Iowa Craft Beers & Breweries

Category: Other Brewtifulness

Now at Firetrucker: The CatDragon

***UPDATE***

As you recall, I was over-the-moon excited for Firetrucker’s release of the CatDragon last week.  With a whopping 11.5% abv, this is likely the most alcoholic ginger beer on the planet.  As expected, the brewery and the launch party did not disappoint. The place was packed, and even beer celebrities Iowa Craft Beer Tent were in the house.  (Yes, beer celebrities are a real thing.  And I aspire to be one.)  All in attendance laughed over the telling of the epic saga of how the CatDragon came to be.

 

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Come to the Iowa Craft Brew Festival!

icbf

What are you doing today?! If it’s not heading to the Iowa Craft Brew Festival in Des Moines, change your plans!I, along with some of your favorite breweries will be there. Like who?

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Albia
Alluvial
Another Road
Backpocket
Big Grove
Boone Valley
Brick Street
Broad Street
CIB
Confluence
Court Avenue
Deb’s Brewtopia
Firetrucker
Flix
Franklin Street
Front Street
Granite City
Great River
Kalona
Keg Creek
Laketime
Liberty’s Forge
Lion Bridge
Lost Duck
Madhouse
Mason City
Millstream
New American
Olde Main
Peacetree
Pulpit Rock
Quarter Barrel
Raccoon River
Rock Bottom
Rustic
Single Speed
Third Base
Toppling Goliath
Torrent
Turner Alley
Twisted Vine
West O.
Worth

What more could you want! Join us for a beer on the bridge! Visit Iowa Craft Brew Festival’s webpage for all the details. Can’t wait to see you there!

beer-on-the-bridge

Iowa Beer Bike Jerseys

Aren’t you just loving this weather?! Ok, not this weather, but the weather before Monday. And *hopefully* this weekend.  I DEFINITELY am.  For me, gorgeous weather = biking.  I put my bike away for the winter the first week of December and had it back out my the first week of March.  That’s a long enough hiatus.  If you’re a biker, you know the excitement of a new bike jersey.  It’s another way for us to express ourselves within our bike cult.  So it should come as no surprise that my first jersey was one from a brewery: Exile Brewing in Des Moines.  We stopped in for dinner one night and saw them on display and just had to have them.  This year, the Easter Bunny left a pretty new one from SingleSpeed in my Easter basket.  Good bunny. Continue reading

Bourbon + Beer = Love

You already know how I feel about Iowa having great beer. But I don’t know how I could write this blog without mentioning another Iowa great: Templeton Rye. For those of you who don’t know what it is, one, HAVE YOU BEEN LIVING IN A CAVE?! And two, if you’ve heard of it but aren’t certain what it is I borrowed this description from their website:

When Prohibition outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in 1920, many enterprising residents of a small town in Iowa chose to become outlaws – producing a high caliber and much sought-after whiskey known as Templeton Rye, or “The Good Stuff” to those in the know. Based on the original Prohibition era recipe and aged in charred new oak barrels, Templeton Rye provides a smooth finish and a clean getaway.

So what happens when you mix Templeton awesomeness and craft beers? Beverages of epic proportions! I wanted to give a shout out to a few of Templeton Rye Aged Beers, both in Iowa and out of. Continue reading

Biking and Breweries: The Best of Friends

What goes hand-in-hand with Iowa breweries? State-wide treasure and national claim to fame: RAGBRAI.  RAGBRAI is this thing that I love that I never had any intention to. I never in a million years thought I would EVER want to be that person that rides 40-80 miles per day for seven days in a row. I didn’t even think I still wanted to ride a bike on a regular basis. I mean, I have a car! But when my other half wooed me into bike rides in the Des Moines area with promises of cool bars and breweries along the bike trail, I decided to give it a go. And then the rides got further and further.And the 2014 route was announced and it was going through northern Iowa and was practically in my back yard. The next thing I knew, I was committed to training for RAGBRAI.

Photo courtesy of Bike Tech, Cedar Falls

Photo courtesy of Bike Tech, Cedar Falls

As it turns out, I did not realize until I was already to the point of no return that biking is a cult. Continue reading

Iowa Brewtiful

There are few things I love more about the great state of Iowa than our explosion of local breweries. In 2012, the Brewer’s Association listed 33 breweries in Iowa.  Today, there are 57 and two more opening soon (according to Iowa Craft Beer Tent’s ongoing list).

I discovered my love for craft beer shortly after I moved to Iowa City in the fall of 2006.  At that time, the only brewery I knew how to find was the one with a catchy song about the Colorado Rockies.  But there is something in the air in that city.  The longer you breathe it, the more you transform into a hipster. Naturally, I was a typical 19 year-old girl who hated beer, unless it was all I could get my underage hands on.  All I really wanted was a Malibu and pineapple.  And then I discovered Blue Moon.  And it was freakin’ delicious.

Fast forward a few years later, I had a thirst for soaking up beer knowledge and trying new beers, an Old Chicago tour under my belt, and I considered myself an aficionado–or at least a wannabe one. However, I still hadn’t actually made it to a brewery.  But as soon as I went to my first one–Exile in Des Moines in February of 2013–I was hooked!  We are truly blessed in Iowa to have all these fantastic brew halls-long-establish and springing up–at our disposal.  And we’re Iowans! When we’re not busy tipping cows and partying in corn fields, clearly we have nothing better to do, right?
So when my digital advertising professor challenged my class with the assignment of writing a blog about something that we not only enjoy, but is related to our future career goals, Iowa craft beer and breweries are the first thing that came to mind. And then I wondered, WHY IN THE NAME OF GOD DID I NOT START DOING THIS SOONER? I love my go-to breweries where I’m a regular, and I am ALWAYS down for a road trip to visit a new one.
So: stay tuned for the featured Brewery of the Week, Iowa Breweries in the News, and my own personal ramblings about the beers I’m drinking and the breweries I’m adventuring to.  I am always open to comments and suggestions, and if you know an awesome place, TELL ME! I will probably come visit. And I’ll probably even buy you a beer.

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