Peace Tree Brewery

Yesterday I made it out to Peace Tree Brewery in Knoxville, Iowa with four friends from Des Moines. We drove by the building three or four times before we actually found the brewery. Once we found the building it was a pretty nice looking place. The taproom and exterior have a cool minimalist/modern vibe. Before it was a brewery it was a bar and before that a Nash dealership. I mentioned that in a previous post where I reviewed their Red Rambler Ale.

Within the first minute or two of walking in with my friend Ken we were greeted by the owner, Megan McKay Ziller. She, along with her father, Dan McKay, and husband, Scott Ziller, just started experimenting with Peace Tree Brewing last year. While I sipped my way through a sampler of their beers she was kind enough to tell me all about her brewery.

The opening of the taproom was last October, but they just started distributing their beers in February. Before that they were testing the waters with a few different brews seeing what people liked best and what they should focus on. No brewery is cheap to open, but Megan and the others made a very impressive initial investment. The taproom is great, and the moment they got their equipment in they became the fifth largest brewery in the state in terms of capacity (according to the tour).

Megan also told me about Peace Tree’s original name, White Breast Brewery. Long ago around Knoxville there was a bear with a white chest. Obviously, that’s pretty rare, so the locals named stuff after it. There is a White Breast camp, White Breast lake, White Breast Street, and others. To someone in Knoxville, it just makes sense. The problem is that when most of us hear “white breast,” a bear with a white spot on his chest isn’t the first thing that pops into our minds. So instead they opted for Peace Tree, a name that comes from a tree now mostly submerged in Lake Red Rock where Native Americans met with Americans to sign peace treaties. It wasn’t until after the name was decided that Megan, Dan, and Scott found out there are actually a few Peace Trees in the area. Oh well, I guess it just means a broader appeal for the brewery!

Back to the important stuff, the beer! Before my trip I bought a six of the Hop Wrangler (IPA) and one of Red Rambler. At Brewfest I tried the Blonde Fatale and absolutely loved it. The sampler gave me my first ever taste of their Rye Porter, and Double IPA, but I missed out on their root beer. My favorites were the Double IPA and the Blonde Fatale. As of right now the plan is for the Blonde to be packaged and sold in stores, but not until next year. Besides the opportunity to drink that delicious beer more often I’m pretty excited to see the packaging for it. Peace Tree used an excellent graphic designer from Des Moines to put together the labels for Red Rambler, Hop Wrangler, and Rye Porter. I have a feeling that Blonde Fatale will be a fun one!

The only disappointment with the beer came with the Hop Wrangler. No, the beer wasn’t bad, but it was an IPA and it came sitting next to the Double IPA, which was, in my mind, a better beer.

There was also a surprise beer thrown into the mix. A local homebrewer came into the taproom while we were there. Although Peace Tree can’t legally sell homebrew, they sure can give it away. Everyone in my group got a free sample of a delicious, homebrewed bock. I asked and apparently it isn’t at all uncommon for local homebrewers to give away their beer in the taproom. That is just one of the many quirks that made me love Peace Tree. Also high on that list was the fact that no, they don’t have a kitchen, Megan said that they wanted to concentrate all their energies on their beer. They do however have many options available for food. They’ve got a binder full of menus from what seems like most of the local restaurants in the area. They’re fine with their patrons eating in the taproom so you just call and have food delivered to the brewery. I chose to get as many fried things as possible from The Swamp Fox. We were told that the food would arrive in twenty-five minutes. After forty we called and it didn’t show up for another twenty. Besides the wait, the food was pretty good and fairly priced.

All in all, I’m a huge fan of Peace Tree Brewing. They’re new, they’re local, and they’re growing. It also doesn’t hurt that they have delicious beer, especially the Blonde Fatale. I’m really looking for them to do some big things in the future; I’ll be watching them closely, and suggest you do too.

Red Rambler Ale

Okay, tonight’s beer is the Red Rambler Ale from Peace Tree Brewing. It gets its unique name from the fact that Peace Tree Brewing’s facility is located at an old Nash dealership in Knoxville,

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Iowa. It comes in a bottle similar to Red Stripe but all three of Peace Tree’s bottled beers have extremely unique and nifty-looking labels.

The beer is pretty good. You can really taste a caramel malt in the initial sip, but then it is followed pretty quickly by the hops which nicely balance it out. It seems to have slightly above average carbonation, but that might just be because I’ve been on a stout kick for the last week so most anything seems to be heavily carbonated.

There is one significant downside to the Red Rambler that really makes it harder for me to like. Although I enjoy it, I want to enjoy it more. I had the chance to try Peace Tree’s Blonde Fatale at Brewfest and was blown away. It isn’t currently available in stores so I’m probably not going to be able to get another taste of it until I schedule a visit to their brewery sometime. Red Rambler was good, but I spent a lot of time drinking it wishing I had a Blonde Fatale. It’s premature to say so after a single tasting at a brewfest, but Blonde Fatale has serious potential to join the exclusive ranks of my favorite Iowa-brewed beers.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to ramble on and on about another beer during a review of Red Rambler, but it happens sometimes. Since the best way to wrap up a beer review is to talk about the finish, here it is. Red Rambler finishes with a mildly bitter creamy flavor in the back of the mouth, very pleasant.

I liked Red Rambler a lot, but at $9.50/6-pack I’m not sure I would buy it again. I’m willing to pay a premium for either premium beer, or above average local brews, but not very often. Until it comes down in price slightly I think I’ll have to be satisfied with one six-pack of each of their bottled beers. I already got to the Hop Wrangler, I guess Rye Porter is up next!

Brewfest 2010

I spent yesterday afternoon at Principal Park in Des Moines taking part in the Cityview Brewfest. It was a dreadfully hot afternoon but as drinkers entered the front gates they were greeted by giant tubs full of complementary bottles of water. A few other stations

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with free water were also posted around the Park’s concourse along with drinking fountains.

If not for the abundance of free water and the fact that the entire event took place in the shade, things could have gotten awful pretty quickly. Luckily though, that wasn’t the case, and it was an amazing event!

All told there was somewhere in the range of 375 beers available for sampling and I did my best to get my money’s worth. It was my first beerfest of any kind and I learned a lot of lessons on what to do, and what not to do at an event like that.

Upon my arrival at the four hour event I decided to get as many samples as I could. I was nearly jogging to get from table to table to try as many one ounce samples as I could. At the first few tables I sampled three or four of the six to seven available. The upside of that was that I got a better range as to the actual quality of those breweries instead of just one or two samples.

The downside of sampling multiple beers at each table was that I got drunk much quicker than I should have if I wanted to actually evaluate the beers I was trying out. That little misstep meant that we had to take an extended break in order to get ready for round two.

While at a table sucking down some water we were joined by three other jolly beer drinkers taking a break. There was almost no interaction between the two groups until they got up to leave and as a parting gift gave us a stack of tokens for free entry to a local strip club.

We paced ourselves much better once we were back at it by not drinking for quantity anymore. Instead we focused our efforts more closely on finding quality beers; I was particularly on the lookout for beers I had never tried.

The whole brewfest was fun, but as with anything, there were some clear high-points. The Sam Adams tent was deservedly one of the best spots at the fest. They had all of their usual suspects there for sampling but they also had three beers from their imperial series and one special treat. Sam Adams is currently taking votes between a Belgian Style IPA and American Rye Ale. I got to cast my vote (American Rye) and in exchange for my troubles I got a nifty keychain.

Another of the best spots to hit was the Boulevard Brewery table. Like Sam Adams they had their usual suspects, but they also featured all four of their Smokestack Series beers. I had never tried out any of the Smokestack Series so I went through their line four times so as to try them all.

My third big highlight was all of the local breweries present. No matter where I am, I’m always a big fan of local brew. In Champaign I enjoyed going over to the Blind Pig Brewery on Fridays. In Fort Worth, not much beats the Saturday afternoons at Rahr Brewing. At brewfest we had the brewpubs Rock Bottom Brewing, Granite City Brewery, Court Avenue Brewing, and Raccoon River Brewing. The Iowa breweries present included the standards of Olde Main, and Millstream. Also there were a few breweries I’m less familiar with such as Hub City Brewing Company, Madhouse Brewing, and a few others. I want to give a special mention here to Peace Tree Brewing down in Knoxville, IA. I got an email from Megan at Peace Tree Brewing before the brewfest reminding me to be sure to stop by their table. I wasn’t familiar with Peace Tree before she emailed me so I got a six of their Red Rambler, it was pretty good. At brewfest I had them pour me a sample of their Blonde Fatale, it amazed me. It isn’t currently available in stores but be sure you’re watching closely for it, I can’t wait until I can buy it at my local grocery store!

I had a lot beer Saturday, but my two favorites were the Long Strange Tripel and the Sam Adams Imperial White. I’ve always liked both breweries, but these two beers were FAR beyond anything I’ve come to expect from either.

Overall, brewfest was an incredible event; I can barely believe that Des Moines is lucky enough to host something like it. Cityview and the other sponsors really deserve some cheering on for bringing it to town. Here’s hoping that it keeps growing and getting even better in the future!