Well I find myself in exotic Ft. Dodge, IA looking for a good beer bar with good food. Through my search I found a place that looked somewhat promising, Olde Boston's Restaurant & Pub ttp://www.oldebostons.com/index.html . From examining the website I decided that they had a good food menu and what they call a "Great Selection of Beer", which turned out to be just about anything that AB Inbev sells. It makes perfect sense why they have a picture of their Bud Rep on the Beer Menu page, because that is almost everything they sell. Sorry carrying the full line of AB Inbev beers is not a great selection of beers.
I walked in to the place and it looks cool enough a redone first floor of an old building, so lots of brick, wood and lights. I go sit down at the bar and I am greeted promptly by the bar keep and asked what I wanted. I look up and the taps are as follows Shock Top, Goose Seasonal, Honker's Ale, Bud Light and Shock Top Raspberry. I ordered the Goose Seasonal and then decide on my meal for the evening. I decide on the pork tenderloin with a side of mac and cheese. The food was quite good!
After I ordered my food I start exploring their bottle selection and find Stella, Warstiener, Sam Adams and Blue Moon to name the highlights. Almost all of the beers they offered were AB Inbev, so I was not pleased with their " Great Selection of Beers". To me a great selection of beers does not mean carrying the whole beer catalog of one company.
So if you find yourself in Ft. Dodge, IA and are looking for a "Great Selection of Beers" this is not the place! They have a very interesting menu, but the beer selection is lacking. Needles to say if I find myself overnight in Ft. Dodge again I will have to explore elsewhere to find good beer. If you want good food come here, but avoid the beer.
QC Beerguy
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Raccoon River Brewing Company- Des Moines
I am back in Des Moines again tonight and decided to go the the third brewpub in Des Moines tonight. Even though the place was a ghost town, maybe 20 people total besides myself while I was there, it is still a great pain to find parking near Raccoon River http://www.raccoonbrew.com/. Walking in the brewpub is very impressive, just to your left as you walk in is the brewhouse. Also there is an upstairs billiard and game room. To your right is the bar and when I walked in there was one other person at the bar.
After I sat down I ordered a sampler, it includes 7 of their beers. Tallgrass Light, a light refreshing beer that was one of there better beers. Vanilla Cream Ale, the vanilla overwhelms everything else, if you like vanilla this is your beer. Lakeside (?) Wheat an American wheat that was very grainy and slightly harsh not a favorite. 10th St. Cherry Wheat, their wheat with I'm guessing cherry juice added, sweet red and very cherry, almost a cherry cough drop without the menthol. Homestead Red, sweet malty with some hops, but just missing something in my opinion. Bandit IPA, very hoppy aroma and taste with a decent malt backbone, mainly piny hops but maybe some simcoe in it is as well slightly catty. Their last beer was Stonecutter Stout, black dark roast and coffee flavors as well as some chocolate and coffee, roast flavors. Some sweetness and slickness coming from oats?
Their menu has a good selection to chose from, but as usual I went with a burger. I ordered a raccoon burger, a burger with smoked Gouda and fried onions on it, quite tasty. Raccoon River seems to be more concentrated on food that beer. Overall I would rate this third out of the three brewpubs in Des Moines. I really prefer Court Avenue and Rock Bottom to Raccoon River, they both seem to make better quality of beer. Raccoon is far from a horrible brewpub, but the other two are just better beer wise. Do not be afraid to give them a try.
QC Beerguy
After I sat down I ordered a sampler, it includes 7 of their beers. Tallgrass Light, a light refreshing beer that was one of there better beers. Vanilla Cream Ale, the vanilla overwhelms everything else, if you like vanilla this is your beer. Lakeside (?) Wheat an American wheat that was very grainy and slightly harsh not a favorite. 10th St. Cherry Wheat, their wheat with I'm guessing cherry juice added, sweet red and very cherry, almost a cherry cough drop without the menthol. Homestead Red, sweet malty with some hops, but just missing something in my opinion. Bandit IPA, very hoppy aroma and taste with a decent malt backbone, mainly piny hops but maybe some simcoe in it is as well slightly catty. Their last beer was Stonecutter Stout, black dark roast and coffee flavors as well as some chocolate and coffee, roast flavors. Some sweetness and slickness coming from oats?
Their menu has a good selection to chose from, but as usual I went with a burger. I ordered a raccoon burger, a burger with smoked Gouda and fried onions on it, quite tasty. Raccoon River seems to be more concentrated on food that beer. Overall I would rate this third out of the three brewpubs in Des Moines. I really prefer Court Avenue and Rock Bottom to Raccoon River, they both seem to make better quality of beer. Raccoon is far from a horrible brewpub, but the other two are just better beer wise. Do not be afraid to give them a try.
QC Beerguy
Sunday, April 17, 2011
A Good Weekend
My wife and I had a good fun weekend with some friends. On Friday night we went to a wine tasting put on by Hy-Vee in Davenport. The wine tasting had over 100 wines, a few beers and even some premium liquors. We met some of our friends at the event and enjoyed the tasting and socializing with our friends. We purchased 5 bottles of wine for ourselves. The proceeds went to our favorite charity the American Red Cross of the Quad Cities.
During the day Saturday my wife decided to invite the same friends we went to the wine tasting with to come over for a beer tasting. So the six of us gathered at our house and had a great night of conversation and tasting. We all supplied some beer to share with everyone else. The night started off with some lighter craft brew but we worked our way up to some more complex beers. Some of the highlights included 4 Scottish themed beers that included beers made with gooseberries, heather, elderberry and a scotch pine. Also we had a couple good smoked beers a Dopplebock and a Imperial Stout. Plus I found a new chocolate beer for my wife, she loves light beers with chocolate in them, from Boulevard Brewing http://www.boulevard.com/BoulevardBeers/chocolate-ale.
The biggest disappointment of the night was a Dogfish 120 from 2009. I remembered when I purchased the bottles and drank one right away I thought it was overly sweet. So I brought a bottle out for everyone to have a sample of last night. The beer was even sweeter than what I remembered, it is now more of a barelywine than an Imperial IPA. Yes I expected some of the hops to drop out but not this much, there were none to be found. Now I have one more Dogfish 120 from that year to drink somewhere in the future.
Well I will be on the road again with stops in Des Moines, Ft. Dodge and Cedar Rapids. If anyone knows of a place in Ft. Dodge that serves good beer and good food let me know.
QC Beerguy
During the day Saturday my wife decided to invite the same friends we went to the wine tasting with to come over for a beer tasting. So the six of us gathered at our house and had a great night of conversation and tasting. We all supplied some beer to share with everyone else. The night started off with some lighter craft brew but we worked our way up to some more complex beers. Some of the highlights included 4 Scottish themed beers that included beers made with gooseberries, heather, elderberry and a scotch pine. Also we had a couple good smoked beers a Dopplebock and a Imperial Stout. Plus I found a new chocolate beer for my wife, she loves light beers with chocolate in them, from Boulevard Brewing http://www.boulevard.com/BoulevardBeers/chocolate-ale.
The biggest disappointment of the night was a Dogfish 120 from 2009. I remembered when I purchased the bottles and drank one right away I thought it was overly sweet. So I brought a bottle out for everyone to have a sample of last night. The beer was even sweeter than what I remembered, it is now more of a barelywine than an Imperial IPA. Yes I expected some of the hops to drop out but not this much, there were none to be found. Now I have one more Dogfish 120 from that year to drink somewhere in the future.
Well I will be on the road again with stops in Des Moines, Ft. Dodge and Cedar Rapids. If anyone knows of a place in Ft. Dodge that serves good beer and good food let me know.
QC Beerguy
Thursday, April 14, 2011
NHC Day 3: Heading Home
So after a good night's sleep we awoke talked with our friends and got ready to head back home. So instead of heading straight home we went over to a brewpub in McGregor, IA called Old Man River Brewery http://www.oldmanriverbrewery.com/ . McGregor is across the Mississippi River from Prairie Du Chein, WI in north east IA.
We arrived in McGregor and quickly found the brewery. McGregor's downtown is a really cool looking with all of the old brick buildings. Overall the town looks like it stays alive with tourist activities. In some places the town goes right into the bluffs along the river.
The building that houses the brewery is very imposing and cool. Once inside the coolness continues, it is a refurbished building with lots of exposed brick and wood. The bar is a big "U" shaped bar that is the main attraction of the brewery. As well they have a deck that in warm weather you can enjoy your meal outside.
We went and sat at the bar as usual and ordered a sampler for each of us, since the sample size was about 3 oz. each. The sampler included 5 beers and their root beer. The first beer was Gold Coin Helles, a clean crisp golden beer that would be a great lawnmower beer, this was a favorite. Second beer was Penny Whistle Wheat, very clovey and wheaty, but little banana and only slightly hazy not a favorite. Next beer was Jacknife GPA (German Pale Ale), the smell of American hops hits the nose and the body was a bit thin, as the beer warms a metallic taste develops again not a favorite. Next up Wooden Nickel Scottish ( Peated Lager) an odd combination of a beer smoky with Pils malt flavor coming through and otherwise not much else I'll pass on this one as well. Last beer Slingshot Dunkel smooth caramel flavor with Munich malt and noble hops nice and drinkable, this is another favorite of mine. Lastly the Root beer we all agreed it was quite tasty.
We all ordered a sandwich and another beer to wash down the meal. We all were quite pleased with Old Man River Brewery and would come again to enjoy it. Old Man does distribute their beer outside the brewery you may know it as Einfach which has been on tap in several places in the QC area. They are now rebranding the beer as Back Pocket, same beer but different name.
One last thing if you are not doing anything tomorrow night there is a wine tasting at the Northgate Hy-Vee (East Kimberly) with proceeds going to American Red Cross. The cost is $15 and lasts from 6:00- 8:30PM. For more information call 563-359-9323. Remember the Red Cross helps fire and flood victims which can be your family and friends. So come out and enjoy 100+ wines tomorrow night. Hope to see you there!
QC Beerguy
We arrived in McGregor and quickly found the brewery. McGregor's downtown is a really cool looking with all of the old brick buildings. Overall the town looks like it stays alive with tourist activities. In some places the town goes right into the bluffs along the river.
The building that houses the brewery is very imposing and cool. Once inside the coolness continues, it is a refurbished building with lots of exposed brick and wood. The bar is a big "U" shaped bar that is the main attraction of the brewery. As well they have a deck that in warm weather you can enjoy your meal outside.
We went and sat at the bar as usual and ordered a sampler for each of us, since the sample size was about 3 oz. each. The sampler included 5 beers and their root beer. The first beer was Gold Coin Helles, a clean crisp golden beer that would be a great lawnmower beer, this was a favorite. Second beer was Penny Whistle Wheat, very clovey and wheaty, but little banana and only slightly hazy not a favorite. Next beer was Jacknife GPA (German Pale Ale), the smell of American hops hits the nose and the body was a bit thin, as the beer warms a metallic taste develops again not a favorite. Next up Wooden Nickel Scottish ( Peated Lager) an odd combination of a beer smoky with Pils malt flavor coming through and otherwise not much else I'll pass on this one as well. Last beer Slingshot Dunkel smooth caramel flavor with Munich malt and noble hops nice and drinkable, this is another favorite of mine. Lastly the Root beer we all agreed it was quite tasty.
We all ordered a sandwich and another beer to wash down the meal. We all were quite pleased with Old Man River Brewery and would come again to enjoy it. Old Man does distribute their beer outside the brewery you may know it as Einfach which has been on tap in several places in the QC area. They are now rebranding the beer as Back Pocket, same beer but different name.
One last thing if you are not doing anything tomorrow night there is a wine tasting at the Northgate Hy-Vee (East Kimberly) with proceeds going to American Red Cross. The cost is $15 and lasts from 6:00- 8:30PM. For more information call 563-359-9323. Remember the Red Cross helps fire and flood victims which can be your family and friends. So come out and enjoy 100+ wines tomorrow night. Hope to see you there!
QC Beerguy
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Am I a Regular?
Many of us have wondered this at a bar that we frequent. When we find a bar we feel comfortable at, when am I considered a regular? Is it when I find myself going back to the same place? Is it when I am recognized by the bar staff? Is it when the bar staff knows my name? Is it when I make friends with some of the people at the bar? Is it when the bar staff knows my drink? Or just when is it? I am very interested in comments from everyone on this, because I feel there is no correct answer.
I come to this thought because of my travels and the places I frequent on my travels. Since I travel the same route every two weeks I find myself in the same place to eat frequently and I found myself as a regular at these places. Each place is different as well.
At several places I am known to the bar staff by appearance, but not by name. One particular bar I am known by name as well as by appearance. Other places it depends on who is working as to if I am recognized or not. So at those times am I a regular?
And when I am home in the QC I frequent the same places because I feel comfortable there. My first place was Bent River and even though they have change over the staff many times since I first went there it is still home. I may not know all of the staff's name, but at least I do know many of the people that frequent Bent. As well I do know some of the owners. So I do consider myself a regular there.
I feel the same way at Great River. This is a place I frequent and feel comfortable at. I do know some of the bar staff's names but I don't think they really know mine, but they know me by face and allow me some latitude as a regular. Needless to say I enjoy places I feel comfortable at.
As I said earlier I am very interested in other peoples opinions on this subject, so please contact me with your thoughts. If possible leave me a comment on my blog, or by posting on facebook, or by emailing me at agger503@gmail.com . There is no right or wrong answer to this question, so do not be afraid to answer.
Have a great night!
QC Beerguy
I come to this thought because of my travels and the places I frequent on my travels. Since I travel the same route every two weeks I find myself in the same place to eat frequently and I found myself as a regular at these places. Each place is different as well.
At several places I am known to the bar staff by appearance, but not by name. One particular bar I am known by name as well as by appearance. Other places it depends on who is working as to if I am recognized or not. So at those times am I a regular?
And when I am home in the QC I frequent the same places because I feel comfortable there. My first place was Bent River and even though they have change over the staff many times since I first went there it is still home. I may not know all of the staff's name, but at least I do know many of the people that frequent Bent. As well I do know some of the owners. So I do consider myself a regular there.
I feel the same way at Great River. This is a place I frequent and feel comfortable at. I do know some of the bar staff's names but I don't think they really know mine, but they know me by face and allow me some latitude as a regular. Needless to say I enjoy places I feel comfortable at.
As I said earlier I am very interested in other peoples opinions on this subject, so please contact me with your thoughts. If possible leave me a comment on my blog, or by posting on facebook, or by emailing me at agger503@gmail.com . There is no right or wrong answer to this question, so do not be afraid to answer.
Have a great night!
QC Beerguy
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Sorry
Some idiot left his notes sitting at home while he is on the road! So he is clueless to write day 3 of NHC. I hope that I will have a totally new post tomorrow in regards to "Am I a Regular?"
Have a good night!
QC Beerguy
Have a good night!
QC Beerguy
Monday, April 11, 2011
NHC Day 2
So if your read Day 1 about our trip up to Madison, WI you know what is going on. If not just go back to yesterday's posting and read up. Our judging day started with us showing up about 8 AM to get checked in. Myself and our male friend were judging while my wife and our female friend were stewarding. Also from MUGZ we had two other gentleman come up to judge the day of judging.
I will explain a bit about judging at the first round of NHC. It is a fun day as well as a long and grueling day. I know some may say tasting 30+ beers in a day is not grueling, but it is far from as easy as you may imagine. Also the job of a steward is even harder on a person and at times the stewards do not receive enough credit.
So as I said we arrive about 8 AM to check in and then we milled around until about 8:45 AM to allow the stewards to prepare the tables with everything we needed to properly judge beer. This includes pencils, erasers, staplers, cups, bread, score sheets and a few other things I am forgetting right now. We are told to find our assigned table and our assigned partner to get ready for our first round of judging. In all we judged three sessions on Saturday.
So once we are seated the competition director laid out the ground rules and then the stewards brought around the calibration beer. The purpose of the calibration beer is to warm up the senses and see where you are in relation to your partner. The calibration beer is only done first thing in the morning and at more and more competitions it is not done at all.
Once we have that done the stewards brought us our first beer, at a competition this size the stewards bring us our next beer when we are done judging the previous beer. In the morning I judged stouts, we had 8 judging pairs for stout. In total there were 80 stouts in this competition with 20 of them being RIS ( Russian Imperial Stouts). My judging partner and I judged a total of 11 stouts. Since there were 80 total beers judged by 8 judging pairs that meant that there would be a mini- BOS to chose the top 3 beers for the style. So we passed on two beers into the mini-BOS, and in the mini-BOS the three ranking judges of the group chose from 16 beers for the top 3 beers.
The top three beers from each category go onto the 2nd round of NHC which is held in conjunction with the National Homebrewers Conference. This year it will be held in San Diego, CA. Oh what a wonderful place that would be to go to, but alas it just is not feasible this year. At the second round it is decided the top 3 beers in each style from across the US and Canada. So it is quite an honor to place in each region let alone the top 3 overall.
Besides beer the mead and cider categories are contested during this competition as well. For those that do not know what a mead is it is a fermented alcoholic beverage made from honey. A hard cider is a fermented beverage made from apple, with a category made with pears called perrys. The ciders and perrys are judged together.
Once we finished with the the first session we were able to have lunch. Also during the lunch break the stewards cleaned up after the first session and made the tables ready for session two. Session two I judged Belgian Strong Ales, this time my judging partner and I judged 10 beers. There were 5 judging pairs so around 50 ales to judge. I was involved in judging mini-BOS which we were quickly able to decide on the top three beers that will continue on to the second round.
So once the second session was finished the stewards quickly turned around the table for the third session of the day. For the third session I judged Smoked and Wood- Aged beers. This is a hard category to judge since the base beer style can be any style the brewer wants and the amount of smoke and wood aging varies as well. I think overall there were about 32 beers in the category and we judged 11 in total. This session I did not get to judge the mini-BOS, but my judging partner did and the three beers we passed on to the mini-BOS wound up going 1 2 3. With the winner being a porter which was dry hopped with smoked, cooked bacon and no it was not as bad as you imagine.
The event was held at Vintage Brewing Company http://vintagebrewingcompany.com/ . I want to thank the people at Vintage for hosting us as well as the hosting committee which was made up by members of MHTG http://www.mhtg.org/. Once the judging of session three was over the organizers made a few more announcements and then did a drawing for the some swag. During the drawing I had one of Vintage's beers Better Off Red, they describe it as a hopped up American Red Ale. It was quite good and would have another any time. After a dinner break on our own they provided a bus to go around the town to various establishments.
We went back to Sprecher's for dinner and had another great meal accompanied by the same delicious beers we had the night before. Unfortunately for me I did not feel overly well so I passed on going out that night for a bus ride to some of Madison's fine drinking establishments. Well guess they will be there the next time we are in town.
Tomorrow day three which is the ride and a stop or two along the way back to the QC.
QC Beerguy
I will explain a bit about judging at the first round of NHC. It is a fun day as well as a long and grueling day. I know some may say tasting 30+ beers in a day is not grueling, but it is far from as easy as you may imagine. Also the job of a steward is even harder on a person and at times the stewards do not receive enough credit.
So as I said we arrive about 8 AM to check in and then we milled around until about 8:45 AM to allow the stewards to prepare the tables with everything we needed to properly judge beer. This includes pencils, erasers, staplers, cups, bread, score sheets and a few other things I am forgetting right now. We are told to find our assigned table and our assigned partner to get ready for our first round of judging. In all we judged three sessions on Saturday.
So once we are seated the competition director laid out the ground rules and then the stewards brought around the calibration beer. The purpose of the calibration beer is to warm up the senses and see where you are in relation to your partner. The calibration beer is only done first thing in the morning and at more and more competitions it is not done at all.
Once we have that done the stewards brought us our first beer, at a competition this size the stewards bring us our next beer when we are done judging the previous beer. In the morning I judged stouts, we had 8 judging pairs for stout. In total there were 80 stouts in this competition with 20 of them being RIS ( Russian Imperial Stouts). My judging partner and I judged a total of 11 stouts. Since there were 80 total beers judged by 8 judging pairs that meant that there would be a mini- BOS to chose the top 3 beers for the style. So we passed on two beers into the mini-BOS, and in the mini-BOS the three ranking judges of the group chose from 16 beers for the top 3 beers.
The top three beers from each category go onto the 2nd round of NHC which is held in conjunction with the National Homebrewers Conference. This year it will be held in San Diego, CA. Oh what a wonderful place that would be to go to, but alas it just is not feasible this year. At the second round it is decided the top 3 beers in each style from across the US and Canada. So it is quite an honor to place in each region let alone the top 3 overall.
Besides beer the mead and cider categories are contested during this competition as well. For those that do not know what a mead is it is a fermented alcoholic beverage made from honey. A hard cider is a fermented beverage made from apple, with a category made with pears called perrys. The ciders and perrys are judged together.
Once we finished with the the first session we were able to have lunch. Also during the lunch break the stewards cleaned up after the first session and made the tables ready for session two. Session two I judged Belgian Strong Ales, this time my judging partner and I judged 10 beers. There were 5 judging pairs so around 50 ales to judge. I was involved in judging mini-BOS which we were quickly able to decide on the top three beers that will continue on to the second round.
So once the second session was finished the stewards quickly turned around the table for the third session of the day. For the third session I judged Smoked and Wood- Aged beers. This is a hard category to judge since the base beer style can be any style the brewer wants and the amount of smoke and wood aging varies as well. I think overall there were about 32 beers in the category and we judged 11 in total. This session I did not get to judge the mini-BOS, but my judging partner did and the three beers we passed on to the mini-BOS wound up going 1 2 3. With the winner being a porter which was dry hopped with smoked, cooked bacon and no it was not as bad as you imagine.
The event was held at Vintage Brewing Company http://vintagebrewingcompany.com/ . I want to thank the people at Vintage for hosting us as well as the hosting committee which was made up by members of MHTG http://www.mhtg.org/. Once the judging of session three was over the organizers made a few more announcements and then did a drawing for the some swag. During the drawing I had one of Vintage's beers Better Off Red, they describe it as a hopped up American Red Ale. It was quite good and would have another any time. After a dinner break on our own they provided a bus to go around the town to various establishments.
We went back to Sprecher's for dinner and had another great meal accompanied by the same delicious beers we had the night before. Unfortunately for me I did not feel overly well so I passed on going out that night for a bus ride to some of Madison's fine drinking establishments. Well guess they will be there the next time we are in town.
Tomorrow day three which is the ride and a stop or two along the way back to the QC.
QC Beerguy
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