Kalona Brewing Adding 16 oz cans for 2 Beers to Lineup

August 20, 2015Leave a comment

Kalona Brewing is adding 2 beers to their lineup that will come in 16 oz cans. You should be seeing these soon on shelves and be sure to check out their other offerings as well. An Oktoberfest beer perfect for this time of year and a light lager to go with your Saturday morning tailgating. For more info on Kalona Brewery and their others beers and stacked food menu, go to kalonabrewing.com. Here’s more on the 16 oz releases:

Limber Legs Oktoberfest 5.4% – 16oz cans

The Oktoberfest tradition started with the celebration of the marriage of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig in 1810. Limber Legs Lager is a true representation of this style.

Kalona Classic – Light Lager 4.2% – 16oz cans

Many of the local residents in Kalona and the surrounding area enjoy lighter beer as their preferred beer of choice. We decided to bring its own unique take on the style for a beer that is refreshing, light in body and finishes with a toasty note.

Big Grove Brewery 2 Year Anniversary Bottle Share News

August 19, 2015August 19, 2015Leave a comment

Going off of some earlier news about Big Grove Breweries 2 year anniversary party on August 29th and the highly anticipated release of Richard the Whale and variants was also the fact that they will be hosting a bottle share:

Also on the docket, we’re setting up the bottle-share glassware at 11am, so feel free to stop in with a bottle of something cool and explore the world through liquid.

Now, for this share, I can confirm that Big Grove will be kicking out some stellar kegs for tasting as well to go along with this. Here’s a glimpse of four beers will see make its way from the Big Grove cellar and to the tap lines:

*Founders KBS

*2013 Evil Twin Biscotti Break

*Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Stout

*Evil Twin NYE Hotel Room

So, bring a bottle or two of your own and stop on in! Cheers!

Fall is upon us in August (and July)

August 18, 20151 Comment

Well, they’re here…….pumpkin beers. Now, I know that there are some people out there that despise the thought of these beers in general, some despise the thought of these beers prior to September, and some people absolutely go ape shit for these beers. Me, I’m indifferent. I like a pumpkin beer here and there, but it’s hard for me to get excited about pumpkin beers in this muggy ass Iowa humidity. However, there is a bit of a silver lining in all of the quite early pumpkin releases and that is the release of……drum roll…..MARZENS + Oktoberfest beers!! WOOHOO! Listen, I know these are “fall” beers, but honestly, I could easily drink a Millstream Oktoberfest, Staghorn from New Glarus, Ayinger Oktoberfest, Hacker-Prschorr, Bob’s 47 from Boulevard and so on. This is a style that yes, tastes superior in the fall, with the cool, crisp air while watching an Iowa football game or a…ahem…Buffalo Bills game (we will make the playoffs this year!!).

Octoberfest beers symbol the sign of cooling weather (hopefully), football season, and the falling of leaves. But, the pumpkins are also here! The spicy and in your face Schlafly pumpkin ale, O’Fallon pumpkin beer, Southern Tier’s Warlock and Pumpking, Dogfish Head Punkin, Ichabod from New Holland, Sam Adams Harvest Ale and Fat Jack, Rogues Pumpkin Patch and many more. Last year I remember Big Grove Brewery in Solon releasing Pumpkin Little Secret and absolutely loving it but that was closer to Christmas. With all this being said, I want to know, what is your favorite fall beer? What do you look forward to most? Is it a marzen, is it a pumpkin? Well, vote below? I’m limiting the options to those available in Iowa and I’ll probably miss a few of those too, so please, if you choose other, comment which one! Cheers to beers and to fall!

Sixpoint Brewing coming to Iowa with Abu Nawas Distribution

August 11, 20152 Comments

Just saw this release on Facebook from Abu Nawas distribution. More exciting beer news for us in Iowa! Cheers!

Abu Nawas Beverage Company

We are very excited to announce that we are going to be bringing the beers from theSixpoint Brewery to Iowa!

(Elkader, Iowa) – August 11th, 2015 – Abu Nawas Beverage Company is proud to announce the addition of Six Point Brewery to their beer portfolio. Starting August 27th, 2015, Iowa will be treated to the respected craft and highly-rated beers of Sixpoint Brewery from Brooklyn, New York. The Brewery began operations in the. Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn in 2004, when co-founder Shane Welch decided to open up his own brewery after relocating from his home state of Wisconsin. Shane got his start in home brewing while still a student at the University of Wisconsin. Since their inception, Sixpoint has garnered some major street cred in the craft beer industry as a leader in expertly crafted beers, excellent customer service, and innovative packaging design.
Abu Nawas Beverage Company is humbled, thankful and extremely excited to bring the outstanding beers of Six Point Brewery to the great State of Iowa. Abu Nawas will be carrying both cans and kegs for customers. Retailers interested in carrying Six Point products should contact Abu Nawas through their websitewww.abunawasbeverage.com.

Coming to Shelves: Stone, Lagunitas, August Schell, new Boulevard Collab

August 6, 20153 Comments

Some releases that will be hitting our market in the coming months…(to go along with Oktoberfest and Pumpkin Beers 🙂 have me pretty excited. The August Schell Noble Star Collection has been a huge success and I’m really looking forward to this next release. As for some local news, Big Grove Brewery will be holding their 2 year Anniversary party on August 29th. Below is their lineup for this can’t miss event:

Saturday, August 29 – The Anniversary Tailgate. Show up at 11am with your tailgating kit and spend the day with BGB. We’re serving up a hog roast, walk-chalking, and whatever else feels right. Don’t give that spot up, because live music from The Dawn starts at 6pm. It’s how we do it.

Here’s what we have for ANNIVERSARY BEER RELEASES:

Anniversary 2015 with JBC Coffee Roasters (DIPA with Harfusa Ethiopia organic coffee)

Batch 400 Collaboration with Third Base Brewery (super top secret, but it’s going to be super cool)

Richard the Whale (Heaven Hill bbl aged RIS)

Richard the Whale Sumatra with JBC Coffee Roasters (organic coffee variant)

Richard the Whale Super Secret Stout (wouldn’t you like to know?)

Oud Bruin (fermented for one year in Shorts Whiskey bbl with black chokeberries, name TBD)

Golden Brett Ale (fermented for 14 months in Opus One bbl, name TBD)

Onto some other news:

Stone Brewing – will be releasing another brew in the Stochasticity series titled Your Father Smelt of Elderberries. It’s going to be an amber ale with eldberberries added and come in at 8.8% and like all other Stochasticity releases be available in 22 oz bottles. Here’s more on this brew from Stone:

Stochasticity Project beers bravely explore lesser-trod territory. Imagine if you will emerging from the furthest depths of the dark, misty forest of time holding a chalice (perhaps one of catholically divine caliber) filled with an ale style dating back to medieval England. We find ourselves carried by the gait of hooves (which oddly sound like someone is clacking together two empty coconut halves) and happen upon a caste siege. Insults are being hurled from the walls above from …Frenchmen? Time to run away (after one last whack at the mighty stone castle walls with a broadsword) to discuss strategy just beyond the reach of catapulted bovines. Beer brewed with elderberries is freely shared. What strategies come from this? Trojan Rabbit! A brilliant ruse they’re sure to…catapult. Word to the wise, Sir Bedivere. Don’t strategize whilst drinking elderberry beer or the constables may show up at the end of your flick.

Lagunitas Brewing – according to mybeerbuzz.blogspot.com will be releasing a double alt called Doppel Sticky and will be part of their One-Hitter Series. This beer will be available in 12 oz bottles and come in 8.5%. No word on the drop date quite yet.

August Schell Brewing – two new beers coming out in the popular Noble

Star Collection. The first is called Apparent Horizon and is a Rye Berlin-style wheat ale that will come in the 25.36 oz bottles. The 2nd release is called Orbital Drift and is a berlin-style wheat ale. Release details have yet to be determined so stay tuned for more.

Boulevard Brewing and Cigar City – Boulevard has released details on its Collaboration #5. This beer will be brewed with Cigar City brewing and will be a tropical pale ale and will be part of the smokestack series coming in at 7.3% but it will be available in 12 oz bottle 4 packs instead of the 750mL. Release date is tentatively schedule for September of this year so be on the look out for this one. The hop bill sounds very promising. Here’s more from Boulevard on this brew:

Combining CCB’s expertise with tropical fruit flavors and Boulevard’s love of pale ales, Collaboration No. 5 – Tropical Pale Ale begins with a base of soft pilsner malt layered with Maris Otter, Munich and caramel malts. Huge late hopping with a blend of Mosaic, Citra, Lemondrop and Azacca lends bright flavors of mango, pear, blueberry and citrus to a pale ale featuring slightly toasted biscuit and caramel/toffee notes. Infused with freshly sliced grapefruit at the conclusion of the boil, our tropical pale ale is briefly aged on passion fruit and grapefruit at the end of fermentation resulting in a refreshing acidity and tropical fruit flavor and aroma. At 7.3 ABV and 55 IBUs, Collaboration No. 5 – Tropical Pale Ale finishes slightly tart with bright citrus character from dry-hopping with Lemondrop, Azacca andPacific Jade hops.

Exile Brewing Day at Reds Alehouse this Saturday 8/8/15! Beatnik Sour Cask w/Blueberries

August 5, 2015Leave a comment

The following email was received from Reds Alehouse:

You’ve probably seen Exile making the leap from Des Moines to Eastern IA the past few months. But what you haven’t seen is what’s going to be sitting on top of our bar this SATURDAY AUGUST 8TH. For the first time, Reds

and Exile would like to present:

Beatnik Sour Cask w/ Blueberries!

Along with this funky, fresh, and delish cask pouring right in front of your face with the help of our old friend gravity, we’ll also be serving up Daytrotter Pale Ale and a special pre-release of Exile Chill Clinton, a double hemp amber ale.

Beers on at 11am followed by a 3:00 tapping of Blueberry Beatnik

2015 Bourbon County Lineup Announced

July 30, 2015Leave a comment

Thanks to the Beer Counselor for the link to the Chicago Tribune article announcing the lineup for 2015 Bourbon County Stout. Obviously, not sure what Iowa will see, but you can expect every year to be a Black Friday beer shopping spree and I’m sure it will continue to get busier. The following is courtesy of the Chicago Tribune:

Bourbon County Brand Stout

Bourbon County Brand Barleywine

Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout, made with Intelligentsia’s Los Delirios Nicaraguan coffee bean

Bourbon County Brand Regal Rye Stout, made with blackberry juice, cocktail cherries and sea salt

Proprietor’s Bourbon County Brand Stout, made with maple syrup aged in bourbon barrels, toasted pecans and guajillo peppers

Goose Island Rare Bourbon County Brand Stout, which is being aged for two years in 35-year-old Heaven Hill whiskey barrels.

To read further on each of these releases please view the article here, terrific read:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/goose-island-new-bourbon-county-stout-story.html#page=1

Coming to Shelves: Black Butte XXVII, NB Farmhouse, Next Stone Enjoy By Date, Bells 30th Ann. Imp. Stout

July 14, 20151 Comment

Quite a few tidbits so far this week and some big hitting beers that we will be seeing coming between now and the fall months. A new BBQ joint opening up in the old Old Capital Brew Works site called Mosleys. It’s coming from the owners of Reds/Big Grove/30hop/Pullman so you know it’s going to be legit. Hope to have more info soon after I talk to one of the owners. Onto the news for the week:

*Deschutes Black Butte XXVII – a beer I look forward to every year since their arrival in Iowa has been Deschutes’ Black Butte Porter. A different spin on this imperial porter has it being brewed with rose water, cocoa nibs, pomegranate molasses. Here’s more from Deschutes:

Our 27th Anniversary Imperial Porter was brewed with Theo’s cocoa nibs, pomegranate molasses and select spices, blended with apricot puree, and then aged in bourbon barrels. The result is a truly exquisite ale with bold chocolate character, inspired flavors of fruit, and just a pinch of spice. The perfect way for us to celebrate our golden birthday with you!

Malt: Pale, Wheat, Midnight Wheat, Chocolate, Crystal
Hops: Millennium, Cascade, US Tettnang
Other: Theo Chocolate Cocoa Nibs, Apricot Puree, Pomegranate Molasses
Barrel-Aging: 6 Months in Bourbon (50%)

*New Belgium Long Table Farmhouse Ale – a new beer to the breweries 12 oz releases is a Saison that checks in at 6.2% ABV and will be a seasonal release. More from the brewery:

An ode to the communal Saison, LONG TABLE Farmhouse Ale brings together the juicy flavors of Belgian yeast and Nelson Sauvin hops with the spicy and toasty notes of Munch and Rye grains. Grab a seat!

*Stone Enjoy By 10.31.15 – the latest release on this wonderfully popular beer will start brewing, as of this post in 72 days, 10 hours, and 1 minute. It will be hitting Iowa in both 12 oz and bombers. Here’s more from Stone:

This exquisite liquid patchwork of more than a dozen hops is a devastatingly fresh double IPA. Freshness is a key component of many beers – especially big, hoppy IPAs – but we’ve taken it further, a lot further, with this one. We brewed this IPA specifically NOT to last. We’ve gone to extensive lengths to ensure you get your hands on this beer within an extraordinarily short window, and we’ve sent a very clear message in the name of the beer itself that there is no better time than right NOW to enjoy this IPA!

*Bells 30th Anniversary Ale – 30 years for beers and what better way to celebrate than to pay homage to their Expedition Stout. The 30th Anniversary will be dark fruit filled, roast, and chocolate. A great beer to age due to the dark malt. It will check in at 11% and be available in 6 packs, not sure if sold as singles or not.

Stone 24 Carrot Golden Ale hitting shelves in September

June 5, 2015Leave a comment

Another very unique beer coming from Stone Brewing in collab with Monkey Paw. Here’s the write-up on this unique Carrot Cake inspired beer courtesy of Stone Brewing’s blog:

It seems hard to believe anyone could accomplish this, much less do so in a manner so impressive that the resulting beer would be good enough to beat out hop-heavy IPAs, strong ales, robust stouts and other more mainstream, universally adored styles. Yet, that’s just what Goldenberg did. To the extent where our judging panel was eager to find out just how she did it; concoct an ale that brings in the vegetal, spicy, confectionery essence of such a classic dessert. She started with two key ingredients—20 pounds of whole, grated carrots and golden raisins. The latter were puréed with the wort and both were added to the boil. Though a less obvious specialty additive, beet juice was also included in the recipe to help bolster the eventual orange color of the finished beer. Cinnamon was also added, post-fermentation, to round out the cake flavors, but Goldenberg didn’t stop there. She also wanted to tackle carrot cake’s iconic cream cheese icing. To do that, she incorporated milk sugar (lactose) in the boil and vanilla beans post-fermentation, resulting in a semi-creamy mouthfeel with a flavor reminiscent of fluffy, decadent frosting. When the beer is brewed for real here at Stone, there’s one other special ingredient she’ll draw on, which wasn’t a part of her original recipe—the brewing knowledge and might of downtown San Diego’s Monkey Paw Pub & Brewery, the brewpub she selected as the third collaborator for this strange but sultry beer.

Look for Juli Goldenberg/Monkey Paw/Stone 24 Carrot Golden Ale (see what we did there?) to start hitting shelves across the country in places Stone beer is sold in September. Until then, enjoy a sneak peek at the conceptual artwork for this award-winner and maybe let it inspire you to explore uncharted territory on the homebrewing front from the comfort of your abode.

KBS Release at Oakland Rd. Hy-Vee starting at 5:00 tonight

March 30, 20151 Comment

The following email comes from Oakland Road Hy-Vee in Cedar Rapids as the highly anticipated KBS release hits Iowa today! Here’s the following from Oakland Road:

We will be releasing Founders KBS today at 5:00 p.m. via a lottery system. We have found this to be the most fair way of doing it when you have limited quantities to go around. Starting at 4:30 today we will hand out raffle tickets and if the demand is greater than the amount of beer we have on hand we will draw winners. Thanks for your understanding in this situation where its impossible to make everyone happy.