Get ready for an out-of-this-world experience! The Extinction Event – Galaxy + Azacca + Nectar will be on tap on October 11th. Each batch is created with a similar malt backbone but with enough variance from its own sequence of lush, tropical-forward hops to be a unique species. Our passion for maximum flavor drives our unstoppable quest for incredible hop combinations. In this fun-filled exploration of the depths of the lupulin landscape, we are proud to share a fleeting glimpse of our short-lived creation. Don’t miss your chance to experience this one-of-a-kind brew!
BA Imperial Stout with Hazelnut, Coconut, Cinnamon, & Cacao Nibs
Bottles of ALL 2024 will be available for purchase in person at Lua next Saturday, October 5th, starting at 11AM. First come, first served, with limits determined at open. We will have a limited number of bottles available online via TOAST at 11AM as well. Proxies are allowed. Picking up for a proxy? Just be sure to have their name & order number ready for us when you’re picking up
We also put together a 5th Anniversary ALL-you-can-eat brunch buffet by Chef James & Chef Dutch on Saturday, October 5th from 9-11AM! A limited amount of brunch tickets are available live on Toast RIGHT NOW and will remain online until sold out. Link is right there in our bio!
Purchase of a brunch ticket gets you access to our AYCE brunch buffet from 9-11AM (closed to the public), ability to pre-purchase ALL 2024 bottles to beat the line, and participation in our bottle share (bringing a bottle to share is encouraged but not required!!)
Expect brunch classics like eggs benedict, burger sliders, classic hash browns, bacon & sausage, French toast, fresh fruit, and some other healthy stuff maybe.
Draft pours of ALL 2024 will be available for purchase Saturday 10/5 at open.
ALL again, once more, but for 2024. Perhaps our favorite BA release to date, and one we enjoy revisiting. This vintage of ALL 2024 was brewed, selected, and blended in celebration of our fifth anniversary.
I wrote this review for Little Village Magazine which you can check out by clicking HERE:
The latest venture from the group that brought you Lua Brewing company has seemingly taken over Grand Avenue in West Des Moines! Either/Or restaurant (6222 Grand Ave. Des Moines) opened their doors in early Fall of 2023 and has been consistently busy since.
“Lua is about craft beer and food. It was our first, so it’s always our baby, but it’s small. Either/Or is bigger on just about every scale. We still do craft beer and handmade food as well as we can, but we have cocktails, we have a private event space, we have a huge patio with green space and a playscape and five fire pits. We have twice as many team members and so much more space. At Either/Or, you can do date night or you can do family night or you can do Friendsgiving. It’s really flexible for any occasion,” said owner Scott Selix.
Their cuisine can be described as elevated American fare with the focus being on the quality of the food that they put out. All of their burgers are ground in house, juices squeezed fresh for their amazing cocktails, and the always fresh and never frozen concept. “We have a great team. Our head brewer, Zack, did the draft beer list with input from all of us. Our chefs, James and Cesar, did the food menu. And then it was a group effort on making high-end cocktails. So it was a collection of people. And the one thing they all had in common was we created what we like. The beer list has Bierstadt and Sierra Nevada and Confluence and Lua, but also High Life and Duchesse, because that’s what we like to drink. The food menu was a collection of foods we’ve been inspired by. Cesar, our chef de cuisine, is of Mexican heritage, and so there’s some fresh Mexican inspired dishes. But he and James love Asian food as well, so there’s some Asian influence. We also make homemade bologna, which is a very lengthy process and is distinctly European/American. We grind our own burgers everyday, and we only source 100% Iowa-sourced Certified Angus Beef. We pretty much said “let’s create a restaurant we’d want to dine at,” and that’s what we did! So the food is approachable, but unlike stuff you’ll find elsewhere and always homemade (see the Bologna).”
On why the ownership group chose this particular location for Either/Or, Selix responded, “It’s actually just barely east of the WDM border, so still in Des Moines by about 100 yards. But I played soccer at the soccer fields just south of Either/Or. Some partners on the building showed us the space and once whit and I saw it, we were set on it being a restaurant. Those partners live within walking distance, so they saw potential in the building. And then we saw it right away too. The huge patio, the connection to my old soccer club, the great location on Des Moines’ front porch from WDM, it all came together pretty quick with the tremendous team we have.”
On this particular Friday, I had the pleasure of taking my two daughters with me to check out this restaurant. They are both familiar with Lua Brewing as we’ve frequented that place many times, and so when I told them the owners of Lua(Scott and Whitney Selix) have opened a restaurant and we are going to get to try it tonight, they were extremely excited. Upon entering, you are greeted with colorful and eclectic decor. The bar pops and the open kitchen gives you an inside look at how your dishes are put together. A very cool, casual, and comfortable feel right away.
We were seated immediately, although the place was already very busy. The menu had many options that appealed to us so limiting what to order was a tall task for 3 hungry patrons. The beer list was loaded with delicious options, noticing that Lua had multiple beers on tap made my decision easy though.
BEER I went with their latest double IPA, Dancer. Although it checks in at 8.6% ABV, it’s scarily drinkable and I had to convince myself to not order another. I love the hop combo on this beer and the creamy texture it brings. Lua makes some of the best beers in Iowa and this one is right up there for me as a favorite. Fantastic beer, a beer of the year candidate for sure!
APPETIZER
Quite a few delicious options on the appetizer portion of the menu, but the clear cut favorite that my daughter’s chose were the Mexican cheese curds. If cheese curds are on the menu, there’s a 99% chance that my kids would have me order them. These cheese curds, however, were very much more inspired than just your basic fried cheese curd. House battered and served with pickled fresno chiles, cilantro and a chipotle ranch dressing these were some of the best cheese curds any of us had ever eaten. The perfect bite consisted of a curd, a pickled fresno, and a leaf of cilantro with just a tiny bit of dressing. It hit all the taste buds. A great dish.
MAIN COURSE
We decided to do a bit of sharing and order a couple of sandwiches. I asked our waiter what Either/Or was known for besides the smash burgers, the fried bologna was recommended. I also wanted to try a vegetarian dish so I got the Italian mushroom sandwich. This bologna sandwich is unlike any you have had. It’s not your Oscar Meyer bologna sandwich. It’s made in house and the flavor is off the charts. Almost a pepperoni spice to it, it melts in your mouth and they stack this sandwich high with it. An excellent sandwich. The mushroom melt made you forget you weren’t eating meat. Loaded with perfectly cooked mushrooms and topped with a delicious homemade giardiniera and a side of jus, this sandwich would be perfect for not only a vegetarian diet, but even the biggest carnivores can get behind a sandwich this tasty!
DESSERT There was no question what dessert we were going to order. My kids have been rice pudding lovers since they were little. Either/Or’s rice pudding was extraordinary. Either/Or added some apple compote and then topped their pudding off with a sesame tuile, which is a baked wafer. A great final dish to cap off a really wonderful meal.
OVERALL I’m really excited to see what Either/Or brings to their menu and what they will come up with for their seasonal offerings. Their menu is ever changing and the way they play with fresh ingredients and the detail put into their dishes is commendable and appreciated. This place will be consistently busy, their food is delicious and approachable. This ownership group is doing all the right things and they continue to set the bar high for other establishments. If you are in the West Des Moines area, this is a must stop for a truly wonderful meal!
Saw the following information on Surly’s facebook page! Hopefully a sign of things to come! Looks like a must-attend event if you are in the Des Moines area. Hopefully I can make it!
We’re road tripping to Iowa and we’re bringing beer! On April 3rd, 4-8 pm, we’ll be hanging out and pouring beers at el Bait Shop in Des Moines. We’ll be bringing: Furious, Hell, Cynic, Bender, Cacao Bender, Smoke, Blakkr, Mild, Darkness & Pentagram. BUT we’re NOT distributing broadly to Iowa (yet), just sharing beers for the night with our neighbors to the south. We’ll add more details and a FB event soon.
I finally made it! After months and months of trying to find a time to get to Des Moines, my wife and I finally made it! Upon returning from a trip to Kansas City to visit some friends we made a little detour so we could hit up 515 Brewery (http://515brewing.com/). Here’s more about how the brewery came to be from their website:
Ryan’s and Brandon’s wives would tell you that it was a fabulous plan that went horribly wrong. Our wives wanted to spend more time together and plotted to have us, Ryan and Brandon, become friends — the common denominator, brewing beer. Little did they realize that bringing us together and then adding Bailey and Dave to the mix would snowball our little home-brewing hobby into an actual brewing business. Now, hundreds of gallons of beer later, we’re starting our beer adventure and can’t wait to take you along with us.
Upon entering the brewery there are a ton of seats and I noticed a lady (the beer broad @beer_broad) dishing up some suds to a couple who had 3 kids in there and watching the Bears/Lions game. So for my wife and I, that was definitely a positive, being able to have some good brews, watch football, and have the kids with (as long as they’re not too rowdy or loud) is nice, though we try to leave the kids at home. The Beer Broad was super friendly while I ordered a flight of four of their beers. I was happy to see they had a pumpkin brew on tap as well (not on untappd.com as of this writing though 😦
I went for whatever has been talking about when referring to this brewery and that is the OJ IPA, their Dart Dodger, Lil’ Tart, and the pumpkin. The Lil’ Tart was refreshing, the pumpkin was perfect for the fall weather, and the Dart Dodger was an excellent IPA. I don’t want to sound like everyone else, but that OJ IPA is just a really special brew. So damn refreshing, so easy to drink, I would love to be able to grab a sixer of this at my local liquor store and go to town on it. Perfect for any weather, hot or cold, this is just a really tremendous beer; one of the best in Iowa in my opinion. After the sampler I went back for another OJ and grab a sweet glass to take home as a souvenir. They do not have food or growlers (yet) but you can bring in your own grub to eat while you enjoy an OJ or any of their other brews.
My wife got some good pictures, (do I see an Imperial Stout in the works? YES!) and we both talked about how enjoyable it would be to have a great little brewery to be able to go to for a leisurely brew or two; so take note Des Moines area, 515 is legit, so get out and support them. Awesome brew, awesome people!
Confluence Brewing will be holding a keg tapping for their latest beer, May day May day Maibock at the brewery May 1st, starting at 5:00! Check it out! Here’s the press release from the brewery:
MAY DAY MAY DAY…its time for yet another tapping of the GOLDEN KEG! Its time to move this crummy cold and chilly spring-time weather out of Iowa so we can enjoy our latest refreshing beer…MayDay MayDay Maibock!. The tapping will start at 6PM on May 1st!
Tickets for a $2.00 pints from the Golden Keg go on sale at 5:00 p.m. (limit one ticket per person).
After the Golden Keg “kicks”, pints of MayDay MayDay Maibock will be sold all evening for $3.50! Also new growlers of MayDay MayDay Maibock and refills of MayDay Maibock will be $2.00 off all night!
