It's about more than just beer

If you are like me you pick a brewery, brewpub or beer bar based on the beer that is available and give it a shot.  Either it can be a good experience or a bad experience and usually the beer has little to do with your experience.  Beer is very important but the service and ambiance have a great deal to do with your experience as well.  When either one of these is less than desirable it  may doom your your visit.

I know when I find a place that I enjoy, it usually combines all three.   If one is lacking I begrudgingly over look it, but if two or all three are lacking that spells doom for that place and next time I will try somewhere else.  I do not want to waste my time or money on somewhere that does not really care about the customer.

Since I am the QC Beerguy, I always try to chose a place on its beer first.  Usually that will work well for me but not always.  Sometimes the beer is not as good as advertised and leaves me wanting.  In most cases though there is more than enough good beer to save the day.

If the beer meets my demands the service and ambiance either seal the deal or leave me disappointed.  There are times when places I am a regular at leave me disappointed and angry.  This causes me to take a hiatus from that place.  This happened at a couple places locally about a month ago and I have not gone back since.  I know I will go back eventually, but I guess to me it is some sort of principal to not go there for a while.

Service to me is a big key.  If I am greeted with a "Hello", a smile or at least a tip of the head when I sit down at a bar that is a big step on the way to good service.  If instead I am ignored or even worse greeted by a look that tells me "You are not welcome here" it can be bad for a visit.  So needless to say like a first date the first 30 seconds spell success or failure for the place I visit.  Since I work in sales I understand what is good service and do not accept poor service.  I guess that is why I enjoy being a "regular" at the places I frequent, because it usually means good service is on the way.

If the beer and service meet my acceptance it comes down to the ambiance or feel of the place.  There is one place I go to on a regular basis that is in a strip mall and from the outside looks rather disappointing, but once inside the place I feel very comfortable.  If the feel is there as well with the other two keys this is a worthy place.  One such place we were just at this past weekend after our niece's concert in Normal, IL.  Probably my wife and I would of never found this place but it succeeded in all three phases.  The only negative was that my wife's beer was bad, probably the beer sat in the line to long or some other cleaning issue caused the beer to go bad.  Once my wife brought it to our waiter's attention he apologized and than thanked her for telling him about the beer.  He said that they want to k now when a beer is bad so they can address it.

I look forward to exploring places on my travels and when I find a gem I am very excited.  Conversely if I find a dud I am also in a way excited, this means next time I am in the same city I have a new adventure ahead of me.  The beer brings me in, but it is not the be all end all to my decision.  The service and the feel of the place are important as well.  So to repeat "It's about more than just the beer"

QC Beerguy

Additions a bit further a field

Beside the local QC additions, I have become aware of a couple other additions a bit further out from home.  First is the new brewery that Backpocket Brewing is building at the Iowa River Landing District in Coralville, IA.  The building can be easily seen from I-80.  Anticipated opening is late Spring of 2012, so it will be open soon.  The building now is totally enclosed and looks like only a few finishing touches on the exterior left, with most of the work left on the inside before opening.  Besides brewing their own beer they will be a contract brewery for Schlafly's out of St. Louis.

The second addition is a new production brewery is planned to be built for Laguintas Brewing Company in Chicago, IL.  The brewery will be a 250 barrel brewery with initial capacity of 200,000 barrels per year.  Expected operational date is the 4th quarter of 2013.  For more info follow this link http://www.beer-universe.com/beer-education-article/2012-04-16/Laguintas-Furthers-Expansion-Moves-East-to-Chicago/.

The demand for good craft beer continues to fuel the growth of these two breweries as well as other around the country.  Keep drinking craft beer.

QC Beerguy

QC Brew News

This Spring and early summer will be an exciting time for the QC beer scene with two brewpubs expanding production into new facilities and a new nano-brewery opening.  Front Street Brewery is in the process of moving brewing operations into the Freight House building in downtown Davenport.  Besides having the brewery in the Freight House, they will also have a tasting room.  Also they went local with their brewing equipment having Crawford Company from Rock Island, IL make it.  This is the first time for such a project for Crawford Company.  That is pretty cool.  Even cooler is the thought of sitting in the tasting room, enjoying a beer and looking out the window to see Le Claire Park and the Mississippi River.  This will be a great location to enjoy a beer.

Also moving their brewing into new digs is Bent River Brewing Company.  They are moving into a former car wash in Downtown Rock Island, an interesting new use for the building.  Bent River will include a tasting room and a retail space to sell Bent River goodies.  As well they will have a drive up coffee hut that will sell packaged beer to go.  With the expanded capacity they hope to meet the continuing expanding demand for their beers.  Also a familiar face will be in charge of quality control, original owner Tim Koster.  I am looking forward to checking out how a car wash can be changed into a production brewery.

Last but not least is the opening of Against the Grain Brewery and Alehouse.  As I mentioned this will be a nano-brewery, owned by the only GABF award winning brewer in the Quad Cities, Rich Nunez.  Rich is in the process of getting his location up and running; it is located in Rock Island near Augustana College at 1340 31st St.  Rich will be brewing his own beers as well having some guest taps.  Since this is a nano brewery, brewing in small batches less than a half barrel at a time, Rich will be able to have a variety of his beers on at a time.  I am looking forward to enjoying some beers from Rich and maybe even giving his garlic porter another try if he decides to make it again.

I believe all locations are hoping to be up and going at the latest by the end of May.  This will be a fun adventure checking out these new locations and enjoying the beer being produced at them.  Hope to see a lot of people out supporting the new locations and the new brewery.

QC Beerguy