Reds Alehouse Release Party: Green Flash Brewing Friday July 20th

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Just received an email from Reds Alehouse announcing a Green Flash brewing release party on Friday July 20th starting at 3p.m. I’ve been waiting a long time for Green Flash to hit Eastern Iowa, and now they are going to do it in style. Reds always does an amazing job with these release partys and I think this will be the best one yet. If you haven’t tried anything Green Flash, you MUST!!!! especially if you are a hophead. Come to North Liberty Friday and buy me a beer!
Here’s the official release from Reds:
“Attention, beer nerds and beer lovers alike! Green Flash Brewing has decided to mosey on over to our neck of the woods, and we here at Reds Alehouse have landed the official release party! It will be taking place this Friday, July 20th at 3pm until the sun goes down (or even way after the sun goes down if you want)! I think the fact that they are coming to us from all the way out west, in San Diego, California is making me want to use cowboy and western lingo, so bear with me! 🙂 We are lucky enough to have seven Green Flash beers on draft. 

 
Hop Head Red
West Coast IPA
Extra Pale Ale
*Imperial IPA
*Barleywine
*Trippel
*Double Stout
 
We are the only people in the area to get kegs of these awesome beers, with the exception of Hop Head Red and West Coast IPA!  We will also be doing a glass giveaway! For this, our standard pint night rules apply. One glass per person and it’s first come first serve until they’re gone! So get your hop heads and your big beards in here to help us celebrate this extraordinary brewery coming to Iowa! It’s sure to be ‘a hog-killin’ time’ (a GREAT time in western slang, in case you didn’t know)!
 
Cheers,
Whit
 *Not available for Happy Hour”

Distribution News: Green Flash, Lagunitas, Terrapin, Bells cans?

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A lot to talk about this week in regards to distribution to Eastern Iowa. We have some good news and some bad news, or at least discouraging news. Let’s get the bad news out of the way first.

Talking with my source and it seems that Lagunitas brewing has taken the route that Stone has and has not been returning calls/emails regarding getting their products to our fine state. The thing that really sticks out to me is that they have been doing their test market research in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area, which might have played a huge role in their reasons not to come to Iowa. No offense to those beer drinkers in Waterloo/Cedar Falls, but if you are going to do a test market on craft beer drinkers, to me the obvious choices would be Cedar Rapids/Iowa City and the Des Moines area. So, things aren’t looking as promising as they once were for those products.

Onto the good. Green Flash will be here next week!!!!! John’s Grocery will be hosting a tasting, a huge display in their beer department, sometime in the next week. The product should be on the shelves by Tuesday or Friday at the latest. I will let you know if I hear anything further. For more info, make sure you like John’s Grocery’s facebook page. Johns is going to have most of Green Flash’s year-round offerings and also are hoping to have La Freak as well. Green Flash brews come in four pack bottles and range from $8-12 usually. Great news! http://www.greenflashbrew.com/our-beers.php/

Rumors are also swirling that we could see Terrapin Brewing hitting the shelves by the end of the year. For more info on them, here’s a link to their website: http://terrapinbeer.com/
I’ve had a few of their beers and usually came away impressed.

Also, look for Bells brewery to start having some cans towards the end of the summer, going into fall. They will be canning Oberon and Two Hearted Ale. They will be similar to how New Belgium has canned their beers, coming in tall boy four packs. Tailgating could get mighty dangerous this year if I’m drinking two hearted. Hope to have more news out next week, get to the store, get some Green Flash West Coast IPA, and enjoy your weekend.

Cityview Brewfest Des Moines, IA; July 14th 2012

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This weekend Cityview Brewfest will be located at Principal Park in downtown Des Moines. There will be 450 beers and admission $28 at the door and includes unlimited samples. This years list of beers will come from the following breweries:
*Anchor Brewing; San Francisco, CA
*August Schell
*Backpocket Brewing; Coralville, IA
*Bells Brewing
*Big Sky Brewing
*Boston Brewing Co.
*Boulevard Brewing
*Breckenridge Brewing
*Buffalo Bills Brewing
*Brau Brothers
*Capital Brewing
*Chameleon Brewing
*Widmer Brothers
*Redhook Brewing
*Fort Collins Brewing
*Toppling Goliath; Decorah, IA
*Granite City
*Great River Brewing
*Lakefront Brewing
*Lost Coast Brewing
*Madhouse Brewing; Newton, IA
*Sierra Nevada and many more…

Check out the video below or follow the link for more information. http://brewfestdsm.com/

Beer Review #84: Hinterland Luna Coffee Stout

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Man, I love stouts. The more the merrier for me, and even on a hot day I have no problem pulling a stout beer out of the fridge, pouring that bad boy, letting it sit for about 5 minutes, and taking it outside and enjoying it on the deck. Some stout lately seem to be more on the porter side of things lately, which is fine, but when I want a stout, I want a thick, creamy, easy drinking brew with hints of chocolate, coffee, and bit of smokiness.  So, what does Hinterland give me?

A relatively new brewery to Eastern Iowa shelves is Hinterland Brewery. Located in Green Bay, WI this newcomer can found in just about every liquor store now in Eastern Iowa. Year round offerings from this brewery include their pale ale, amber ale, IPA, and the beer I’m going to review today; their Luna Stout.

From the brewery: ( http://www.hinterlandbeer.com/)
” Luna Coffee Stout pours pitch black with hues deep mahogany. The two finger, fluffy, tan head recedes slowly leaving a nice, full lace for a very impressive look. With a solid, yet not overpowering aroma of coffee, you can still smell a hint of chocolate. The bold, rich taste of creamy coffee doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the flavors leaving a hint of chocolate to finish. On a cold winter night, you couldn’t ask for a better cold beer to warm you up.”

This was a pretty in your face coffee stout. Coffee dominates the senses as you can smell it right when you crack open the bottle. (Side note: Had this on nitro tap at The Old Fashioned in Madison, WI. Great stuff!) The pour is pitch black with the aroma of the coffee blasting through. Flavor is the same; dominate coffee with a hint of bitter dark chocolate. Let’s check my list for the perfect stout:

Thickness: Check
Creaminess: I would say right in the middle. Not as creamy as I like, but right between a porter and a stout.
Chocolate/Coffee/Smoke: Double Check on the coffee
Easy drinking: Check

All in all, a really great brew that satisfies what most stout fans are looking for. Not a fan of coffee? Then this probably not the brew for you, luckily I’m addicted to coffee so this is right up my alley.

REVIEW

STYLE: Coffee Stout

ABV: 4.8%

Purchased at: Hy-Vee

Pour: Black pour, thick tan head.
Aroma: Coffee dominates.
Taste: Luna coffee is the star of this brew.
Overall: B

My recommendations: If you like coffee, this is your stout. Also, this beer comes in 16 oz four packs. So, not your typical sized bottles; lots of beer in one bottle.

Distribution News: Lagunitas, Green Flash, Stone not coming??

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Some good news and bad news this week regarding distribution. I guess it is not necessarily bad news, but according to my source the whole Stone Brewing to Iowa thing isn’t looking good right now. Speaking with distributors and beer vendors, Stone has not/is not getting back to them regarding their products hitting shelves in Eastern Iowa, so a bit of a snag there. Not sure what the delay is, but it doesn’t look like that will be happening this summer.

Onto the good news. My source says that Lagunitas AND Green Flash are 1-2 months away from hitting shelves in Eastern Iowa. Fantastic news! If you haven’t had the chance to try the beers from these breweries you should, they are a real treat. Check out the brews from Lagunitas here: (http://www.lagunitas.com/beers/index.html) Really like their IPA and Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’.
Here is a list of Green Flash brews: (http://www.lagunitas.com/beers/index.html) Their Palate Wrecker and West Coast IPA are some of the best IPAs I’ve ever had.

I will post more when I hear more! Cheers!

New to Shelves: Mendocino, Stillwater, Evil Twin

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Some new beers should be hitting shelves this week at your liquor store (John’s Grocery). This week there will be brews in from Mendocino Brewing, Stillwater, and Evil Twin, which has been on shelves for a few weeks now.

MENDOCINO – Mendocino brewery is located in Mendocino, CA and has a huge lineup of beers. From their website:
“We take great pride in being pioneers in the American Craft Brewing Renaissance and even greater pride in our range of ales that beer lovers all over the country have made Legends. We hope that the pages on this site will let you know some more about how we started and about our passion for brewing the best.”

I believe their Eye of the Hawk has been on shelves in Eastern Iowa before. They have a different collection of beers, led by their Red Tail Ale which is an old world amber. To check out their complete lineup of beers go to (http://www.mendobrew.com/home.html).

Next up is Stillwater Premium. Description from Beer Advocate:  “A  Post Prohibition’ style ale brewed with Pilsner malt, corn, and rice. Hopped at 2lbs per BBL with Cluster, Northern Brewer, and Saaz and fermented with a farmhouse ale yeast and 2 strains of brettanomyces to weigh in at 4.5% ABV.”

Evil Twin has a bunch of beers available at John’s Grocery. Here is the complete list from the grocers’ website:
(http://www.johnsgrocery.com/Departments/Beer/browse.cfm?action=browse&method=prodname&arg=E)
More info about Evil Twin from Beer Advocate: “A phantom brewery run by Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø, brother of Mikkel Borg Bergsø of Mikkeller fame. Beers are brewed at / by another brewery.”


Drop me a line if you get to try any of these brews and let me know what you think!

 

Beer Review #83: Leinenkugels Honey Weiss

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I will start off this review and say that nothing that Leinenkugels makes has impressed me except for their Big Eddy series. Not that their stuff is not drinkable I just find it to either be watered down or artificial in taste. Since I just came back from the great north, I thought I would review a Wisconsin product, Leinenkugels’ Honey Weiss. (www.leinie.com)
Brewer’s description: “Honey Weiss has a taste that’s light, crisp and slightly sweet.” 

Man, I’m just not getting this one. People must buy it because it is an easy beer to drink. I get no honey flavor, it can hardly be described  as a Weiss beer, minimal American wheat flavor. Watered-down brew to me. I think this could be a brew they could back and tweak the recipe on and make it much better than it currently is; I think they should do that with many of their products.

On a positive note, if you are looking for a light, refreshing, easy drinking brew, this would be one for you to go with. An inexpensive beer, that is widely available, however, I will be looking elsewhere.

REVIEW

STYLE: Wheat Ale

ABV: 4.92%

Purchased at: Anywhere

Pour: Light gold pour, small white head.
Aroma: Mild wheat aroma, a little citrus.
Taste: Little wheat and citrus.
Overall: D

My recommendations: There are too many great craft brews that have surpassed Leinenkugels wheat beer or even fruit beer. I would avoid this beer and ask your beer monger, or me, what to go for.

New to Shelves this Week: Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere

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Sierra Nevada gives us another opportunity to try a wonderful brew. This week their Southern Hemisphere hits the shelves around Eastern Iowa. Southern Hemisphere is a fresh hop IPA which means the hops that were used in this beer where used rather quickly after they were harvested. Expect flavor of wood, floral hops with a nice bready malt finish. Here is the description from the brewer:
“This ale marks our journey to the only place on the planet where fresh hops are harvested in our spring, the Southern Hemisphere. Our task was daunting-we needed to get the hops picked, dried, flown halfway across the world and into our brew kettle in a little over a week’s time. The result is a North-by-South fusion of fresh New Zealand hops blended with the finest North American malts. Its robust hop character presents an intriguing floral-citrus aroma leading to layers of fresh-hop spiciness. Enjoy!”

What's the Best Beer Brewed in Iowa? Vote Here!

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Over at Bracketeers there is any online poll trying to find what the best beer brewed in Iowa is. I think I I know where my vote is going; how about you? Check it out here! http://public.bracketeers.com/matchup.php?id=1435

Lots of tough First round matchups. I’m thinking Toppling Goliath Golden Nugget wins it all, but Millstream and Peace Tree might surprise.

What’s the Best Beer Brewed in Iowa? Vote Here!

3 Comments

Over at Bracketeers there is any online poll trying to find what the best beer brewed in Iowa is. I think I I know where my vote is going; how about you? Check it out here! http://public.bracketeers.com/matchup.php?id=1435

Lots of tough First round matchups. I’m thinking Toppling Goliath Golden Nugget wins it all, but Millstream and Peace Tree might surprise.