Drink This! My Beer of the Summer (so far); Big Grove Three Peat Wheat

July 14, 2020July 14, 2020Leave a comment

The dog days are upon us and the typical Iowa July is officially here as the temps and humidity keep making us thirstier and thirstier for a cold brew. And while there are many great Iowa beer options out there I recently had the chance to try Big Grove’s latest wheat, Three Peat. Here are the deets:

Passion fruit, pineapple, and plum come together to create an exceptionally light and refreshing fruited wheat ale that’s bursting at the seams with all the right flavors – you’ll want to have it on repeat… or maybe more 😉

This wheat beer is brewed with pineapple, passion fruit, and plum and checks in at 5.2%. While this may sound like an over the top fruit beer, it’s not. In fact BG brewers did a great job on balancing the three fruits and not making this an over the top sweet treat. Big Grove knew exactly what they were doing with this one…hot ass Iowa months ahead, let’s make a summer slammer and this sure is hell is it. Easy drinking on their beautiful patio and add with a tuna poke bowl and you’re in heaven.

So, go grab yourself a pint or a growler and just hope they keep making this one as we hit these hot months. Any chance we can get these mutha in cans BG? My mouth is watering…I’m going to need one of these again really soon. Make sure you get out there and Drink This!

Drink This! Reunion DDH Dr. Dank!

May 7, 2020May 7, 2020Leave a comment

Another first time to can release (I think anyway) of a wonderful Iowa brewed IPA is double dry hopped Dr. Dank from Reunion brewery in Coralville. Reunion has been very strong in their pale ale/IPA game as their Juice Factory and Tank Puncher grace our shelves and our beer fridges regularly. Yes, it is available in cans right now but….if you go to my favorite place in the area to have a beer, Mr. Jeremy Freerks has a keg he is going to tap at Club 76 in North Libery, so you can fill a growler with this goodness…so stay tuned for that tapping! TBA!

I remember the first time I had Dr. Dank on tap and it was at Need Pizza in downtown CR and thought to myself, if they can this beer up I’d be all over it….well, here we are! Another example of our amazing Iowa breweries continuing to meet the need of the beer drinkers during this pandemic. Let’s get to the details of this beer courtesy of Reunion before we delve too deep:

It’s madness!!! He can’t be serious?!?! Sheer lunacy! He’ll destroy us all!!! Double dry hopped with Columbus, Citra and Mosaic, DDH Dr. Dank reeks of dank resiny goodness and heady, musky, tropical, juicy fruit. Oh, the humanity!!!

POUR
Clean pour, no floaties, dark yellow with some orange hue. Nice thin head and as your pouring you get the waft of the hops. Citrus and resin galore! Just what your looking for in this beer.

TASTE
With the haze craze upon us, which I do enjoy, I love the bitterness that comes with this beer. Yes, you get the fruit and you get the dank, but the wonderful old school IPA bitterness also shines. The combo is terrific and makes 7.5% ABV beer seem like you need another…and then maybe 1 more…

OVERALL
Reunion had me sold with Tank Puncher and now Dr. Dank has me ready to head back to the store for a few more 4 packs, unless they are already sold out. If you are a hop head and like the dank stickiness that Mosaic and Citra bring and mix that with the resinous from Columbus than you need to Drink This!

Drink This! Clock House Low Bandito Cherry/Coconut

May 13, 2019May 13, 2019Leave a comment

One of my favorite tap rooms to visit is at Clock House Brewing. Something about that space that just makes me feel comfortable, and the fact that they are turning out some damn tasty brews too. I stopped in on a relatively slow Sunday afternoon and was lucky enough to have a pour of their Low Bandito Cherry/Coconut barrel-aged stout.

Low Bandito is their imperial stout and they’ve made some different variants of that tasty brew. I’ve had the vanilla, chocolate, coconut variant and really enjoyed that but the Cherry Coconut really stood out! Here’s more on this brew:

Driftless Glenn Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout. Aged on tart cherries and coconut

Wonderful aroma from the barrel that blends really well with the subtle coconut flavor. Cherry wasn’t prevalent right away but after it warmed the cherry really shined through. I ordered a Hazy Clock Tease while I let the Bandito sit for a while just to get more from that tart cherry. This checks in at a 9.6% but it was trying not to order a second draw.

I’m not sure how much of this brew Todd and Clock House have left so you might want to make the trek to downtown CR to get yourself a taste of this delicious brew. It is CR Craft beer so that can be your reason to get out and Drink This!

Drink This! Big Grove Color TV Double IPA

November 4, 2018November 4, 2018Leave a comment

color tv

Stout weather is surely upon us but IPA season never ends. Here in Eastern Iowa we sure have been spoiled with a bunch of releases from our local breweries as they continue to provide us with delicious beer.

Yesterday, Big Grove Brewery released a new double IPA called Color TV. Here are the specs on this beer:
7.8% ABV
-Double dry hopped with galaxy hops

I definitely dig me some galaxy hops and this beer was packed full of. Terrific aroma of citrus fruit and the the first sip is instant orange and mandarin flavor. My untappd Rated R description was that his beer is like a bunch of oranges banged it out with your favorite IPA on a bed of clouds. The thing with me and hazy IPAs are sometimes the flavor doesn’t flow from first sip to last drink, Color TV however, does just that. I could have sat at BG in Solon all day yesterday and sipped on this beer. Following Easy Eddy, Big Ed, and with Richard the Whale release on the horizon, it’s hard not to get stoked for anything Big Grove pushes out.

Eastern Iowa beer lovers rejoice, our local breweries continue to roll and quench our thirst with some of the best beers around and hopefully I’ll see some of you at the Richard the Whale release on December 1st! Drink This! while you can!

Drink This! Lion Bridge Brewing Gobble Wobble

November 19, 2016November 19, 2016Leave a comment

lion bridge.jpg Thanksgiving Day is right around the corner and with these cooling temps, fall is definitely in the air and winter is right around the corner here in Iowa. What better way to get in the holiday spirit than hitting up your local and gold medal winning brewery and enjoy their latest barrel-aged creation!

Lion Bridge Brewery introduced the world to Gobble Wobble last weekend and I was lucky enough to hit up the brewery and taste not only Gobble Wobble but their Smores Gobble Wobble which was on cask. In fact, I wish I had a pint to sip on right now. Even if you missed out on the cask of Smores Gobble Wobble, you still have some time left to get down there and try Gobble Wobble which is a brown ale aged in Wild Turkey barrels. It might not last much longer folks, and after some weekend shopping with your significant other in Cedar Rapids, the perfect warmer would be a nice glass of barrel-aged deliciousness from Lion Bridge!

You definitely get a nose full of barrel with this brew. Malty sweetness really mellows the barrel but you still get some great nuttiness from the brown ale as well. Perfect balance, and not to sound too much like a holiday homer, but this would pair perfectly with Thanksgiving dinner or grab a some sausages at the Sausage Foundry and have a fall grilling party while sipping on some Lion Bridge Gobble Wobble to warm you up. It’s limited folks, get there and grab a glass because you must drink this! Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving!

Drink This!: Summit Dark Infusion Coffee Milk Stout

November 5, 2016November 5, 20161 Comment

‘Tis the season for stouts! Don’t let the unusually warm weather deter you from sipping on a nice, thick, frothy, stout and once you get a taste of this beauty from Summit you could picture yourself drinking this year round!

Part of Summit’s Unchained Series, Dark Infusion hits on everything I’m looking for in a milk stout: jet black pour, big frothy head, and the smell of coffee and chocolate dominates the nose. The mouthfeel has what some stouts have been lacking for me and that is the creaminess.Roasted coffee flavor with almost a hint of sweet caramel and smoke round out this wonderfully tasty, milk stout. Here’s more on this beer from Summit:

For his inaugural Unchained Series beer, Summit brewer Pete Stacy created the brewery’s first-ever coffee beer. Dark Infusión: A Coffee Milk Stout is a roasty, sweet stout made complex and smooth with the addition of cold brew coffee. The malts also provide notes of nuttiness and wood. A boil kettle addition of lactose results in a velvety, creamy mouthfeel. After fermentation the beer is infused with coffee in collaboration with Saint Paul’s Blackeye Roasting Company. Pete selected the custom blend of Brazilian and Colombian varieties specifically to contribute an intense coffee bean aroma and complement the roastiness of the malts. Look for Dark Infusión on shelves in 16-ounce cans and on draught. Learn more about the inspiration for and process of crafting Dark Infusion at Pete’s blog post.

If you want a wonderfully balanced, full flavored, creamy stout, then this beer is a must. If you’re not a stout fan and want to give an excellent one a try then this is the one you need. I’m not sure how long this will be around folks, go out and buy this, drink this!

Drink This: Crooked Stave L’Brett d’or

June 30, 2016June 30, 2016Leave a comment

l'brett d'or.jpg Thank the Beer Gods for Abu Nawas! They are responsible for getting Iowans a chance to try Crooked Stave whose beers always challenge and satisfy the palate. Crooked Stave specializes in barrel aged sours, wild ales, and saisons. When there’s a Crooked Stave delivery day, I’m usually in line to pick up a few bottles and I just so happened to be at Winestyles at the Iowa River Landing in Coralville doing a little beer shopping when I came upon their L’Brett d’or. Dry hopped sour aged in oak barrels? Yes please! Here’s more on this beer:

A dry hopped surreal golden sour ale aged in oak barrels that comes in at 7% ABV.

There have been a few variants released of L’Brett d’Or, none I’ve seen in Eastern Iowa but this dry hopped is excellent in many ways.

#1: This is the perfect gateway beer for those who are not 100% into sours/wild ales yet. It’s not too tart, don’t get me wrong, tartness is there, but an acidic vinegar bomb it is not. It’s sweet enough for fruit fans to get on board with and the Brett is very present but doesn’t dominate the flavor.
#2: For Brett fans, once you open up that bottle and get the aroma of Brett and oak you will be ready to dig into this beer. The sweetness of peaches and apricots mesh perfectly the with oak and you get a little bit of an herbal taste that I’m guessing comes from the hops.

#3: The complexity of flavors: As this beer warms a bit it brings out the peaches and apricots as I said above but there is some green apple and faint balsamic vinegar.

Would I buy again? Absolutely! I was happy to share this with some people but regret that I didn’t buy another bottle to selfishly drink by myself. I really want more of this and it would pair perfectly with a warm Iowa 4th of July weekend.

I’m not sure if Winestyles still has it in stock but check out Benz in CR as well, they carry quite a few Crooked Stave beers. If you find some, let me know where it’s at because I need more! If you are not satisfied with it and purchased multiples, get a hold of me and I’ll buy the rest from you. Get out there and Drink This!