i-BEST | Iowa Brewers Education Seminar & Tippling

Howdy folks! Greg here. Last weekend we had the pleasure of attending the first annual Iowa Brewers Education Seminar & Tippling (i-BEST). We were kindly invited as blogger guests by J. Wilson, Beer Drinker of the Year in 2012 and author of Iowa Pints: A Guide to Iowa Breweries. The event was held at one of our favorite haunts: Lion Bridge Brewing Company in Cedar Rapids. One of the most fun parts was that it was held in the actual brewing area. Quinton has all of his shiny equipment behind glass windows for everyone in the brewery to see, but it is nice to actually get a close look at the equipment.

My favorite part was definitely the Lab 101 session.  Here, Cory from Granite City went over how to set up a lab. I’m not talking your home science experiment lab, but a legit lab jacket, microscope, and other fancy equipment I have no idea what is lab. He explained that one of the bigger issues in the craft beer market today is the lack of quality control. Most of the quality control can be done through keeping clean equipment and proper brewing. 

What happens if an issue occurs? That is where a lab will make all the difference. It can be instrumental in narrowing down what nasties are getting into your beer and how. Of course all the big guys have one. When we visited Stone Brewing Co., they had a few. All the big beer companies have at least lab at each brewing facility. Why don’t the smaller craft breweries have labs? They can be expensive. The guys that are brewing on a two barrel system are going to have a hard time justifying spending that much money.  

After Cory presented, Matt from Backpocket Brewing gave a presentation as well. His was a bit different. He showed a lot of the not-so-technical or expensive ways to do quality control. Cory did a great job of showing what a brewery should do. Matt did a great job showing what a brewery on a limited budget can do. 

One of the best parts about this event was being in the room with (and sitting next to) all of the brewers we respect, whose breweries we frequent and beers we enjoy. After his presentation, I was able to chat with Matt and several other of the other brewers. We also were nearby the Keg Creek guys. (Keg Creek is the brewery that gave me my first taste of a great saison.) I ended up telling him about how I won a homebrewing competition partly because trying his beer got me interested in that beer style. (We really need to get out to the other side of the state to hit Keg Creek up some time.) We also sat near the New American guys – really cool dudes and I’d love to visit their brewery. Definitely a stop on our next Des Moines area trip.

The next session was the Distributors' Panel, represented by 7G, Fleck, and Founders. Man! That was some interesting and intense conversation. Some of the convo put the panel in the hot seat, some of it was other brewers defending distributors as great partners. Understandably, it is very difficult to hand over your product to a 3rd party and wholeheartedly trust them to market it and get it out there while they have other breweries in their portfolio. I’ve dealt with distributors back in my days as an assistant manager at Hy-Vee. I’ve always seen what it’s like from the distributor’s side, but it was interesting to see it from the other point of view.

The last session we attended was a Spiegelau Glassware Demonstration. The beer flowed and the glasses clinked. In this demo we were given different glasses to compare to normal pint glasses. The beer was definitely better in the Spiegelau glass. The presenter said they are made from special sand that has more iron oxide than normal glass. Was the beer better because of the glass? I think the better look, smell, and taste is owed to the glass shape. These high quality glasses are fantastic though. The Spiegelau demonstration was interesting and entertaining – and we got to take home a box, which was awesome!

Regrettably, we had to head out before the Iowa Brewers Guild meeting and social hour. But we really enjoyed ourselves, enjoyed the seminars, and enjoyed meeting and chatting with all the good guys and gals making the Iowa beer we love. 

Want to keep up with the good folks of Iowa Beer? Follow Iowa Beer on Facebook and Twitter here.

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Jessica's 5 Favorite Iowa Breweries

So last week you got a peek at Greg's top five favorite Iowa breweries. Now it's my turn. It was reeeeally hard to narrow it down. For one, some of our favorites overlap (namely, Big Grove, Kalona, and Broad Street). Second, there are a lot of breweries with beer I really love but that we haven't gotten around to physically visiting yet – like Peace Tree.

But anywho, without further ado... here are five of my favorite breweries. (Though these be numbered, they are in no particular order.) :)

1. Olde Main Brewing Co. | Ames, Iowa

This Ames brewery/restaurant is where I first really discovered my love for craft beer. One sip of their OffKilter Scottish Ale and I was wondering what I'd been missing out on all those times I claimed to "not like beer that much." It's must-visit whenever I'm in the Ames area and brings back so many memories of good times with friends while sitting at the bar. It was also sorta a first date spot for Greg and I. ;)

Tip: If you're lucky enough to live near this brewery, hit them up on Wednesday nights. Pints of their tasty brews go for just $1.

Try: During the holiday season, try the Reindeer Fuel. Rich chocolate and roasty malts make this a wonderful winter beer.

Greg's 5 Favorite Iowa Breweries

We've been away for far too long! (And we have the backlog of half written brewery reviews and blog posts to prove it.) But we are here – still sipping on craft beer and homebrewing away. Today, Greg shares his five favorite breweries in our great state of Iowa. (Keep a lookout for Jess' favorite breweries later this week – we might share a love for beer, but we don't share all favorites! So without further ado, add these hoppy destinations to your to-visit list: 

1. Broad Street Brewing | Reinbeck, Iowa

Pictured above, this is definitely my favorite in Iowa. It is located in the small town of Reinbeck and I’ve never had a bad beer at this establishment. The inside is small and cozy and the head brewer is a pretty cool guy. Jess and I try and make it whenever we visit my family by Waterloo. 

Must-Try: The Coo Coo Cachoo ESB.

Tip: Check out their events. We went to one featuring the former quality manager for Guinness – she showed folks how to taste beer like a professional. 

Cedar Valley Beer Adventures (and Misadventures): Brew in the Loo II, SingleSpeed Brewery, Broad Street Brewing

The best kind of weekend is a weekend full of beer – especially at a beer fest, a brewery we've never been to before, and a tried-and-true favorite brewery. Here's the story of our Cedar Valley weekend at Brew in the Loo II, SingleSpeed Brewing, and Broad Street Brewing Co:

We've never left a beer fest early. Okay, I take that back. We've left a few early because we'd had enough enough to drink, tried everything we wanted to try, and wanted something to eat. But we've never left because there wasn't enough to drink. I guess there's a first for everything.

Last year, Greg and I ventured to Brew in the Loo on a whim. We heard about it, we liked the idea of sipping beers on a baseball field, and we loved that the proceeds benefit the local Boys & Girls Club. We had a blast. It wasn't a huge fest. There wasn't a huge turnout or huge variety. But there were some solid local beers mixed in among some from distributors. And there was plenty of time to talk to the brewers and get to know them, their brewery, and their beer on a more personal level. It's where we tried and fell head-over-hops for Broad Street Brewing. (You can read about our first Brew in the Loo experience here.)

So we put Brew in the Loo II on our calendars early this year. We bought our $15 tickets in advance and set aside a weekend to hit up the beer fest and then visit Broad Street in Reinbeck on our way back to Cedar Rapids. After a hearty lunch to prepare us for our beer tasting, we headed to the ballpark. When we arrived, it was pretty empty. We reminded ourselves that it was at first last year, too, and that people and breweries started filtering just a little late. It was not the case this year.

Within thirty minutes, we'd made our rounds and tasted every beer at the festival. Not because of a lack of crowds – we waited in line a few times. But because of the sheer lack of beer. Everything there – except for Broad Street's stand – was distributor. Now, I have nothing against distributors. They help get the beer around and there were some good beers at the festival. But it was disappointing that there weren't more local beers, more craft beers, more Iowa beers. 

Last Year's Brew in the Loo – we had a blast!

We sat down at a table to discuss our disappointment and options. And we decided to leave. We felt bad, but at least our $30 would go to benefit the Boys & Girls Club. We looked up the address for a brewery in Cedar Falls that I'd always wanted to visit and we hit the road. (Side note: We weren't the only ones.)

If a beer festival doesn't give you a beer tasting adventure, you make your own beer adventure. Neither of us had either ventured to Cedar Falls. We found our way to the charming little downtown and SingleSpeed Brewing, where we knew immediately upon entering that we'd made the right decision.

Downtown Cedar Falls is so charming!

SingleSpeed served up an nice variety of beers, all of which we tried on one of their flights. Both of us ended up absolutely LOVING the Roasted. Plus, they mix beer cocktails, which I find intriguing and unique. Greg ordered one of their Roasted Russians, a SingleSpeed take on a White Russian using their Roasted. I tasted it. And it was delicious. I also really liked their Kinship and Belgian IPA.

Love the vibes and decor in SingleSpeed.

Time to catch our flight! ;)

Roasted was the big winner of the day.

The beer is good. And the brewery is cool. I couldn't stop admiring all of the cool design touches and unique features. Vintage stools. Pendant lights made out of growlers. Sweet ceiling fans reminiscent of vintage fans, but double-headed. A tall chalkboard flanked by shelves of Iowa spirits, growlers, and brewery swag – plus one of those cool library-style ladders that slides along the shelves.

Cheers to beer chalkboards!

Going to have to DIY some of these growler lights.

Where the magic happens. 

Character and cool fans.

Our favorite part about stopping by this brewery was the conversation. It's always a pleasure to encounter and chat with friendly craft beer fans. One man we chatted up also attended Brew in the Loo – and left early. I also got to meet one of the brewing staff who I've tweeted with and toasted on UnTappd. Oh, how we love discussing local breweries and homebrewing with this folks. There's so much to talk about and so much to learn from other beer nerds.

Another Roasted before we leave!

A warm, welcoming place to put back a pint.

After several pints and lots of beer talk at SingleSpeed, we hit the road for Reinbeck. We hadn't been to Reinbeck since their event hosted by the former Director of Quality from Guinness. (We blogged about the awesome How to Taste Beer Like a Pro event here.) We'd been wanting to make a trip back forever since the brewer Trevor never ceases to impress us. (The vanilla porter he served up at BrrrFest in Coralville was sinfully tasty.) Unfortunately, Trevor wasn't in the brewhouse. But plenty of patrons were, sipping on beer and having a good time. 

Broad Street beers – one of our favorite breweries. 

We snagged one of the booths, a couple pints, and a cribbage board. Broad Street is one of those cozy little breweries that you just feel at home in. I love that the booth seats are actually old church pews. And I love the red velvet cushions on top of them! As the sun set over Reinbeck, we drank beer and Greg beat me at a game of Cribbage. 

Beer and cribbage pair so well together.

While Brew in the Loo II left something to be desired, I'm glad that we were able to spontaneously make a failure into a successful brewery day. Will Brew in the Loo III be on our festival list next year? I'm not sure. It was disappointing to see a festival not live up to its potential. Was it a case of breweries not wanting to come because of a low turnout last year? Or was it case of people not turning out because the first year wasn't big enough for them?

I still think Brew in the Loo has potential. And I'll be rooting for it. The Bucks baseball field is a great location with plenty of room for yard games, live music, and picnic benches – all of which they did last year and this year. If the breweries get on board, the beer drinkers will. If the beer drinkers get on board, the breweries will. If you brew it, they will come. If you just distribute it, I don't think they will.

Check out SingleSpeed Brewing online and on Facebook.

Check out Broad Street Brewing Co. online and on Facebook.

And, of course, be sure to visit both when you're in the Cedar Valley!

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Beer Fest Alert! 2014 Algona Beerfest this Weekend

It's officially my favorite time of year: beer fest season. Greg and I had so much fun hopping from fest to fest last summer: sipping on craft brews, discovering new breweries, and making chit chat with fellow beer geeks. 

This coming weekend, we're venturing to the 2014 Algona Beerfest. They've got a stellar lineup of Iowa and other Midwestern breweries, including:

If you're looking to join us in the yeast, love, and hoppiness this weekend, here are the details:

Let us know if you'll be attendance so we can meet up and bottoms up!

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How to Taste Beer Like a Pro | EventBroad Street Brewing Co. in Reinbeck, IA

Back at the end of August, Greg and I attended Brew in the 'Loo and got our first taste of Broad Street Brewing Co.'s beer. It was love at first sip. The Reinbeck brewery's Black Porter and Sticky Wicket won out as our favorites of the whole festival. And we loved getting to visit with Trevor about his brewery and brews. Broad Street Brewing Co. when to the top of our breweries-to-visit list.  A couple weekends ago, we finally got around to it.

On November 2, we hopped in the truck and drove the hour and a half route through the country to Reinbeck, IA to spend our Saturday night learning How to Taste Beer Like a Pro. We'd been meaning to get up to Reinbeck and this event sounded too fun and interesting to pass up! Plus, we'd be learning about beer from Ann Fahy-Gust: former Director of International Quality at Guinness Brewing, brewery director of Newcastle, brewing engineer with MillerCoors. We'd really be learning from a pro!

When we pulled into the tiny town of Reinbeck, the Broad Street Brewing Co. sign glowed big and bright – couldn't miss it! Entering the small brewery, we found it to be packed with charm and beer lovers of all ages. We loved the details on the ceiling, red painted walls, chalkboard menu, and wall of glass overlooking the brewing equipment. Very cozy vibes happening here – perfect for chilly end-of-autumn nights like that one.

Since we were early for the actual event, we decided to start out with a sampler of four beers – even though we'd tried and loved most of them before. They had a delicious pumpkin brew on tap that I liked, but my beer heart still belonged to the Black Porter. Greg's favorite is the tasty Coo Coo Cachoo ESB. (But really, none of Broad Street's beers disappoint!) 

The cozy brewery soon got cozier. We slid into a booth with some other couples of all ages and from all different parts of Iowa. It was a great time with great beer, chatting with friendly Iowans about Iowa, craft beer, and homebrewing. Good people make an already fantastic event so much more fun. 

When everyone got settled, Ann Fahy-Gust took the stage (or, well, chair in this case) and taught us all How to Taste Beer Like a Pro. Greg and I have been at this beer tasting stuff for a little while now, so some of it was a review. But we learned a lot, too! Like what temperature different beers should ideally be served at. And that dark beers are often "lighter" than light beers. (Guinness does sit on top of Blue Moon or cider when you order a Black and Blue or Snakebite.) 

As our tasting glasses got filled up with different Broad Street brews, we all observed the different aspects of beer. Haziness and transparency. Head and lacing. Hops and malts. How you should actually sniff your beer with a "little rabbit nose" rather than take a big smell of it. (Rapid little sniffs help you tap into the fragrance better.) And how even the darkest beers can be seen through if you tilt the glass. (There was a hilarious moment when everyone tipped their glasses of Black Porter and Ooooh'ed at being able to see through the dark beer. Really wish I could have caught that on video!)

Lots of beer, lots of beer talk, and lots of laughter – we had an absolute blast in this little Reinbeck Brewery and can't wait to go back.

Thanks for the great time and great beer, Broad Street Brewing Co!

Give Broad Street Brewing Co. "like" on Facebook to keep up with their events and brew news.

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Brewery Roadtrip | Part 3: Great River Brewery in Davenport, IA

Our final stop on the little Quad Cities brewery roadtrip was Great River Brewery in Davenport. I'd experienced a bit of Great River though our beer tasting travels. Sadly they were out of the Dos Pistolas beer that Jess and I sampled at Brew in the 'Loo and both LOVED. Happily, they'd just tapped a new beer. I can't say this phrase ever came out of my mouth before Great River came into my life... I love Big Cock!  Big Cock IPA, that is. It was a little too much fun to come up with all of the Big Cock jokes we could think of. All joking aside, the beer was really hoppy and pretty delicious.

Great River Brewery, all decked out for fall.

They'd just tapped Big Cock IPA the day before while we were at Front Street.

We enjoyed a flight of Great River's beers, then proceeded to drink some our favorites. For me, the winner of the day was Redband Stout, a milk stout flavored with coffee. I can't get over how cool and cute (I know, weird word for beer glasses) the can-shaped glasses at Great River were. I might have to purchase one or two next time we visit. (And hopefully they'll have that delicious Dos Pistolas back on tap!)

Great River concluded a weekend filled to the brim with beer. We had a great, laidback time putting back a few brews at their bar, chatting with a few locals, and hearing all about the crazy Big Cock tapping party that had gone on the day before. Sounds like we missed out on a wild time, but I think our weekend couldn't have worked out more perfectly.  Each brewery really had its own soul. And every one of them had fantastic beer. And fantastic beer is, of course, what we're always on the lookout for.

Check out first and second stops: Front Street Brewery

in Davenport and Bent River Brewing Company in Moline!

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Brewery Roadtrip | Part 1: Front Street Brewery in Davenport, IA

On the weekend of October 26 and 27, the lovely lady and I took a somewhat spontaneous mini roadtrip to the Quad Cities for three breweries. The first of these was Front Street Brewery in Davenport. We'd hadn't heard of Front Street before looking up breweries in the area and we couldn't recall trying any of their beer at festivals either. We were in for a treat!

Though we took a little detour and walked almost right up to the building the first time before turning around and accidentally walking in the other direction, we finally arrived at Front Street. Its interior was warm and cozy: full of exposed brick, industrial light fixtures, old time Davenport photographs, and beautiful, burnished wood finishes. The place oozed historical charm. Definitely my kind of hangout.

"Beer, now there's a temporary solution." - Homer Simpson (Wise words, my man.)

When faced with picking beers at Front Street, we just had to go with a flight!

We commenced our little visit with a sample of Front Street's eight beers. The flight provided lots a variety in style. (Of course, we had to "tap in" every single beer on Untappd. You can add us as fellow beer buddies on the app: yeastloveandhoppiness_jess and yeastloveandhoppiness_greg.) The food menu (and smell of other diners' meals) was enticing! We weren't hungry enough for supper yet, but I had to munch on a salty, soft pretzel dipped in a delicious jalapeno cheese sauce. Next time we go back, I'm going with an empty stomach and chowing down on their beer mussels.

Tasty pretzel and delicious jalapeno cheddar dipping sauce.

Front Street really impressed us. Being a small restaurant, brewpub type of business, it fondly reminded us of our favorite brewery Olde Main... just smaller and cozier. The flight showcased some really good beers, but we definitely had our favorites that came out on top. My favorite was the seasonal Oktoberfest. Jess loved the Bucktown Stout, which is named for a notorious red light district that occupied the neighborhood some 100 years ago. Beer and a history lesson!

Thanks for the tasty, cozy welcome to Davenport, Front Street! :)

After finishing off our pints of Oktoberfest and Bucktown Stout, we ventured across the Mississippi River to our second stop: Bent River in Moline, Illinois.

Check out our next two stops: Bent River Brewing Co., then Great River Brewery.

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