The first official stop to my beer trip came Monday night at El Bait Shop in Des Moines, Iowa. I figured that since I’m going to a ton of breweries in cities all over the United States I should start the trip off here at home. And if that’s what I’m doing, then what could possibly be more appropriate than to hit up a homebrewing event?
I obviously couldn’t show up to a brewery to find out much about homebrewing so instead I did the next best thing; I went to a meeting of the Iowa Brewer’s Union. When I showed up there were something like forty five people, 10 5-gallon kegs, 3 or 4 growlers, and a whole bunch of bottles of homebrew. All of the beer was brought in by members of the club to share with everyone.
The beer selection featured many of the standards such as a Belgian whit, an amber, and other basics. However, a couple were a little more…outlandish. One keg was full of a watermelon beer, something I’ve never heard of before. I’m still not sure if I liked it or not, but I can absolutely say that it was extremely unique! There was also an extremely potent coffee stout brought in by Lauri G, a local barista, that utilized coffee beans ground for a French press. I also enjoyed a brown ale that had a lot of vanilla in it.
The brewers I spoke with were all incredibly friendly and extremely knowledgeable. When I was tasting the vanilla brown ale I was speaking with a guy about the Saints v 46ers game. All I did was mention that it had a pretty strong vanilla flavor and he told me all about how it was probably from extract and not vanilla beans. Of course, I called bull&#!^ and asked how the hell he could tell.
Apparently this guy is for real; I checked when I got home. If a vanilla beer uses vanilla extract instead of beans the flavor and aroma will all emanate from the beer. If beans are used the aroma comes through clearly in the head of a beer. See? I learned something!
The last important thing to remember is that it is completely illegal to sell homebrew. So those 10 or so kegs, multiple growlers and the multitude of bottles were all free for the taking. Free beer every third Monday. Not just that, but unique beers that you’re never going to be able to try again. All free. And still only 40 people show up. I’m always shocked when I walk in a place with free beer and there aren’t 500 people around.
That’s all for tonight. Remember folks, this is only a taste of my evening at the Iowa Brewer’s Union. I got interviews with new members, old members, and current and past group leaders. All of that and more is going to be included in the book I’m writing about the beer trip I embark on Friday. I’m driving all over the country touring breweries and getting interviews with the people who make all the delicious beer I love. Stay tuned for more posts and a ton of pictures from all of the stops I make.
I’ll be at Boulevard Brewery in Kansas City Friday, watch for the post soon afterward!
Good luck on your trip, man! Wanted to drop in and offer up some totally unsolicited advice. The big one is that a lot of StL beer lovers take pride in one brewery in particular, and I don't mean A-B. Schlafly has been around for about 20 years and they're awesome. They don't just make good beer, their also great neighbors. And the bartenders are always cool for beer tourism.
ReplyDeleteMy other suggestion: if you haven't already heard of CouchSurfing.org and BeerMapping.com, they're handy sites. BeerMapping should be obvious, zoom into a region and see what breweries can be found. CouchSurfing is an awesome community of people who like to meet and stay with locals (usually locals with some pride in their city, like me) instead of holing up in some anonymous hotel room. Even if you opt out on the sleeping on some stranger's guest bed part, you can still use it for finding local ambassadors who would be glad to tell you the best places to go in town.
Happy travels, and let us know when you're headed to STL, I know at least one homebrewer that would be glad to join you for a pint.
Unsolicited advice is often the best advice! I lived in Champaign, IL last year so I actually had a chance to get to know Schlafly pretty well. That's actually one brewery that I'm more excited about than most. I've actually just been in contact with them this afternoon to confirm details and the such.
ReplyDeleteI'll be in Saint Louis Sunday Oct. 10th - late evening Tuesday Oct 12th. I wish I could devote more time to such an iconic beer city, but that's true with pretty much everywhere I'm going too.
I've been using beermapping.com quite a bit but haven't quite used couchsurfing.org yet. I've got friends in pretty much every city I'm going to that I can crash with. It cuts down on my costs in a HUGE way. However, I don't have anyone in Houston to stay with anymore so I might just have to do that!
If you're up for a pint in STL while I'm around I'm absolutly up for one as well. Just shoot me an email at allhoppedupblog@gmail.com when it gets a little closer and we can get something figured out!