“Bluesberry” Fruit Burst sour from Iowa Brewing debuting this Friday Night @Blues Night in the Park in Cedar Rapids!

May 17, 2023Leave a comment

A big Friday night awaits in Cedar Rapids as this Friday, May 19th, Iowa Brewing will be debuting their newest addition to their extremely popular “Fruit Burst Sour” portfolio as “Bluesberry” debuts! Making the debut even more significant is that it will be coming and pouring at Blues Night in the Park (Green Square in Cedar Rapids)!

This beer features blue raspberry, orange, and pineapple flavors that give it a sweet, juicy and slightly tart taste and it checks in at 6% ABV. This beer will only be available on draft and possibly your only chance to get a taste will be at the Blues Night event!

The event itself has a $5 cover and will feature recognized blues acts such as BF Burt, Keesha Pratt Band, Matthias Lattin, and Ken Valdez.

Local food vendors will be on hand to try their delicious items as well! Need Pizza, Willy Ray’s Q Shack, and The Hip Stir will have their wonderful food available and Chophouse Downtown will have cotton candy! Gates will open at 5 p.m. and music will go from 6-10 p.m.!

With the “Bluesberry” release Iowa Brewing will also have the following beers available:
-Iowa Eagle Light Lager
-Eagle Amber Lager
-Surf Zombies IPA
-ZOINKS! Session IPA
-Big River Cold IPA
-Untitled Art Seltzers

Don’t miss this amazing event!

Clock House bringing back “Java Gypsy” with 2 variants on March 11th!

March 9, 2022Leave a comment

A personal favorite makes it’s return as Java Gypsy is coming back to Clock House with a two variants available! Release is on March 12th, here’s more from Clock House:

JAVA GYPSY is back on Friday March 11th. And this year we brewed up something special for you! We brewed not 1 but 2 specialty brews for you, featuring our friends from @roasterscoffeehiawatha and @roastedonross .
For the first variant we decided to team up with Roasters Coffee House in Hiawatha! One of our favorite beans from them in the past has been their medium roast Caramel Pecan. If you can remember way back to our very first coffee porter (yes the one without a name) we actually used this flavored bean to craft that delicious brew. These beans provide very strong notes of pecan and sweet caramel that meld together in perfect harmony.
We teamed up with Ross Street Roasting Co and ordered a variety of their delicious offerings. After cold steeping three types of beans we were blown away by the results. All three were unique and delicious. It was hard to select our favorite from the group! After much thought and consideration we decided on their Bohemian Gothic. This bean gave our porter notes of chocolate and subtle smoke without coming across bitter. We’re excited to release this delicious offering! Be sure to look for their beans in stores.
We will be selling mixed 4-packs for $14. And each volume will be available on draft as well.

515 Brewery Grand Opening March 23!

March 4, 2013Leave a comment

One of the Des Moines areas newest breweries is having their grand opening March 23. 515 Brewing Company will host the event at their taproom located 7700 University Avenue in Clive, IA. Free t-shirts will be given out for the first 50 guests to arrive along with other prize drawings. I have yet to try their beer but the word from many friends is that these guys are the real deal and their beers are excellent. Below is a list of their beers from their website (http://www.515brewing.com/beer.html).

LIL’ TART

Our version of a tart Berlinner style German Ale

NUMB NUT
A spiced ale perfect for a fall day or anytime the mood strikes

OJ IPA
Smooth and drinkable wheat IPA with citrus flavors

IMPERIAL STOUT
(yet to be named)
Flavorful stout with hints of coffee and chocolate

D.A.R.T. DODGER
(formerly known as West Coast IPA)
West Coast style IPA brewed with Citra and Simcoe hops

IN THE FERMENTER

(Coming Soon)

PALE KOLSCH
(yet to be named)
A light German style ale modified with more malt sweetness and
hop bitterness than a traditional Kolsch

BELGIAN PALE
(yet to be named)
A belgian style ale brewed with abbey yeast, grains of paradise and ginger

If you get to this event let me know how it went!

Dubuque Beerfest Review

February 17, 20133 Comments

Saturday February 16th brought the 2nd annual Dubuque Beer Festival located in the Mystique Ice Arena. Last year’s event was a huge success and from the looks of crowd yesterday, I would say year 2 was just as successful. Lots of high points from the day as well as some things that I think they can work on overall. Thanks to my brother-in-law Tyler for getting us the tickets!

The Good
*Live music makes beer events that much better, and the Lonely Goats did not disappoint playing a nice mix of music that paired well with the overall vibe of the day.
*Food- I think a must at any festival, and one thing that the Dubuque Beerfest did better than Coralville’s BrrrFest is having different meat and cheese vendors dishing out samples but also a restaurant parked in the back serving huge burgers, wings, and more.

*Bent River Brewing – stole the show again. Jalapeño Wheat, Uncommon Stout, Raspberry Wheat, Dry-Hopped Pale Ale, all sampled by me and overall the best beers available. I even asked one of their guys to mix their stout with the raspberry wheat for a 1/2 and 1/2 and they happily obliged to create a beer that was the best thing I tasted all day. These guys are the real deal and I’m looking forward to seeing their products on the shelves in Eastern Iowa.

*Potosi Brewing – I’ve been critical of their beers in the past and haven’t really enjoyed much of what they have offered but yesterday they had everyone of their beers on tap and also brought along their Hopsmith IPA, one of their newest offerings. The aroma of this beer was fantastic, with hops greeting you strongly. A very good brew.

*Grumpy Troll- Always like to try beers from these guys based out of Mt. Horeb, WI. Fun guys to talk with and always some fun beers to try.

THE NOT SO GOOD

*Bottled beer vendors- too much of this. I can go buy bottled beer from many of the vendors in the store, I was hoping to see a bigger selection of brewers bring in fresh kegs for us to try instead of opening bottles and giving us a very small sample.

*More Iowa and Wisconsin breweries – Coralville’s BrrFest had a ton of small Iowa breweries and while Dubuque’s had a few, I was hoping for more. I would have liked to see Madhouse, Worth, 515, Confluence, CIB, etc. coming from Iowa and Ale Asylum, Capital, Central Waters, New Glarus pulled down from Wisky, just didn’t happen.

*Toppling Goliath – they were advertised but were not there. My brother-in-law has yet to try their beers and I was bragging them up pretty good, but for whatever reason, they didn’t show.

Overall a great experience, caping the night off with a trip to Monk’s Cafe for a beer and I am looking forward to year 3 of the Dubuque Beer Festival.

Distribution News: Left Hand Brewing

January 31, 20132 Comments

I just received an email in reply to a question about distribution to Left Hand brewing. Here’s the response I was given:

Hi Beer Baron,

Thanks for reaching out and your interest in Left Hand. I am the Midwest Regional Manager and I used to cover Iowa before we pulled out 2 years ago due to crazy distributor issues. Our plan, just recently discussed, will be to re-launch in Iowa late this year or first thing 2014. That’s the best news I have so far.

Thanks!

Mike Walters

More good news for the state of Iowa and if you are not familiar with any of Left Hand Brewings products here is a link to their website: http://www.lefthandbrewing.com/beers

Cheers!