Des Moines Craft Beers: Court Avenue Brewery

This beer blog started as an assignment for my digital advertising class. During the semester I posted fairly regularly, but now that the semester is over I'm struggling to decide whether I want to keep blogging or not. And for those of you out there that blog or create content to post on the internet, you know it's hard work. I got pretty burnt out and thought I'd give it a rest for a while. But now I'm back with great beers and breweries to write about and I felt compelled to share these beers with everyone.

This Christmas I visited my family in West  Des Moines. They moved there two years ago and this is the first time I've spent more than just a day visiting. The other night my uncle and I decided to go out and visit breweries in the Des Moines area. This Christmas was a big deal because it marked the first holiday I was old enough to go out and drink and my uncle and I took full advantage of that. Throughout our night we visited three different breweries: Court Avenue Brewery, Exile, and 515 Brewery. I have a lot to say about each one, so I will write 3 posts, each dedicated to a specific brewery. 

Court Avenue Brewery

Court Avenue is a classy restaurant and brewery located at 309 Court Ave in Des Moines, IA. The bar section had a cozy ambiance with modern pop music playing in the background. The key to music in a bar is to have it playing at a level that people can enjoy listening to it, but not have to yell over it and Court Ave had a perfect balance. A few TV's lined the ceiling displaying that night's football game.

I looked at the menu for several minutes before making a decision. All their beers sounded great, but I wanted something a unique. With much deliberation and I picked the "brewers choice" which was an experimental beer called 21st Amendment Ale. One of the better beers I've had the opportunity to enjoy, this ale was aged in whiskey barrels. Poured with a light head, this red hued beer had an aroma of oak and wheat. Starts smooth on the palate with an initial tinge of sweetness and blended nicely with whiskey notes. 21st Amendment continued with a woody flavor that transcended the others and ended with a mild hoppy bitterness. A perfect beer to shout "cheers!" with. I rate this ale 4.5 and highly recommend it to anyone in the Des Moines area to try it before it's gone.  

Great Beers on College Hill

This past Tuesday was an intense day of studying for me. I spent 8 hours studying for my advertising class and decided I earned the right to go out and blow off a little steam. Usually I don't enjoy going out the bars on College Hill in Cedar Falls because of the college masses. Sitting in a cramped little bar surrounded by loud drunk college kids is not my idea of a fun night. But being a Tuesday evening all the college kids were absent from the bars allowing me to actually enjoy my beer and conversation with a friend.

Woodchuck Chocolate Raspberry 

My friend and I met up first up at The Other Place on the hill. When devoid of drunk rude college kids The Other Place is a rather pleasant place. They have good food and a cozy semi-rustic look with wooden booths. I only ordered one drink here and decided to try something new. The O.P. had just received a new case Woodchuck Chocolate Raspberry which I settled on as my drink of choice. 

The Chocolate Raspberry was a great choice. It had a full apple flavor to start with and ended with a sweet dark raspberry note. I have to note the chocolate flavor was lacking. In fact I don't think I could distinguish any chocolate flavor at all. Though despite the disappointing lack of chocolate, the sweet apple and dark raspberry flavor made a wicked combination for a delicious treat.

John, the manager of The O.P., talked to me about this new cider they just got and mentioned they were selling like hotcakes, so if this is a drink you'd like to try hurry into The O.P. while supplies last. I would rate this hard cider much higher than Woodchuck's pumpkin cider. (Honestly that pumpkin cider was a disgrace and never should have been made. Or Woodchuck brewers should have tried their own cider before bottling and selling it.) But the Chocolate Raspberry I give a solid 3.2 rating, which would have been higher if the chocolate flavor was more prevalent (or present to begin with.)  

Deschutes' Chasin' Freshies 

After The O.P. we walked down the hill to the Social House. I've only been into the Social House once before for a couple minutes. It's a classy little place. If the prices weren't so high and college kids didn't flood the place every weekend, I would find this bar to be right up my alley as far as style and theme goes. The second beer of my night was Deschutes' Chasin Freshies. I believe the Chasin Freshies was a saison and one of the most wonderful beers I've had the pleasure of consuming. Sitting pretty at 7.4% ABV this particular saison is packed with intense citrus flavors that smack you upside the head. I cannot stress how good this beer was. It starts with sweet citrus aroma then a tiny bit of hops for a mild hoppy pine flavor and a flood of fantastic pineapple flavor. Totally giving this beer a strong 4.6 rating. Go out to the Social House on College Hill and try this one for yourself and I'm sure you will agree to it's quality. 

6 Stouts That Won't Break the Bank

HyVee Wine and Spirits has a generally good collection of beers to choose from. I went through their beer cooler and created my own six-pack combination for $10. I chose six stouts from six different brewing companies and compared them all. Some were excellent, others merely decent. But for just $10 I thought they were all worth it. I drank all six stouts over the course of about a week. I was hoping to do this all in one weekend, but my work and school work had other plans for me.

The six stouts I chose were

1. The 8 Ball Stout: Lost Coast Brewery
2. Sierra Nevada Stout: Sierra Nevada
3. Uncommon Stout: Bent River Brewing
4. Kalamazoo Stout: Bells Brewery 
5. Dreamer Oatmeal Stout: Breckenridge Brewery
6. Moo Joo: Brau Brothers Brewery 

The 8 Ball Stout
The 8 Ball stout poured a deep brown in color and sat in the glass nearly black, similar to most stouts. A small head covered the top but dissipated in a moment of ten seconds. The aroma was thick with a robust chocolate note. On the front of the palate the flavor was light and marginally sweet and ended with a full chocolate flavor on the back of the palate leaving a mild roasted bitterness after flavor. The consistency was rather thin. This stout was good, but definitely not the best of the six.
ABV 5.8%
Rating 3.0





Sierra Nevada Stout
Rich nut brown in color, this stout poured also with a thin head. The head parted across the class as if Moses himself had parted it with his staff. The flavor moved moved across the palate smooth at first but became sharp, earthy, and bitter at the back of the palate. The aroma had a roasted earthy sent but not chocolaty. The Sierra Nevada was my least favorite stout and had a thin consistency to it.
ABV 5.8%
Rating 2.8




Uncommon Stout
This stout reminded me of a stout dwarves would raise their glasses to. The Uncommon Stout is an oatmeal stout and had an aroma of roasted coffee. The head poured a little larger than the last two stouts and lasted longer, about twenty seconds. Sitting serenely in the tulip glass, it reminded me of a cup of dark Colombian roast coffee. The consistency was smooth and creamy with notes of roasted oats and coffee and left a definitive coffee flavor on the back of the palate. With every sip an rich roasted earthy and coffee aroma wafted up to the nose. A great stout that I would enjoy buying again.
ABV 6.5
Rating 3.4




Kalamazoo Stout
The Kalamazoo poured a dark chestnut brown and looked like black glass reflecting back at you. It poured with small head that disappeared as quickly as it formed. It had a complex aroma full of roasted oats and dark chocolate notes. Thinner in consistency than the Uncommon Stout, but creamier and fuller than the first two. Sharp dark flavors rolled over the tongue with earthy notes on the back of the palate and a slight licorice note than transcended above the other flavors for a full bodied complex taste. Very enjoyable with lots happening in the mix of flavors.
ABV 6.0%
Rating 3.3




Dreamer Oatmeal Stout
This particular stout poured with almost no head at all and sat in the glass with a blackness as dark as a black bear's fur. The aroma was dark and earthy yet subtle compared to the others. My favorite of the six I tried, the Dreamer Oatmeal Stout was creamy and smooth in flavor and light on the palate with no bitter after flavor. Easy to drink and pleasing ion the tongue this was a stout I could easily have more than one.
ABV 4.9%
Rating 3.5





Moo Joo

Moo Joo is an oatmeal milk stout that poured without a head. When undisturbed in the glass Moo Joo had an appearance of polished obsidian. It had a smooth full bodied flavor with a silken consistency. Complicated notes of sweet, chocolate, and roasted coffee with a mild bitter bite. This stout will raise spirits and seems like a good beer to drink while contemplating deeply. Drinking Moo Joo makes me think of a black bearded huntsman easing himself into his handcrafted wooden chair in front of a roaring fire in a log cabin enjoying this stout.
ABV 5.8%
Rating 3.4

My three favorites were the Dreamer Oatmeal Stout, Moo Joo and Uncommon Stout. I noticed my favorites all had a creamy smooth finish which I find to be a trait necessary in a good stout. I also scaled the ratings a little because I know there are more fantastic stouts out there and I didn't want to discredit them by inflating the ratings of these 6, but for their cost these were quite enjoyable.  If you get the chance, go out and try these stouts and share what you think in the comments below. 

What Kind of Beer Drinker Are You?

Everybody seems to have a unique drinking style, but we never seem to notice it about ourselves. It's only our friends' styles that we seem to notice. Thrillist.com posted an article depicting 43 different types of beer drinkers, and I have to say I find them amusing and strangely accurate.

I have a friend from home who drinks only Bud Lite. (And I don't make fun of him for it, it's a personal choice. Just perhaps the wrong one...) According to Thrillist.com my friend is labeled as "The Light Beer Loyalist". Every time we hang out for a night of drinking I can count on him to have a giant rack of Bud Lite cans. He will try the occasional sip of some other beer someone offers him, but rarely is another kind of beer seen in his hand. Another close friend of mine likes anything strong and abrasive. This pertains mostly to his hard liquor, but he enjoys a good dark brew as well. His favorite being Guinness Stout, and since he's actually been to Ireland he claims it's better across the Atlantic. I wouldn't know, but I don't think a bottle of Guinness changes flavor just because it's been shipped across an ocean. This particular guy is obviously "The Guy Who Orders Guinness and Always Insists it's Better in Ireland". I've been able to label a few other friends from the list as well. I myself am probably "The Guy Just Trying to Pad His Untapped Stats". Or at least I've become that guy since I've started this blog and attempt to catalog my beer exploits.

Curious to know what kind of beer drinker you and your friends are? Visit Thrillist.com and find out!

Koppi Coffee IPA: A Diamond in the Rough

I walked into Sidecar today thinking I would just sit at a table, relax with a beer, and get some homework done. Little did I know I would make an impulse buy on the spot for the most expensive beer I've ever bought. (Though to some who really enjoy their unique craft beers I may not have paid that much.)

While I was standing in line at the counter I overheard the barista talking to the male student in front of me. Apparently he was the only one so far who had bought and tried a particular beer and was asked how he enjoyed it. Naturally I was curious to know what beer this was because it might influence my purchase decision. I asked the barista what beer he was referring to and he responded the Koppi Coffee IPA. This particular beer is hard to find around here because there are only 6 of these beers (to the knowledge of the barista) in North East Iowa, and they were all purchased by Sidecar. With this in mind and a natural desire to own unusual and rare things I jumped at the opportunity to be the second buyer of the Koppi Coffee IPA. It cost a pretty penny ($14 plus tax to be exact) but when I saw the size of the bottle I felt better about the expenditure. 

So how did Sidecar happen to acquire all 6 of these unique beers? The barista informed me they had a personal connection with the brewer. The brewer in question, Friedreich of Abu Nawas Brewing Company helps supply Sidecar with artisan beers and ales. This selection includes Prarrie, Mikkeller, and Evil Twin. The Koppi happened to be Mikkeller.

Now that I purchased this rare beer I find myself in a dilemma. Should I drink it or is it unique enough that I should keep it untouched in the bottle to show off? If anyone knows more about this beer and has a suggestion, please leave a comment. 

But since I have not yet opened the Koppi IPA, I also purchased Goose Island's The Muddy Imperial Stout to sip on while blogging. So I suppose I should do a review about that as well. 

Beer Review: 

Goose Island Beer Co. The Muddy Imperial Stout is quite a strong beer. Naturally because it is an imperial and contains 9% alcohol by volume with an IBU of 32. IBU stands for International Bitterness Unit. Usually the hoppier a beer is the higher the IBU. So if you don't like hoppy beers or IPA's look for a beer with a low IBU. But I digress. The Muddy has a deep rich dark flavor with a hint of licorice. Like most dark stouts this stout is also creamier than a regular ale. Just as the name suggests, The Muddy is a very down to earth stout. As a kid I'm sure most of you played the game Candy Land. In Candy Land if there was a deep dark cavern, this stout is the underground lake that occupies the center of this cavern. I give this beer a 4 out of 5 rating, though I caution that this beer is particularly suited for dark beer consumers. 

Sidecar Coffee Shop: When Coffee Just Doesn't Cut It

College Hill is home to the Sidecar Coffee Shop. In my opinion the best coffee shop in Cedar Falls. Perhaps a bold claim, but one I intend to prove. When you walk into the Sidecar you are presented with a lot of stimulus. College kids crowd around the small tables enjoying their coffee and paninis as they study together or simply converse with enthusiasm. The mellow lighting and music offers a relaxing and enticing atmosphere. As you continue to walk towards the counter and glance around you would notice the painting lining the walls. Every few weeks a new artist features their work providing a unique experience with every gallery.

As you walk up to the counter you are greeted by a smiling barista prepared to take your order. The service is usually swift, and for any time consuming order the barista will serve your food or drink to you at your table while you wait. The menu choices are quite extensive for a coffee shop as well. There's the usual coffee related drinks as well as soups, salads, paninis, breakfast pastries, desert bars, and an eclectic selection of beer when coffee just doesn't quite cut it. I've had a few of the beers and I'm quite happy with what they have available.

Beer Review:

Two Hearted Ale is a crisp bubbly IPA with a bitter bite. The bitter piny hop flavor is the overriding characteristic of the ale. It has a deep amber color in the low light of the Sidecar ambiance. All these IPA's I keep drinking are helping me develop a taste for them, though I think it will still take a while to truly appreciate and enjoy the taste completely. The Two Hearted Ale made me think of biting into an acorn. Now I have no idea what an acorn actually tastes like, but I imagine it's something similar to this IPA. I would recommend this ale to any IPA lover, but not to anyone who doesn't enjoy the bitter taste of a hoppy beer. I give the Two Hearted Ale a 3.75   out of 5. 

The Cuvee Renee is a lambic style beer. Absolutely one of my favorite beers I've ever had the pleasure of drinking. There's a premium cost to purchase it, but worth every penny. It had a light crisp bubbly sensation as you sipped it from the glass. Bubbles rose in a continuous column causing a slight fascination. The beer had a distinct sweet citrus flavor with a tart and slightly vinegar over note. A glass of the Cuvee Renee reminded me of a champagne more than anything. Merchant duVin can offer more information about the lambic style beers. I rate this beer a 4.75 out of 5.

Craft Terroir: a Reflection of Craft Beers

Tuesday evening, Sept. 16, I attending a talk about craft beers by a Kentucky University professor. Jeff Rice, professor of writing, rhetoric, and digital studies was asked to present a talk about craft beers and how they reflect the land upon which they were crafted. Needless to say I was very excited to hear what Mr. Rice had to say, and I walked into the talk with the expectation of having great things to blog about. Unfortunately that wasn't quite the case.

As Mr. Rice stood at the podium the room fell to a hush with an almost palpable anticipation . The first words uttered by Mr. Rice were lost upon me as my ears adjusted to the poor acoustics of the room. His voice emanating from the speakers behind him was muddled as the sound reverberated around the room making it difficult to understand what he was saying.

After a moment of adjustment I realized Mr. Rice was recounting his experience with the Pliny the Elder beer, an IPA crafted by the Russian River Brewing Co. in California. He used various words to describe the ale; floral, piny, hoppy and citrus among others. A brief history of hops followed to explain the name of the beer. Lupus salictarius, the origianal botanical name for hops which translated into “wolf among scrubs” grew wild among willows. And Pliny, a man who lived in the first century - 23 to 79 A.D. was credited being the first to name the plant or at least write about it. Hence the name of the ale.

Soon after the point about the original name of hops was made I was lost again. Jeff moved from topic to topic before I had a chance to understand what he was speaking about leaving me in a state of confusion and desperate strain for understanding. He read his talk from a paper like a speech rather than talking to his audience. I liken him to a man presenting a reading at a church service.

The most interesting part of his speech was when Mr. Rice started explaining terroir which means land. beers should reflect the land upon which they are crafted. Terroir was originally a political concept to protect food and products by tying them to the land of origin. Contemporary meaning of terroir is more closely associated with the culture surrounding the product than with the product itself. The land gives the product identity. Mr. Rice was making the argument that every ingredient that goes into the crafting of a beer reflects the land from which it came and gives identity to the beer. Emotional connections are also made between consumers and the craft beers from their region.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to take away any more information from the talk given. The concept of Craft Terroir is interesting and I may have to do individual research into the subject. I wish the talk by Mr. Rice was more substantial and less about his own personal experiences with craft beers on the West Coast. Though some parts were interesting, on the whole I found the talk to be unengaging and difficult to follow. I attribute a large portion of that to the bad acoustics. Perhaps the venue for his next talk will have better sound.

Beer Tour at Singlespeed Brewery

Anybody walking down Main St. for the Cedar Falls Art-a-Palooza may have seen me between the hours of 2:00 and 3:30 sitting behind the window at the Singlespeed bar-counter. I returned for my second visit ever on Saturday for the 2:00 beer tour guided by one of the brewers. It was interesting to listen to the brewing process, but I happened to be stuck at the back of the tour and couldn't hear too well and don't recall many details about the brewing process. But my main concern was the free beer after the tour. It's hard to turn down the opportunity for a free beer.

Before the  tour began I sat at the bar and purchased a beer titled The APA. Supposedly it's just a less hoppy IPA. I had only been sitting with my purchased brew for a couple minutes when the tour started to commence. During the entire tour presentation I kept sipping on my beer and fine-tuning its taste in my mind. (Now I am a very visually oriented individual so a lot of my beer descriptions will be images that formulate in my mind as I drink. For you other visual people out there, my reviews may be very entertaining. Hopefully you others who are dominantly either auditory or kinesthetic will still be able to relate to my flavor descriptions.)

Brewery Tour

The most amusing moment during the tour for me was when the tour leader paused and took a sip from his beer. He commanded the attention of the group, so when he paused to take a drink several others all raised their glasses in unison to drink as well. It was a subconscious response to mimic his actions, and I found it amusing from a psychological standpoint.

After the tour ended I returned to the bar to claim my free beer, so I have two beer reviews today.  The second beer was their Raspberry Farmhouse, a slightly hoppy ale brewed with fresh raspberries for a genuine raspberry flavor. Very refreshing on that particularly hot day.



Beer Review:

The APA had a flavor that reminded me of approaching Christmas. The beer had subtle hints of orange citrus flavor and a mellow hoppiness. It was like pine needles and candied orange peels being swept up in a light snow flurry on a December evening. I give this beer a 4.25 out of 5. I would definitely have this beer again and suggest it to anyone who wants to dip their feet in the pool of hoppy beers.

The Raspberry Farmhouse has a much simpler flavor image. It's a raspberry hop sandwich. After taking a sip you are initially hit with a wave of strong raspberry then replaced a moment later with the piney bitter hops only to end with a lingering raspberry flavor left on your tongue until the next sip. Great to drink with a spring salad or just to enjoy on a hot day. (or really any time for that matter.) Also rated a 4.25 out of 5. I think any beer drinker would enjoy drinking this beer as long as they enjoy a fruit flavor in their beer.