QC Tasting rooms

As I have previously noted both Bent River and Front Street have their tasting rooms open and over the weekend my wife and I had a chance to visit both of them.  Saturday morning we went to the downtown Davenport Farmer's Market and after walking around a while we made our way to Front Street's tasting room.  It is in the Freight House building and looks like your average tasting room.  The main feature is the brewing equipment along the back wall behind the bar, there is lots of room between the bar and brewery so neither will conflict with the other.  The room itself has well placed tables and chairs as well as the bar stools at the bar.  The other main attraction will be the view of the Mississippi River. This is a great place to sit and enjoy a beer or two.

The beer has made a marked improvement over that previously made at the original location in the cellar.  The Raging River Pale Ale is now a very enjoyable beer and easy to drink.  The Hefe is improved as well.  Their brewmaster's special was a vanilla porter, which I enjoyed very much.  They are still feeling out their hours, but the info I have received is that they will open at 9AM on Farmer's Market Saturday.  Otherwise they are looking at being open at 4 PM on other days.  Go check this place out and enjoy the view.

Saturday afternoon my wife and I and another couple met up at Bent River's tasting room in Rock Island.  The tasting room looks and feels much different than the original location of Bent River.  They did a great job of turning an old car wash into a production facility and tasting room.  They also have tables and chairs outside so you can enjoy the beer and smell the ribs cooking across the street at Jim's Rib Haven.  The interior of the tasting room is dark, but still comforting in a way.  Currently they are still assembling the brewery and plan to have it completed by the end of next week.  We received a brief  walk through and learned that they have a four barrel system, which will supply both Bent locations, their keg accounts and in the future their bottled beer.  I am looking forward to the continued evolution of Bent River's production facility and tasting room.

After a couple of beers at Bent we went up the hill in Rock Island to take a look at Against the Grain's location.  We easily found it and just walked around looking inside to get a feel of the place.  This also got us thinking more about when they will open.  Well we found out Sunday, when Rich made an announcement at the MUGZ meeting.  He told the group that their scheduled opening day will be Friday July 6th at 4pm, so needless to say we will be there for the opening.  At first Rich and Neil will only be able to sell guest beers, since they do not have their brew system yet.  They have made a decision to go with a larger system, so they have ordered a 2 barrel system that they will receive hopefully in 6-8 weeks.  Also hopefully they will have all of the paperwork completed so they can start brewing right away.

That is the latest I have on the new tasting rooms here in the QC.

QC Beerguy