With the addition of Odell this week and Firestone Walker’s imminent appearance, the shelves of Iowa liquor stores sure have a cramping issue! A great problem for us consumers to have this many options. So, thinking of the newest additions to the state I was wondering who everyone thinks is the best non-Iowa brewery on our shelves? I’m thinking their whole portfolio that we see, or if you just have a particular favorite. Who’s the best? I know we could get into an oversaturation conversation easily here and pick the worst, but let’s look on the brightside. Your favorite brewery on our shelves? Would love some discussion on this one! Let me know if I’ve left anyone notable out, cheers!
Tag: iowa beer baron
Big Grove Tapping “Hop Lopper” Double IPA this Friday! (4/8)
Big Grove Brewery will be adding another IPA to their already impressive portfolio when they tap Hop Lopper Double IPA this Friday, April 8th when the doors open! Here’s more on this beer:
Brewed using honey and wheat malt, local honey, and decapitating amount of Cascade, Wakatu, and Green Bullet in the Dry Hopping. This beer will come in at 8%.
The rollout of this beer will start next Tuesday, April 12th, at the Bar’Ber Shop in Coralville.
Get out and get yourself a taste!
Reds Alehouse Tapping Bell’s Hop Grandslam Tuesday April 19th
If you are a Hopslam lover then this is right up your alley and will be a can’t miss event. Red’s Alehouse in North Liberty is 
receiving 1 of the 3 kegs supplied to Iowa from Bells of their Hop GrandSlam! Hopslam dry hopped and more honey added, it comes in at 10.5% and Reds wants to try to set their personal best record of emptying a keg. Can 14 minutes be topped? Here’s more from Reds on this exciting event!
BREAK THE RECORD WITH BELL’S BREWERY!Most likely, the majority of you know of a little beer made by Bell’s known as Hopslam. But, we’re guessing the majority of you have not heard ofBELL’S HOP GRANDSLAM!The first year Bell’s has made this mystery beast of a beer, it’s Hopslam dry-hopped at twice the rate and even more Michigan honey and coming in at a whopping 10.5%. The kicker? Only 3 kegs were sent to this state.So, what should we do with it? Obviously, throw a party!April 19th, we’re hoping to break our personal best time of emptying a keg from start to finish! Can we finish this keg in under 14 minutes? We sure gosh-darn think so! But we need your help!To even further incentivize you to show up and help us, we’re tapping the following the same day:Bell’s The Wild OneBell’s Barrel Aged Consecrator DopplebockMilchkaffee Milk Stout
Two More Odell Release Party Announcements: Reds Alehouse + Oakland Rd. Hy-Vee in CR
Per Reds Alehouse email:
More and more renowned breweries keep popping up in our state and we couldn’t be happier!! Odell Brewing from Fort Collins is launching in the Hawkeye State this
Tuesday April 5th.Reds will be one of the first places in Iowa to tap Odell beers along with having owner and co-founder Doug Odell in the building!“Well, what beers will you have Reds?”Good question beer nerd!Reds will be tapping the following brews on Tuesday:Mycernary DIPATreeshaker Peach DIPACutthroat PorterIPA90 SchillingFriekPina Agria*The Meddler*Russian Pirate**limited releaseCome hang with us, the cool folks from Odell, grab some free swag and delicious beers and have a grand ol’ time!
From Oakland Rd Hy-Vee email:
Please join us in welcoming Odell Brewing Co. to Iowa, we will be receiving many fantastic beers from them on Monday and on Tuesday a couple of brewery representatives will be on hand from 4:00-5:30 to sample through their beers.
Coralville Hy-Vee Hosting Odell Release Party April 7th
Odell will be rolling into Iowa next week and release parties are taking shape. Hy-Vee in Coralville will be hosting one on April 7th. More info is listed in the flyer below:
Exile Blood Orange Sour Bohemian Coming Soon!
Fans of Exile Brewing’s sours will be happy with the news that they will be releasing another sour in the Fruit Revue series called Blood Orange Bohemian. The label art is below courtesy of Exile’s Facebook page. Stay tuned to release details. Pretty excited for this one!
Coming soon in our Bohemian Fruit Revue series: BLOOD ORANGE BOHEMIAN!!
Beer Review #124: Surly Xtra Citra Pale Ale
Surly was nice enough to pass along a few cans of their latest beer, Xtra Citra Pale and after tasting the cans over the weekend it’s safe to say that Iowa will have another great session brew to choose from for this spring and summer. Definitely a lawn mower beer if there ever was one!
The citra hop continues to shine and be a prominent hop in many releases and with this beer it really takes center stage. Citra on the nose, citra in the taste..citra, citra, citra! My first can tasted pretty solid, but that was after I had already been drinking a bit, so tasting this one with a clean palate really helped and the citrus zest really shined. Like most session IPA/Pales I expected that the flavor would have started with a great burst of sweetness and then tail off a bit. But this one, like, All Day, had that resinous that clung a bit longer making this very refreshing brew.
Coming in at 4.5% in 16 oz cans and rumored be hitting a $7.99 price tag, this beer will be a welcome addition to many of your refrigerators this spring and summer. Not to mention it will be a great addition to any baseball/football tailgate as well. Surly adds to the session ipa/pale market and with their beer, they just might have added one of the better ones. Here’s more from Surly:
Xtra-Citra will be hitting shelves and taps in all our markets starting this week. One of our lead brewers Jerrod Johnson noted that like all our beers, this one is hard to pin down in terms of a specific style: “It’s just a great sessionable beer. People really love the fruitiness of Citra hops, but this one has a nice body too from the Golden Naked Oats.”
Xtra-Citra is refreshing with tropical, citrusy hop notes and a pleasant bitterness and body. “I call it a low altitude beer,” added Johnson. “It’s perfect as the days get longer because it’s a beer you can drink all night.”
You might have noticed that we (quietly) debuted Xtra-Citra at a few bars and restaurants in the Twin Cities Metro a couple of weeks back. Team Surly turned out in force around our hometown to help unsuspecting folks forget the snow and #GetSunny instead. In exchange for an Xtra-Citra and a pair of Surly shades, we asked people to grab a crayon and show us their sunny side. We were super impressed with your #GetSunny art and we’ve stuck them all up on the refrigerator…
STYLE: Pale Ale
ABV: 4.5%
PURCHASED AT: N/A
POUR: Yellow/gold pour, nice medium sized white head. Lots of lacing. Very fresh.
AROMA: Citrus zest, lots of it.
TASTE: More citrus, citrus peel. Very refreshing.
RATEBEER.COM RATING: N/A
BEERADVOCATE RATING: N/A
OVERALL: B
My recommendation: Have this on hand all spring /summer! Keep some in your garage fridge, basement fridge, kitchen fridge and just grab one we need something cold, delicious, and refreshing after a long day of working in the yard! Cheers!
And the Best Pale Ale in Iowa is……
1st Place – Big Grove Brewery Arms Race Pale Ale
2nd Place – 515 Brewing Passe 
3rd Place – Toppling Goliath Pseudo Sue
Once again, congrats to the winners. Next poll will open either tonight (Monday) or tomorrow and I’m thinking it will be double/triple IPA category. Are there enough browns/porters/saisons/pils to do individual categories for those? I’ll research a bit and hopefully we can do all of those. Thanks for voting, thanks for the interaction and cheers!
Former Big Grove Brewer Bill Heinrich Presents Kickshaw Barrel Works
Some big news coming locally today as former Big Grove brewer, Bill Heinrich, has announced that he is starting up Kickshaw Barrel Works and Lion Bridge Brewery will be the host brewery for Kickshaw Barrel Works which will be a migratory brewery. It sounds like Mr. Heinrich is going to be focusing on sours, so if you like brett and lacto, this is going to be right up your alley! Congrats to Bill on this exciting new venture and I can’t wait to try the results! Here’s Kickshaw Barrel Works exclusive press release:
Kickshaw Barrel WorksAnd now, a note to the beer universe:I don’t know about you, but I love the intersection of sour beer and wood. I have an affinity for the multitude of forms that beer takes at that point, from light to full; soft to sharp; still to effervescent. The Belgian classic acid ales and the American experimental sours have each shown the depth and breadth of great beers that come from barrels and have always held me in awe of what can be created from natural complexity.So I suppose that’s the starting point: a love of microbes, wood, malt, and hops that yield a complex matrix of acids and alcohols, esters and tannins, execution and presentation that is the world of creating and consuming sour beers. It seemed like an impossible dream to do it on my own, to explore the many techniques and styles while simultaneously bringing them to the people with whom I share this community of beer.Fortunately for me (possibly for you, too, assuming I can make anything good), Quinton and Ana McClain at LION BRIDGE BREWING COMPANY have been unbelievably gracious in their offer to make theirs the inaugural host brewery for the migratory brewer Kickshaw Barrel Works. Quinton and I have worked together multiple times over the last eight years, and his vision for collaboratively creating this project is the rational anchor for my crazy-assed ideas for barrel fermentation of sour beers.We will celebrate the formation of this effort with a collaboration brew utilizing the strengths of both Lion Bridge and Kickshaw, as we celebrate the strengths of oak, Brettanomyces, and Lactobacillus. And then it’s off to the races, as we fill Kickshaw barrels with all the experimental microflora and use all the experimental techniques that I can come up with.Get yourself some antacids, friends, because things are about to get weird.Santé!Bill HeinrichKickshaw Barrel Works
Coming Soon: Avery Coconut Porter, New Belgium Botanical IPA, Bell’s Special Lager
Quite a few beers will be hitting the shelves in Eastern Iowa in the coming months along with Odell joining the state in distro. On to the news:
**Avery Coconut Porter** – according to beerstreetjournal.com this beer will become available this May and will be a rum barrel aged beer that will check in at 9.5% and come in 22 oz bottles. More from Avery and beerstreetjournal:
Avery Coconut Porter is a new entry in the brewery’s Botanicals & Barrels Series. The series recently saw the addition of another beer, Vanilla Bean Stout.
Avery Coconut Porter is a chocolatey porter, brewed with fresh coconut, and aged in rum barrels.
Rare rum barrels and an audacious amount of coconut complement the chocolatey nature of this decadent porter.
**New Belgium Hop Botanical Imperial IPA**- the Hop Kitchen Series continues for New Belgium as Botanical Imperial IPA is available this month and might be on draft lines now. This beer checks in at 8.5% and will be draft only release. Here’s more on this beer from New Belgium:
Then we intensified the citrusy, herbal and spicy hop flavors with a blast of essential oils from backyard botanicals basil, sage and juniper to create the freshest IPA around. A touch of dark caramel malt adds a nice cushiony bed to the sip before the beer transitions into a warming, dry finish. Taste the bounty of Botanical Imperial IPA.
**Bells Quinannan Falls Special Lager – another canned offering is coming from the folks at Bell’s Brewing Company as Quinannan Falls Special Lager will be available in 12 oz cans starting in June. Here’s more from Bells:
The end result is a dry-hopped lager that possesses a crisp, dry bitterness you would expect from a German pilsner, but the use of highly aromatic Simcoe hops from the Pacific Northwest, evoke the fragrant pine forests that inspired this beer.
