Moved In

Let me apologize for the lack of blog yesterday. I’ve been in the process of relocating from Champaign, Illinois to Des Moines, Iowa. As of last night I’m officially here and ready to get going on research for the beer trip.

It looks like quite a few of you actually checked out the page so I guess it was a pretty bad day to miss one. Life goes on though, now there is quite a bit to catch up on.

First, I have a bit of disappointing news. I got an email from Amanda at Cyber Candy, the makers of the Tinchilla. You should remember the Tinchilla from my blog entry just a couple of days ago. Apparently they just got word that the manufacturer they use for the Tinchilla has gone out of business. I’m still hoping that they can find someone else to make it but I don’t think that’s highly likely. She did tell me about a similar product called the Blitz Chiller (which I also mentioned in my Tinchilla blog). The one new thing I found out about the Blitz Chiller was that it is available from Bed, Bath and Beyond. I’ll be checking that out sometime in the next couple of days and if it is priced reasonably I’ll be picking one up. I’ll let you know how it goes.

One great thing about Des Moines is that it is a small enough town to have that small-town feel a lot of the time, but still big enough to have some pretty awesome events. Those of you in the Des Moines area should be getting pretty excited about two beer-related events that I’ve discovered recently.

The first event is the Cityview Brewfest coming up Saturday, July 17th lasting from 3-7pm at Principal Park. The event is going to feature live music from the band Mooseknuckle (whom I’m not familiar with), and somewhere in the range of 375 beers to sample. Once you pay the $28 entry fee (or $23 in advance) you’re ready to go for unlimited samples. Apparently there is also a free after-concert from the Dave Matthews tribute band Trippin Billies at People’s on Court Avenue.

I missed last year’s Brewfest in Des Moines by a matter of days and I’m still mad about it. This year I’ll be there early and I won’t be leaving until they push me out the door. In case you couldn’t tell, I’m excited!

The second Des Moines event that I’m excited about right now is Zoo Brew. Every Wednesday night Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines is hosting anyone who wants to come drink beer and look at some animals. Each week a different band band plays and a different theme is featured. Tonight is “bike night” and they’re going to be giving out samples of Fat Tire, Leinie’s Summer Shandy, Michelob Golden Wheat & Coastal Wheat. Next week is "Alma Mater Night," but I'm not sure exactly what that means. Regardless of the theme they're going to have some pretty good beers, Blue Moon, Landshard, Third Stone Brown & Bud Select 55.

Beer, live music, and a whole bunch of wild animals sounds more like the tagline for a terrible movie than a night out in Des Moines but I can tell you for sure that I’ll be there every free Wednesday night I have while here.

That’s all for now, be sure to get out and see what beer events are going on around your town. Feel free to post them here in the comments if you find any particularly good ones!