News courtesy of www.beernews.org
Ken Burns’ Prohibition will air the first week of October on PBS.
Prohibition is a three-part, five-and-a-half-hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that tells the story of the rise, rule, and fall of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the entire era it encompassed.
If it’s being done by Ken Burns it’s going to be very good!
A few years ago it used to be pretty difficult to find a good beer made an Iowa unless you found some Millstream product somewhere. Now, with craft beer taking off and more and more breweries are starting to open and more restaurants and bars are FINALLY serving craft and imports, it isn’t so difficult to find a good local beer and we can partially thank the people at Peace Tree Brewing in Knoxville, IA (www.peacetreebrewing.com). They have come on the craft beer scene and could arguably be the face of Iowa Beer.?
Being infatuated with hoppy beers it took some searching to find one made in Iowa that could stand up to others around the country. Peace Tree’s Hop Wrangler does just that. Although it might not be the hop bomb people are looking for, it does pack a hop punch but also gets mellowed out by the malts in the brew. Not only is Peace Tree products available almost everywhere, they also have sweet looking apparel and their bottles come in the Red Stripe like stubbies which are sweet!
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
ABV: 6.2%
Purchased at: Foud just about everywhere.
Like I said above this beer is not your West Coast hop bomb but a classic take on the world scene of IPAs. Nice hop bitterness followed by sweetness of malts and sugars.
REVIEW
Pour: Orange amber pour with a medium sized white head.
Aroma: Smell of citrus, a little banana and biscuits.
Taste: Nice hop bitterness mellowed out by the malts.
Overall: B
Eastern Iowa Residents: Support your Iowa beers!!!! Starting to be available everywhere!
Would I Buy Again: A mainstay in my fridge.
With tailgating right around the corner as college football season approaches an important topic to cover is what to drink. Now, I know most people are already set with picking up a case or 30 at the local gas station but if you are not interested in drinking Bud/Miller/Coors products here is a list of a few beers available in cans that you can go with. These are all craft beers so check them out!
*Great River Brewing Pale Ale- I put this beer first because it is an Iowa brew, it is also a pretty drinkable pale ale. It comes in tallboy looking cans and is available at Johns in Iowa City and most Hy-Vee liquor stores.
*New Belgium Fat Tire – Not as good as in the bottle but still passable. The only thing is the price tag at $15 a 12-pack which would make most people balk.
*Point Products- I’ve seen Nude Beach from point at Hy-Vee liquor stores. Think a milder Blue Moon.
*Grain Belt- Just saw the cans for the first time at Johncey’s in North Liberty, IA. Your traditional American lager but not owned by the big corporations, not yet anyway.
*Big Sky Moose Drool Brown Ale- This will be at my first tailgate this year. Highly drinkable brown ale, sweet, caramelly, and smooth. Available at most Hy-Vees.
*O’Fallon Wheach- Another one that will be at my tailgate. A wheat beer brewed with peaches, this will come in handy for the first few sweating your ass off Hawkeye games.
*If you are willing to travel you can hit Illinois or Wisconsin for a much bigger selection of canned craft beers. Going with the ones listed above I also have a 12 pack of Magic Hat #9 and hopefully my brother-in-law from Indiana will be bringing back some Sun King products! Anything I missed? Please add to the list!!
Style: Sweet Stout
ABV: 4.4%
Purchased at: Woodmans Grocery in Madison, WI
This beer takes a well-known coffee from Milwaukee, Fuel Cafe coffee, and uses that along with roasted malts to create this brew.
Really had high hopes when I popped this beer open. Love coffee stouts. I think creamy, coffee flavored beer with some chocolate undertones. However, with this beer I wasn’t impressed. It seems that the balance wasn’t there with the beer and it was almost sharp like a porter instead of creamy like a stout. Don’t get me wrong, not a terrible beer by any means, I think I just had too high of hopes. You still get the roasted malt flavor along with barley, chocolate, and of course the coffee flavor is very present.
Maybe it was just that it wasn’t as smooth for me making it less than desirable to have another one. One was fine, but after that I’m going to be looking elsewhere for a stout.
REVIEW
Pour: Dark black pour with a tan head.
Aroma: Roasted malt and the dominate coffee smell.
Taste: All the flavors are there, they just don’t mesh well for some reason. Coffee, chocolate, malts, just not as smooth.
Overall: C
Eastern Iowa Residents: Pretty sure Lakefront does not distribute to Iowa anymore so Illinois or Wisconsin would be your best bet.
Would I Buy Again: Probably not. So many good stouts out there and this was just average.
I can remember the first time I went to the Pit. I was with my brother and brother-in-law and we had just drunkenly walked from Kinnick stadium all they way to downtown Iowa City. My brother-in-law talked us into going to this BBQ joint to grab some food. Upon entering the smell of various meats being smoked (not a sexual reference) made your mouth water. Since I was in a certain stage of inebriation I don’t remember exactly what I had to eat but I do remember my brother-in-law ordering deep-fried jalapenos and sweating profusely on a 45 degree day in Iowa.
Onto the current day; my wife and I take our kids to the Pit quite often. My son loves their cheese balls and also the vintage style arcade game they have there. I have fallen into a routine of ordering the “Slawich”. The slawich consists of warmed hoagie roll with tons of pulled pork topped with a nice refreshing coleslaw and pickles. I usually dump a bunch of their spicy bbq sauce on it. This is a meal for champions; filling, tasty, and unbelievably satisfying. The pork is smokey but not overally and coleslaw is just the right consistency; not too dry and not too creamy. For a side I usually go with their fries. They are the crinkle cut and are fried perfectly; nice and crisp on the outside and soft in the middle. Awesome!
We also sometimes order the brisket, fried pickles, and bbq baked beans. Everything I’ve had I’ve really enjoyed.
On tap they have Boulevard Pale Ale, Great River brewing’s red ale, PBR, and John’s White Ale from Millstream along with some sodas. My pick for BBQ in the IC area; check it out. (www.thepitsmokehouse.com)
Their new Saison Organic Farmhouse Ale. Awesome video!
This article is from Schlafly brewing website blog: www.schlafly.com. Awesome news!
“A few months ago, we announced an agreement to brew Schlafly Beer at the new Blackstone Brewery in Nashville. With those brews scheduled to take place soon, we are also very pleased to announce that beginning in mid 2012, Schlafly Beer will also be brewed at a new brewery near Iowa City, Iowa called Backpocket Brewery.
Construction will start soon on the 25,000 bbl Backpocket Brewery in Coralville, Iowa. Jacob Simmons, the Head Brewer at Backpocket, worked on the Quality Team at Schlafly Bottleworks from 2006-2007 before moving to a brewery in Maine and then back to his home state of Iowa where he has operated a successful brewpub for many years. We began discussions with Jacob a few years ago about the possible mutual benefits of a new relationship.
Backpocket Head Brewer – Jacob SimmonsLike the Blackstone agreement, this partnership will allow for continued growth of Schlafly in the Midwest and free up some much needed capacity at Schlafly Bottleworks in St. Louis. Also like the Blackstone agreement, it’s important to note that Schlafly will have no ownership stake in the Backpocket brewery. This is very much their brewery, we’re just lucky enough to get to brew some of our beer there.
The new Backpocket brewery will share characteristics with the Schlafly Bottleworks brewery. They will have a beautiful 30 bbl brewhouse, fermentation vessels of similar design, and state of the art bottling equipment. Jacob has really done a great job to get the brewery designed and the project moving forward.
Click on the image for more information on the new Backpocket Brewery.
To uphold the high standards of our beer quality, Schlafly will recruit a new team member. Working for the quality assurance team, this Iowa-based employee will also promote beer in the area. This is a very exciting time for us at Schlafly Beer and we look forward to meeting lots of new friends in Iowa for years to come.
Thank you for your continued support of Schlafly Beer.”
– Dan
I finally decided to give Points’ Horizon Wheat a try after walking by it many times at my local grocery store. After being disappointed with their Belgian White I didn’t think I was going to be knocked coming into this beer….and after trying it…….. I was right. A flavorless wheat beer that did nothing for me. As much as I really wanted to like this, and in all honesty, I was really wanting to find a really good wheat beer to have around the house for hot summer days, this one just did nothing for me. Points’ products are readily available, even at my local grocery store in Mount Vernon but the two I’ve tried have missed the boat. Am I missing something, am I buying the wrong Point product? I’m not sure, I think maybe if I decide to go back to them I will go with their pale ale. (http://pointbeer.com/point/)
STYLE: What Ale
ABV: 3.65%
Purchased At: Gary’s grocery in Mount Vernon, IA.
Wheat beers have been really hit and miss for me; I’m finding myself less enthused about American wheat beers and focusing more on German style hefeweizens which, if you get a good one, are packed with flavor; banana, bubble gum, clove, citrus, etc. all in a really good hefe/wheat.
REVIEW
Pour: Cloudy yellow with a nice white head.
Aroma: Grainy smell, and a somewhat off-putting skunky smell.
Taste: A watery wheat beer, mildly refreshing.
Overall: D
Eastern Iowa Residents: I’ve seen this all over.
Would I Buy Again: No. Maybe a good beer for someone who is starting out drinking craft beer; a training wheels craft brew.
With the craft beer scene in Iowa starting to make an effort to catch up with the rest of the country, we are starting to see some more of the “mainstream” style beers being released from our Iowa breweries. Peace Tree is doing great things in Knoxville, Toppling Goliath in Decorah, Madhouse in Newton, etc. but the oldest brewery in Iowa still stands in Amana and that is Millstream. Millstream to me is known for their John’s Generation White Ale, one of the better American White Ales you can find and I also used to love their Colony Oatmeal stout before it disappeared from the shelves.
The emergence of hoppy beers has led many breweries to go with IPAs, and Double IPAs. Millstream skipped the IPA section and went right into the Doubles.
STYLE: Imperial/Double IPA
ABV: 7.8%
Purchased At: Trade with a friend.
I really wanted this beer to be good and have Millstream put itself on the map for breweries with great Imperial IPAs, but it just didn’t stand up to most Double IPAs I’ve had. I think they started to feel pressure from other breweries in the area and the country where a lot of them are putting out wonderful IPAs. I think this hurried, maybe the wrong hops were used? Not sure, but hopefully they go back to the drawing board and try again.
REVIEW
Pour: Ruby red pour with an off-white head poured into a tulip glass.
Aroma: Different hop smell, some citrus; can’t place the aroma.
Taste: Got the sweetness and then it turned into some bizarre flavor citrus flavor.
Overall: D+
Eastern Iowa Residents: I’ve seen this at John’s Grocery and Hy-Vee.
Would I Buy Again: No. Maybe I got a bad bottle, maybe it really was as disappointing as I thought. If you’ve tried this please let me know your thoughts.
