First Stop - Des Moines

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!

Free Beer: The 2nd Annual Iowa Homebrew’s Fest

Free Beer!

It’s a phrase that gets everyone’s attention. In the rare instance that someone has to miss out on free beer, they’re usually pretty broken up about it. That’s why I was shocked that the Iowa Homebrew Fest had a pretty meek turnout. I guess the article
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in Cityview didn’t do quite enough to convince people to drag their lazy butts off their couch for a few hours to suffer the arduous task of imbibing in free homebrewed beer. I thought it was going to be packed shoulder to shoulder. That isn’t to say that no one was there, people came, just not as many as I would have thought.

So here’s the rundown. The Homebrew Fest was sponsored the Iowa Brewer’s Union and Beer Crazy, where it was also held. I showed up around noon and they had an area of the parking lot cordoned off with caution tape wrapped around kegs, more than appropriate!

Inside the beer zone, as I’m calling it, was something like thirty people, a van with attached trailer/grill selling burgers and brats, and a homebrewing set up. It looked like they were doing a seven gallon batch but I didn’t get a chance to talk much with anyone operating it. They were pretty busy getting bits of grain out of their wort after their bag broke when they were steeping it.

They had twelve beers on tap and two in bottles. After being carded I walked over and grabbed a cup that was sitting readily between the two banks of taps. Handwritten on a notebook was the style of beer in each tap and its corresponding tap number.

I started with the amber ale and was pretty disappointed. My first attempt at a homebrew was an amber ale. My first step out from macro-brews was Fat Tire amber ale. Many Americans favorite beer is…you guessed it, an amber ale. It seems like every brewery and home brewer out there tries their hand at an amber so it really takes a good one to impress me. If it were anything but free, I would have been a lot more unhappy. But who am I to complain about free beer?

The next was called “Sailor Spiced Ale” brewed by Dan Haggerty Jr. It was one of the most unique beers I’ve ever tasted! Apparently he added a bit of Sailor Jerry’s spiced rum when he was brewing it. The final product had a strong clove taste, but not overpowering.

From there I tried the Nut Brown, the Spruce, and the Iowa State Fair winning Porter (which was very good). The unfortunate thing about homebrew is that no, none of you will ever have a chance to try any of these beers. But c'est la vie, brew your own!

Oh, and it was also my first trip out to Beer Crazy in Urbandale, Iowa. Very good beer selection, very helpful staff, and a 10% discount on the already cheap homebrew kit I bought today. I think I’m going to become a regular customer over there!