Midwest craft

[midwestcraft]

April 1st Cheers

Way to go New Belgium with your perfectly timed Hairball Hefeweizen announcement. Love the line about it being inspired by the animals who hack up what the shoveled in earlier.

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Sunday service at a brewery. Thank you Brown Line Vinyard!

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Where great things come together.

Confluence Brewing slogan

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Follow Your Folly

New Belgium Slogan

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Brew Pubs

When I began this project I was very serious about judging places simply on the quality of their beer. With the craft beer explosion, this can be a bit tough as most craft brew pubs have mediocre, at best, beer. Yes, making beer is not too difficult, but consistently making great beer is a totally different animal and takes a ton of resources. Where judging smaller brew pubs becomes difficult is when you try and factor in some of the other variables, like what these places add to the communities in which they do business. A few years back I went in to 515 Brewing in Des Moines. Although the beer at the time was not spectacular, they had created a great place for craft beer snobs, newbies and everyone in between to come and hang out. I realize there are other places to enjoy alcohol but there is nothing like being somewhere where the owners are doing the pouring and can tell you why they are passionate about their product. Brew pubs are also some of the few places where you can avoid the pitfalls of being at any other type of bar. I promise to do my best when speaking about these places to disclose if the beer is worth seeking them out. Otherwise, please raise a pint for all of the craft breweries out there who do more than simply brew beer. Thank you for what you do.

[midwestcraft]

Good Beer, No Censorship

Flying Dog Brewery’s slogan in response to various censorship attemps

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If I never had to challenge myself to try another IPA, I would die a happy man.

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Great River, Great Beer that is Hard to Find

Unless you reside in Illinois or the far eastern quarter of Iowa, the beers of Great River Brewery are nonexistent. Which is a shame considering Great River is brewed in the Davenport, IA of the Quad Cities. I understand there is a larger business opportunity in Illinois with the City of Wind and what not but that also brings more competition from regional and national brewers. I wish they would at least distribute to Des Moines considering from a taste prospective, they are truly one of Iowa’s better brewers. I cannot vouch for their IPA’s but all their other beers are worth a stop if you find yourself in the Quad Cities area or if you are lucky enough to find any of their stuff on the shelf. All their stuff is canned which means easier drinkability (hate that term but it works when used correctly).

Spotlight Brews: Dirty Blonde (Chocolate Blonde Ale), Dos Pistoles (Mexican Dark Wheat), Milk Stout and Root Beer (NA)

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Great Minds Drink Alike

Great Divide Brewery

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Quite possibly the coolest drinking shirt I have found on the World Wide Web in a bit.

http://www.cafepress.com/topdowndesigns/10486493

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Kum and Go Fill Your Beer

More ways to get more craft beer love. 

http://www.kcci.com/news/growler-service-station-to-hit-convenience-stores/38030086

#kumandgo #beer #fuckyeahbeer

[midwestcraft]

Stout Month

Happy stout month to you! When I lived in Colorado there was a spot that made a Thin Mint Stout and man was that good. Have yet to find that has truly inspired me this month.

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Bought this beer like 6 months ago and somewhat unimpressed. Don’t get me wrong having lived in Colorado and done the New Belgium slide a time or 2, I dig most of their stuff.  The beer was good but I did not taste a lot of salt (maybe a good thing).  I had a rogue one I found last week and drank it. Amazingly enough it tasted better and saltier.

My 2 cents, if you decide to try this beer, try letting it age a bit. Don’t be expecting anything sweet, this is still a dark beer. Even if it does say Ben and Jerry’s.

[midwestcraft]

what we know

So craft brewing has exploded over the past 5 years. There are probably 2 new breweries opening up in your town today (if you’re lucky).Yes, there are a lot of options and a lot of people who know a lot about the industry. If a 10 makes you an expert and a is 1 is “what’s beer”, I consider myself an 8.

The 9′s are the true experts and 10′s do not exist because there are so many breweries now and folks doing cool things that it is impossible to know everything about all of the different craft beers out there.

I tend to be a seasonal drinker and mean that I drink different styles of beers depending on the time of year. Now (winter time in the Midwest) my focus is porters (brown) and stouts (very dark brown). Summer months, I am enjoying lagers and wheat beers. About the only kind of beer I drink year round are blonde ales. I hate IPA’s, love Sours and will try just about anything. 

You will learn more as we go along but those are the basics.

[midwestcraft]

Time to Start a New

To the handful of folks who have read my blog over the years, thank you. I have decided to take this space and try and transform it in to being more focused than simply be about my life. 

So I give you Midwest Craft. A space dedicated to craft beer and my love of it. My goal is for this to be a place for those folks who simply love learning about new craft beers but get lost once things get too technical. I am beer geek at heart, so keeping things basic could prove more difficult than I know.

Before I say goodbye to Eats, Rhymes and Life, for the time being the archive will stay up. So if you are not familiar with me and my personality yet, the archives are a good starting place. Now without further ado, here goes nothing cheers!

G

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Cero

So I am going to try and breakup with sugar for a week. Let's see how that goes.

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Got to love small businesses and the box of signs