Left Hand Brewing has announced their 2018 lineup with some new additions to their rotation. Check out the list, some good looking stuff coming from them:
Tag: iowa craft beer
Review: Firetrucker Mole Grail
Thanks to sLim for hooking me up with a growler of this brew. One of Firetrucker’s latest releases is going to come at the cinnamon and spice beer lovers out there. If you dig Stone’s Xocoveza then this is a beer you can get behind.
Firetrucker’s Mole Grail is an imperial stout that is brewed with cocoa, cinnamon, and ancho and pasilia peppers. Perfect for a chilly Iowa evening and coming in at 8% it can warm you up quick.
A bit thin on the body and the chiles are extremely subtle compared to some beers of this style, so if you’re hoping for a lot of spice, probably won’t get it here but the flavor the cocoa and cinnamon is spot on. Firetrucker has a good one here. Expect to see it on tap in the next few weeks or sooner at the Tin Roost in North Liberty, Need Pizza in Cedar Rapids, and Short’s Burger and Shine in downtown Iowa City.
Marquee Pizza Presents: Tap that Cask Up! Brrr Fest Eve
Marquee Pizza in the Iowa River Landing in Coralville will be hosting a great event Friday January 26 starting at 7:00 p.m. If you’re in the area for Brrr Fest the following day you’ll want to make sure to stop by. No cover, just lots of great beer. Here’s what beers will be available:
Event Details
Friday 1.26.187pmCasks –Madhouse
Cask – Maple VIP
Style – Maple barrel aged vanilla imperial porter
Lion Bridge
Cask – XXXX Mild with Chocolate
Style – Bourbon and rye barrel aged English mild ale w/chocolate
Big Grove
Cask – Minuteman IPA w/Citra & Blood Orange
Style – Imperial IPA
Exile
Cask – Coffee Vanilla Jesus on a Forklift
Style – Horizon Line Coffee & vanilla infused Rye barrel aged Stout
Reunion
Cask – Lemon & Lime IPA
Style – IPA with lemon, lime and additional simcoe hops
Barntown
Cask – Field of Dreams
Style – IPA w/ orange peel & lemongrass
Fox
Cask – Aronia Berry Hefeweizen
Style – Berry/Rose Hefeweizen
Toppling Goliath
Cask – IPA
Style – IPA
Also – We will open at 9am on Saturday for Brrr Fest with breakfast pizza and tapping some limited kegs throughout the day but starting with
9am – Pulpit Rock Stink JuiceJester King Mad MegBarntown – a new, unamed IPA dry hopped with citra, simcoe, & jarryloCrooked Stave Wild Ales, Evil Twin BA Stout, and more limited release kegs tapped throughout the day – will announce beers on Instagram story as tapped….look out for a end of brrr fest keg@marqueepizzeriaMisc – no tickets required
Buster is Coming!
No, this isn’t a reference to Arrested Development, although Buster was a funny ass character. But, Big Grove is releasing their triple ipa this Friday with a few accounts getting kegs and both Big Grove locations selling 22 oz. bombers of this hoppy greatness. Ok, so the deets on this monster are this:
*11:00 a.m. tapping at both locations and at these locations:
Cedar Rapids/Monticello
*Need Pizza
*Bricks Bar and Grill
*Jitney Wine Bar
Iowa City/Coralville/North Liberty
*The Mill
*Mosleys
*Blackstone
*Reds Alehouse
*30hop
*Pullman
*Shakespeares
*Club 76
*Jitney Wine Bar
Des Moines Area
*El Bait Shop
*Iowa Taproom
*Keg Stand
*Cellar Peanut Pub (Pella)
*BeerStyles
*22 oz bombers are for sale at both locations
*Distro for bombers hits market.
Best of Iowa Beer (Part 2 of 2)
Finally, after a few weeks I’m finally getting back to finishing the Top Ten list that everyone’s been waiting for….(crickets)…..Anyway, with all the great things happening in the Iowa beer scene, every year making a list becomes that more difficult. There are so many breweries I would like to visit, and some I wish I could spend more time at. New Year’s Resolutions are always fun but sometimes get forgotten. I, however, will make one of my Resolutions happen…I will make it to some more Iowa breweries, I will continue supporting my local breweries, and I will continue supporting the Iowa Beer Community! Onto the final five!
*Backpocket 5th Anniversary Stout – many are hailing this as their Iowa Beer of the Year and it would be hard to argue. I thought I had missed out on this beer until a lunch trip to Backpocket Pilot Pub in downtown Cedar Rapids and to my astonishment, 5th Anniversary was still on the lines. After a Grinch-like smile, I went ahead and ordered one…..and then another….and then…kidding, only two but it totally lived up to the hype. If you still are sitting on bottle..you lucky bastard…
The deets:
12.3% ABV
Russian Imperial Stout
*Third Base Miserable in Mexico – I had this beer at the 2017 Brrr Fest (missing this year unfortunately) and was blown away. Jim has been making some great beers for a while now and has 3rd Base as an under the radar brewery. Miserable and Mexico would have been the perfect beer to have these past few weeks in chilly-ass Iowa. Booziness from the bourbon, a bit of heat from the pepper and a ton of chocolate. Boozy Mexican hot chocolate..yes please! Well done Jim and 3rd Base!
The deets:
12.5% ABV
It all started when we put our “Endless Descent Into Ruin” imperial stout in a bourbon barrel and let it rest for 8 months. It emerged as “Miserable.” We then took Miserable and infused it with chocolate and chili peppers. Grown up Mexi Hot (Cold) chocolate
*Pulpit Rock Rechoncho – Another Brrr Fest 2017 beer and another imperial stout to add to my list. Another brew similar to a Mexico hot chocolate but with some added vanilla to it. Pulpit Rock has become a big time player in the Iowa beer game in a short amount of time and 2018 will be even bigger and better for them.
The deets:
12.2% ABV
Spanish for Pudgy – this decadent stout was brewed with Ancho and Chipotle chile peppers, cocoa, cinnamon, Mexican vanilla beans, & coffee.
*Barn Town Brewery Pulp Non-Fiction – the new kid on the block has taken off pretty damn fast as a must try brewery! I finally got to visit and not only were the beers tasty but the food was excellent as well. Check out my write-up on Barn Town here: I was pleasantly surprised to this brew on tap at 30hop and have since seen some Barn Town pop up at a few other Eastern Iowa locations and hopefully we see them hit even more spots in 2018. A hazy, NE style juice bomb full of the murky, hoppy goodness!
The deets:
7%
A juicy & hazy NEIPA brewed with Simcoe, El Dorado & Citra. Roy-al-ly hopped!
*Lion Bridge Majestic Beast – I’ve been a fan of all of Lion Bridge’s IPAs when released but it seems recently they’ve really upped their game. Dangler was delicious, they now have Triple IPA that’s been barrel-aged slightly and one that I hope that they bring back is Majestic Beast. A 7% IPA that is extremely drinkable made with a journey into Lupulin powderes. Lion Bridge continues to impress, in every beer style, in food, in what it means to be a local business. More of this please!
The deets:
7%
First foray into lupulin powders has produced this mirthful beverage. By using a hop with the green plant material removed we are only dry hopping a concentrated version of the aromatic oils found in eukanot and mosaic. Resinous and tropical; potent yet graceful.
There you have it! The list of Best of Iowa beers 2017. Chances are your list looks a bit different but that’s what makes drinking and trying local beer great! It was stressful, I’m sweating and need a beer. I also have to give a shout out to Nick Jubeck for creating the Iowa Beer Baron logo at the top of the post! Thanks man, check out and like his Facebook page by clicking here: Cheers to the breweries who make the beers, the restaurants and bars that serve them and cheers to 2018!
Surly Gives a Damn Event: Jan. 27th, Bur Oak Land Trust; Iowa City, IA!
I
f you can give a helping hand, Surly Gives a Damn will be at Bur Oak Land Trust in Iowa City on Saturday January 27th from 9-11:30 a.m. Do a little work and then head to the local watering hole for some free beers. Here are the deets:
The Details:Join Surly Gives A Damn on Saturday, January 27th from 9:00am-11:30am to gather and burn excess brush with Bur Oak Land Trust. Afterwards we’ll head to a local watering hole for a FREE Surly beer. Join us and do some good!When: Saturday, January 27th from 9:00am-11:30am, with a free Surly beer to follow
Where: 1201 N Dodge St Iowa City, IA 52245
The link to the main Surly Gives a Damn page can be found here:
http://surlybrewing.com/surly– gives-a-damn/
The direct link to the sign-up for this event can be found here (this can also be accessed from the main SGAD page):
Lion Bridge Barrel Aged January continues with Single Barrel Oud Bruin!
Barrel-aged January at Lion Bridge Brewing company continues this week as they release their single barrel Oud Bruin. That’s not all from Lion Bridge this week as they also have some delicious sounding Coconut Imperial Brown Ale that will be tapped this Friday! I’m hoping to stop by this Sunday, so if you’re there give me a shout! Here’s more from Lion Bridge for this week:
The focus of week 1 was malt. Rich and lip-smacking maltiness. We hope you made it in to try the Mole XXXX. It was a delicious, nutritious?, spicy beer, and it sold out in a few hours. XXXX Mild and Eis Mild are still around if you weren’t able to make it in. Also unique and amazingly malty beers and made in slightly larger quantities.
This week we start off on the other end of the spectrum…acidity. We dabbled in an Oud Bruin (Flemish Style Sour Brown Ale) in 2017 which was really nice, but I dare say that with this 2018 version we are almost near perfection. In September 2016, we managed to score some fruited whiskey barrels from a guy who knows a guy who knows a gal, that already had a plethora of beautiful yeast and bacteria stuck in their tiny wooden pores. We brewed a 20bbl batch of our Oud Bruin base beer, filled these magic barrels, and waited…and waited…and waited. November 2017 we were like, “Hey, let’s see what we got.” And what we got was a “LET’S HI-FIVE THIS IS AMAZING!!” transformation. Cherry pie cherries, chocolate, bright acidity and loveliness just loveliness. We will eventually blend all the barrels together to make a bottled version, but we chose a barrel we especially loved to present it, unblended, as part of Barrel-Aged January 2018. We hope you enjoy Barrel #354.
We will have live music by Justin Goodchild this fine eve from 6-8pm.
Friday, 1/12 – In kind of a last minute epiphany, we decided not to empty every Wild Turkey Barrel of our Gobble Wobble. We saved 2 barrels with the idea that they were destined to become our Coconut Imperial Brown Ale. And guess what…they have become that. Ya, I know…pretty pretty exciting. The beer had a couple more months in the Wild Turkey barrels to smooth a bit more and soak up some booze, and then we blended it with a lot of toasted coconut. The result is a harmonious beverage that melds barrel and beer and coconut and longing for for warmer months and coziness with winter shelter. If acidity and “sour” beers ain’t your thing, don’t stray too far. On Friday, this beer will give you a warm hug.
Sunday 1/14 – We will pour a super limited 5 gallons of a coffee version of the liquid hug described above. We open at 11am!
And, as mentioned in the header…We are now opening for Lunch on Friday (11am), and 11am on Saturday and Sunday as well. You can now stop pacing about and get yourself to Lion Bridge earlier to get your Barrel-Aged January fix.
Dogfish Head coming to Iowa in February
Dogfish Head, one of the most well-known brewery names in the country, will be making their way to Iowa shelves in February. I’m not sure on the portfolio that they will be bringing to Iowa when they hit but it will be with Johnson Brothers. I’ll pass along any more info when I get it. Until then, check out Dogfish’s 2018 lineup!
A Stop at Barn Town Brewery…Iowa’s Best New Brewery
2017 brought many great things to the Iowa beer scene. More beers on our shelves, expansion of TG and Big Grove, brewers brewing some of best beers in the midwest, and also the introduction of some new breweries in Iowa. One of the newest breweries is no secret as their beers have been all over social media and with their slow but steady process of getting their beers on Eastern Iowa lines, more and more Iowans have been able to enjoy them. The brewery, obviously, is Barn Town.
I’ve had a few of their beers on tap at 30hop and Tin Roost but finally got to make a quick stop at the brewery itself as I was passing through Des Moines. A very easy trip right off of I-80 in a newer developed area that is very close to Jordan Creek Mall for any shopping aficionados, (beer helps shopping), Barn Town was the perfect pit stop after a long ride from Colorado. College Football games on their many TVs, a shuffleboard table against the back wall, and most important for my family is that it is kid friendly.
So I decided to do a sampler of 4 and enjoyed the 2 stouts and berliner-weisse I had but the Hop Skewer really stuck out to me so I got a regular draw of that. A murky juice bomb of an IPA that leaves you wanting another glass. Barn Town did a great job with this beer, good enough for me to get a crowler to take home.
Barn Town’s menu is pretty unique. Some great sounding sandwiches, burgers, sides, and more. My wife decided on the crab rangoon chicken sandwich with is exactly what it sounds like. Fried chicken with a rangoon/cream cheese spread, chili sauce and wontons. It was very tasty, something I would order again. What did my fat ass order? Oh, just the Poutine burger… two patties, covered with melted cheese and gravy and served over fries..you know..the lighter fare. It was delicious, plus their ranch that they serve with the fries is very good.
So many good things happening in the Iowa beer world and Barn Town has just added to it. The Des Moines area has a great thing going with breweries like Barn Town, 515, Firetrucker, Confluence, Exile and also the beer bars; El Bait, Iowa Taproom, Keg Stand, etc. A 2 hour trip to Des Moines needs to happen more often for myself, although I’m very content with my local offerings, it’s nice to see what’s going on elsewhere in the state.
