale

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As mad as I am at this particular brewery for getting Eastern Iowa’s hopes up that they might be hitting our shelves and then bailing on us……they make some great brew. Stone’s Levitation ale (www.stonebrew.com) is an amber ale that combines roasty malts and hoppy flavor to make a fantastic beer. Here’s the description from the brewery:
“This deep amber ale has rich & roasty malt flavors, a big hoppy character, citrus overtones (courtesy of the hops and our special brewers yeast) and modest alcohol.”

Stone has a very impressive lineup of beers and they aren’t afraid to play around with their ingredients; but for this one, they just made an excellent amber ale. Nothing crazy added to it; just a damn fine beer. If available in Iowa, it would be mainstay in my fridge. The good news is that we can still drive over to East Dubuque, IL and hit up Family Beer and Liquor and bring home a six pack or two. Who knows, with craft beer absolutely crazy right now, Stone might see a market here a start supplying us with their great beer. I sure hope so.

REVIEW

STYLE: Amber Ale

ABV: 4.4%

PURCHASED AT: Family Beer and Liquor; East Dubuque, IL

Pour: Amber color pour with an off-white head.

Aroma: Roasted malt, nuts, and nice hoppy citrus.

Taste: Much the same as the aroma, maybe some toffee?

Overall: B

My Recommendation: Like I said above, you can still go to Illinois or Wisconsin to pick it up. Their products are worth the drive alone.

Distribution News: Lagunitas, Stone, Dogfish, Founders

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With no reason given Stone and Lagunitas WILL NOT be coming to Eastern Iowa anytime soon. Any talks about getting their products into this area have broken off and I’m not sure when they are going to resume. While talking about these two breweries my source brought up Dogfish maybe returning to the state, if we are lucky, late next year. This is pretty good news since the demand for that brewery is so high and at one point it looked impossible that they would even be thinking of returning to the state in the next five years. So hopefully we will see that happen next year. If you haven’t been able to get your hands on any Green Flash products you need to hit up John’s Grocery. They are doing some 2 for specials right now with Green Flash. Their beer is great!

Good news: In the next few weeks look for Founders’ Breakfast Stout to be gracing our shelves. It is a fall seasonal and should be out soon. It probably won’t last long on the shelves as this is a pretty in-demand product.