Kansas City Beer Festival Announcement

August 24, 2013Leave a comment

Just got this info to pass along any readers that might be in the Kansas City area:

I wanted to send information about a big event happening in the region that might be of interest to your readers for a weekend getaway. The Fifth Annual Kansas City Beer Festival in Kansas City, Mo., is taking place Saturday, Sept. 28 at KC Live! in the Power & Lights District located in Downtown Kansas City.

Featuring more than 60 craft beers from local, regional and other breweries around the world, the KC Beer Fest will be worth the drive and a great excuse for a weekend trip for your readers. Additionally, a portion of funds will benefit two charitable organizations, Kansas City Care Clinic and AIDS Service Foundation of Greater Kansas City.

Tickets went on sale this week, and I wanted to share the official news release for more information in case you’d like to include on upcoming regional events calendars or include a blurb in your publication.

You can view the news release athttp://powerandlightdistrict.com/index.cfm?page=news, which includes all details, but please let me know if you have questions.

Thank you for your consideration,

Kenneth Martin

New Beer from Tallgrass and Distribution Updates

August 20, 20131 Comment

Tallgrass Brewing is at it again as joining their new farmhouse ale on the shelves is going to be a robust porter called Zombie Monkey. Not only is this great news as porters seem to be playing second fiddle style-wise, rumor has it that this canned brew will come with a tactile grip on the can!

Many people have been asking questions about updates on breweries hitting the Eastern Iowa market, and while news has been slow but rumblings still persist. One brewery I had heard about is Alaskan Brewery so I reached out to them and here is what I received in return:

It is true that we’re looking at our expansion options for 2014. This year, we successfully filled in one hole in our distribution by beginning to sell in New Mexico, which is great. So, we’re hoping that we can do something equally cool in 2014, possibly Iowa, possibly Illinois. We’ll see. In the meantime, stay excited. We’ve got a great Pumpkin Porter being released in our Pilot Series in a few weeks!

Cheers,

Alaskan Brew Crew

Hopefully more updates will follow. Still waiting to hear from Odell.

Shipyard Brewing Mint Chocolate Stout hitting shelves

August 18, 2013Leave a comment

Shipyard Brewing will be releasing a new brew to their Signature Series line starting in November. A mint chocolate stout should be available in 22 oz bottles soon. I’ve seen Shipyard products sporadically on Eastern Iowa shelves so I’m not exactly sure who is going to be carrying it. I know they are distributed by Dimitri Wine and Spirits out of Davenport. Let me know if you see this brew on your shelves. More from beerpulse.com:

Portland, ME) – Shipyard Brewing Company is adding a new beer to Pugsley’s Signature Series: Shipyard Mint Chocolate Stout. More on this imperial stout below…

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ABV: 9%

Description: Mint Chocolate Stout is a dark, silky beer with aromas of chocolate and licorice. Smooth chocolate and coffee flavors upfront lead to a subtle spearmint finish. To fully enjoy all the flavors of this ale it is best drunk at 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

Malt: Pale, Flaked Barley, Chocolate, Roasted Barley, Rolled Oats, Whole Wheat, Black, Caramunich II

Hops: WGV (Whitbread Golding Variety), Perle

Yeast: Top-fermenting English

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Look for it in 22 oz. gold foil-topped bottles and draft from November through February.

Stone Enjoy By 9-13-13 Hits Eastern Iowa Shelves

August 15, 2013August 15, 20136 Comments

Coming and going soon is Stone’s popular Enjoy By series. This time you must Enjoy By 9-13-13 and if you don’t get it quick you might not get it all. John’s Grocery in Iowa City posted the following on their Facebook page:

I’LL BE BACK!!!!
Find me tomorrow-Friday at John’s (late morning delivery)
I won’t be here for long!!!

Also hearing that Johncey’s in North Liberty has it in stock as well. (thanks Phil Kassel)

I haven’t heard or seen anything from Hy-Vees in Eastern Iowa or Benz Beverage Depot. If your favorite beer store has it, please drop me a line so I can update as quickly as possible. If you’ve been living under a rock or are new to the craft beer world here’s the brewery’s description of Enjoy By:

You have in your hands a devastatingly fresh double IPA. While freshness is a key component of many beers- especially big, citrusy, floral IPAs- we’ve taken it further, a lot further, in this IPA. You see, we specifically brewed it NOT to last. We’ve not only gone to extensive lengths to ensure that you’re getting this beer in your hands within an extraordinarily short window, we made sure that the Enjoy By date isn’t randomly etched in tiny text somewhere on the bottle, to be overlooked by all but the most attentive of retailers and beer fans. Instead, we’ve sent a clear message with the name of the beer itself that there is no better time than right now to enjoy this IPA.

Beer Review #110: Clown Shoes Brewing Genghis Pecan Pie Porter

August 14, 2013Leave a comment

The name alone sold me on this beer. I hadn’t done any research, read any reviews, got any feedback at all on this beer. I just saw it on the shelves at Benz Beverage Depot and took a shot. This was my 2nd Clown Shoes beer to try, I first had their Clementine White Ale a few years back and thought it was ok. This beer however, I had high hopes for! I pictured a nut-brown type flavor with a bit more sweetness and a little more thickness and roasted flavor to along with the porter style. Here’s the brewery description:

Our new Pecan Pie Porter no longer uses extract, but rather brown sugar and pecans roasted by friends at The Gallows in Boston. Buddy Hadry, a rep at Bella Vista in PA, gave me the name for this beer, the second Pecan beer now that he has named. Thank you, Buddy!

This beer had in past been brewed with pecan extract and recently Clown Shoes changed to using fresh roasted pecans. The beer definitely had some roasted notes and a subtle pecan and brown sugar flavor but not as much as I was hoping. Definitely not liquid pecan pie.

This was not a bad beer, just didn’t hit the expectations that I had for it. I think it could have actually been a tad sweeter and for some reason, I wanted to be blown away the flavor of the pecans and I just wasn’t. The mouthfeel was a bit too thin for me and what I like for porters. Once again, not a bad beer at all, just missed the mark in some departments for me. I think pecan is an underutilized ingredient in beer and this was just the 2nd beer I’ve had with it in beer. The Stone Woot Stout I’ve enjoyed and I know Abita Brewing and Lazy Magnolia have a pecan beer, but if any brewers are thinking have using this nut in their beer my advice would be not to skimp on the pecan! The perfect balance of malts and nuts in a beer would Rogue’s Hazelnut Brown Ale. If that can be done with pecans, I’m in!

REVIEW

STYLE: Porter

ABV: 7%

PURCHASED AT: Benz Beverage Depot; Cedar Rapids

POUR: Medium sized tan head, dark black pour.

AROMA: Roasted malts, nuts, coffee.

TASTE: Very subtle, maybe too subtle, flavor of pecans and brown sugar. A bit thin on the mouthfeel.

Ratebeer.com rating: 92

Beeradvocate raing: 85

Overall: C

My recommendation: Decent porter, but once again, a bit misleading. Was looking for a post supper dessert beer but this wasn’t one to do that.

New to Shelves: Boulevard Pop-Up Session IPA

August 8, 20132 Comments

Another sessionable IPA is/will be hitting shelves in Eastern Iowa very soon, in fact it might already be there. Boulevard’s Pop-Up Session IPA is their newest year-round offering. Here’s the breakdown of the beer:

Style: IPA
ABV: 4.2%

More info courtesy of Boulevard’s webpage:

Boulevard Pop-Up Session I.P.A. joins its big brothers Single-Wide and Double-Wide in our trailer park of hop-centric beers. This “session” model is built for frequent excursions, with a very drinkable character and relatively low bitterness tucked behind a big, fruity hop aroma.

New Tallgrass Beer Hitting Shelves This Week

August 7, 20132 Comments

Another canned beer coming from Tallgrass Brewing is hitting shelves in Eastern Iowa this week. Going with a unique Wild Plum Farmhouse Ale and like all their other offerings it will be coming in a can! Here’s the release courtesy of Tallgrass Brewing’s website: www.tallgrassbeer.com.

Wild Plum Farmhouse Ale is a crisp, slightly tart, and uniquely refreshing beer. An infusion of wild plums, hand-picked at a genuine farmhouse, gives this beer a light tangy fruit flavor.

The perfect summer companion. Farmhouse ales are also known as “saisons” (French for seasonal), a style of summer beers traditionally brewed by Belgian farmers to serve farm workers as part of their wages. Not a bad deal, if you can get it.

Wild Plum is available each summer, June through July.

Beer Trip: 3 Floyds Brewery; Munster, Indiana

August 6, 2013August 8, 20131 Comment

A few weeks back as my wife and I were traveling to Chicago with her brother and his future old lady, the comment of someone saying we have time to either stop and shop at an outlet mall or head to Munster, Indiana to go to 3 Floyds brewery is a definite possibility. As tears of joy sprang to my eyes, everyone was on board for the trip to the brewery. Having traveling companions that also enjoy good food and great craft beer is always a plus and makes for an even better experience. No planning whatsoever, just a trip over, so the possibility of getting a few cases of Zombie Dust was really up in the air. So often I see a Facebook message from 3 F’s saying they are sold out of Zombie Dust, so I wasn’t going in with high hopes.

3 F’s is very easy to get to, 20 minutes or so outside of Chicago, a nice easy drive from Iowa. It was around 2ish in the afternoon when we pulled in on a Friday and the amount of people heading into the brewpub was quite impressive. A line to get in to eat, a line at the beer take out-door, but never fear! Once you reach this great destination, patience is the key. You CANNOT go in and hang by the bar and order a beer, you must wait for a table or chair, then sit and they will serve. So, after putting our names down for a late lunch, we got in line to buy some brew to take home. OUT OF ZOMBIE DUST was the greeting, but that was ok because I was to make up for not getting bottles to trying in fresh on tap for the first time, and then repeating a few more times. I was able to procure a case of Gumballhead and a few random bombers of greatness (Dreadnaught, Panzer Wolf).

The brewery is very hard rock/punk concept but at the same time there were multiple tables with their kids eating as well. We got a table in about 15 minutes and then tried to decide what to eat. The menu was very unique but intriguing at the same time. The table behind us commented a few times about how great the food was so it was tough to choose. My wife and spilt the brisket tacos, pulled pork, and tator tot poutine. All were fantastic! The brisket was melt in your mouth tender, the pork with flavorful without being overly sweet, and poutine had tons of flavor. All washed down with fresh beer making it a wonderful experience. (Check out their menu here). The artwork on the way to the pisser was great and worth time to check out as well, featuring the Gumballhead cat.

With the kind of food and beer you can get, mix in a great and knowledgable wait staff, Munster is a must visit location for all craft beer lovers. 3 1/2 hours or so from Iowa City is well worth the drive. I can’t wait to go back!

New to Shelves: New Belgium Pumpkick

August 5, 2013Leave a comment

I have yet to see it but apparently New Belgium Brewing is replacing Red Hoptober with a pumkin brew of their own called Pumpkick. Here’s the press release courtesy of http://www.beerpulse.com:

(Fort Collins, CO) – New Belgium Brewing Co. took the plunge earlier this summer, releasing its first seasonal pumpkin ale, though the company hasn’t officially announced it yet.

New Belgium Pumpkick replaces Red Hoptober in the company’s third quarter slot. Some info on the beer below via New Belgium’s website…

What’s that bite of tartness doing in a pumpkin beer? Adding the unexpected kick of cranberry juice to brighten this traditionally spiced seasonal ale. PUMPKICK is brewed with plenty of pumpkin juice cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, but its the cranberries and touch of lemongrass that send your tastebuds sailing. ABV: 6.0%.

According to Twitter reports, we can deduce the beer first hit the market just before the July 13th weekend but it may not have made its way around to all markets yet.

New to Shelves: O'Fallon 10 Day IPA and Pumpkin Ale Cans

August 1, 2013Leave a comment

As we near fall we start to see Octoberfest beers and Pumpkin beers hitting our shelves. One pumpkin beer I really enjoy is from O’Fallon Brewery in St. Louis. This year their pumpkin beer will be coming to us in cans. Here’s the press release courtesy of http://www.beerpulse.com.

(O’Fallon, MO) – O’Fallon Brewery, brewers of 5-Day IPA and other award-winning craft beers, is celebrating National IPA Day today with the launch of 10-Day IPA, the craft brewer’s first Imperial IPA (India Pale Ale).

10-Day IPA is big, bold Imperial IPA brewed with a ridiculous amount of hops. O’Fallon Brewmaster, Brian Owens started with two-row barley, caramel and honey malt and white wheat. He then added Magnum, Centennial, Chinook, Cascade and Calypso hops – over three pounds of hops per barrel!

The result is a very hop forward beer, but 10-Day also has a sturdy malt backbone which balances the beer. The malt also gives 10-Day IPA a subtle caramel sweetness and a hint of honey both which help balance hop bitterness. Once the beer was finished Owens added even more Centennial, Chinook and Calypso hops (a process called “dry hopping”) to give the beer a huge citrusy, piney aroma which has become the signature of American Imperial IPAs.

“We’ve brewed many beers we’re proud of since I joined the O’Fallon Brewery 13 years ago, but 10-Day IPA is a true labor of love for me,” said Owens. “Most brewmasters don’t admit to having a favorite style of beer, but I love huge Imperial IPAs, and I’ve wanted to create 10-Day for some time. This is a limited run as part of our ‘Brewer’s Stash’ series, so I encourage anyone who’s a fan of big, hoppy beers to get their hands on some 10-Day IPA before it’s gone.”

10-Day IPA is 9.0 percent alcohol by volume, 75 IBUs and will be priced similarly to other specialty craft beers. The beer will be available September through December when it will be replaced with the next beer in the “Brewer’s Stash” series.

10-Day IPA will be available at grocery stores and liquor stores throughout Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin and will be supported with sign-making and point-of-sale materials.

O’Fallon Brewery is also introducing its award-winning O’Fallon Pumpkin Beer in cans for the first time. Beginning in August the beer will be available in six-packs of 12-oz. cans as well as six-packs and 12-packs (12 oz. bottles) and on draught. O’Fallon Pumpkin was the first pumpkin beer available in St. Louis and one of the first pumpkin beers in the country when first introduced in 2003.