Peace Tree Brewing

Last night we traveled down to Knoxville, Iowa to visit our favorite brewery and one of our favorite date night destinations.  Peace Tree Brewing will be celebrating their 2 year anniversary on St. Patrick's Day in March. On this visit, were able to visit with Brewmeister Joe (who still happened to be in the tap room) about the specialty brews he is making for the St. Patrick's Day anniversary celebration. He said they were unveiling a dopplebock as well as a rye porter that's been aging in a Templeton Rye whiskey barrel for about 10 months.

Hop Wrangler and Templeton Imperial Stout

Blonde Fatale and Rye Porter

We celebrated this fantastic news with a Blonde Fatale for the lady and the last glass (literally) of Templeton Imperial Stout for me. Since Peace Tree's taproom doesn't serve food, they provide a book of local restaurant menus and  encourage patrons to order; almost all of the restaurants in town deliver to the tap room.  We have had sandwiches from Swamp Fox (love the fried green beans!) and pizza from Wacko's and Tasso's in the past but decided to go with Deng's Garden for some extra-spicy Chinese food. We washed it down with a couple Hop Wranglers. The wonderfully hoppy beer cut through the heat of the chili peppers and complimented the meal perfectly. As we were leaving, we set our calendars for our next visit to Peace Tree next month, probably for St. Patrick's day, so we have about three weeks to practice speaking Blarney!

 

Our new beer of the week was a Pride and Joy Mild Ale from our favorite Indiana brewery Three Floyd's in Munster. It was delightful but I only had one bottle, so we finished off the last Zombie Dust Pale Ale from the same brewery and a Farmhouse Ale from Brewery Vivant in Grand Rapids, Michigan (more on Vivant later...as a former funeral home converted into a brewery, it deserves its very own blog).

Flying Mangos and Fruited Beer

For those of you who know us well, then you know that Wednesday night is "date night". If we could offer any words of wisdom to couples, it's to never lose the romance and always find time to go out on dates. This past Wednesday night found us at our new favorite restaurant in Des Moines, The Flying Mango.  This family-owed restaurant, which is nestled in a residential neighborhood, was voted #5 in the top 100 restaurants in Central Iowa in 2011 and had been on our radar for awhile, but we didn't visit until several months ago. We have now been there twice and it's everything a great restaurant needs to be. This time we asked to be seated in the little nook they have that looks out on the street. It's one of the most intimate tables we have ever been seated at. The Flying Mango specializes in barbeque and Cajun dishes and they do them well. The prices are pretty reasonable and the service is amazing.

Bloody Mary lover's delight. 

The owners are Sue and Mike and they are there to make sure things run smoothly. Steph started with a Bloody Mary with two asparagus spears (which invariably lead to a discussion of what asparagus does to us later) and a grilled shrimp and Andouille sausage skewer.  A meal in itself!   I had an Anchor Steam Porter. This is one of my favorite beers to come out of Anchor Steam, Fritz Maytag's old brewery. The entrees we chose were prepared perfectly and owner Mike checked on us as we were finishing and he talked us into their Heath Bar bread pudding dessert. He also threw in two Mike's Special Coffees for free which included hefty shots of Bailey's Irish Creme. It was the perfect way to end a wonderful meal. We will be back again.  Reservations recommended.

Since this is a beer blog, I want to take a moment to discuss my feelings on "fruiting the beer". This involves inserting a piece of fruit in the bottle neck or on the rim of a draft beer. It usually involves a wedge of a lime, lemon or an orange. The cynical part of me believes the fruit is involved to cover up the taste of subpar beer but the fun side of me says otherwise. Summer beers can be greatly enhanced by citrus fruit. A ice cold Corona or Landshark with a wedge of lime or a Bell's Oberon draft with a wedge of orange on a brutally hot humid summer day is truly one of life's little pleasures. And if you don't like it, you can always throw the fruit at your friends.

Back Pockets and Mad Houses

Recently we attended a brew festival in Coralville Iowa called Brrrfest. It was held at the Marriott Convention Center in the new Iowa River Landing development which is also home to one of Iowa's newest breweries called Backpocket Brewing. The brewery is currently under construction but is producing beer at another location so we were able to sample some of their products. When it opens later this year, it will be one of the largest breweries in Iowa and will also be the Iowa distributor of beers from Schlafly Brewing Company out of St Louis, Missouri. We have been fortunate to have visited that brewery also and have enjoyed several of their beers. I am assuming when the tap room opens up, they will be serving beers from both Backpocket and Schlafly, but I'm not sure. What I am sure about is the excitement of having another brewery option within an hour of our home base.

For our new beer of the week, we sampled a couple bombers of Madhaus Dunkelweizen which was released February 3 by Madhouse Brewing Company out of Newton, Iowa.  This is the first of the brewery's Venture Series, single-batch, seasonal beer.   Unfortunately while the beer is brewed in Newton, the taproom is located at the Jasper Winery tasting room in Des Moines. Both Madhouse Brewing and Jasper Winery are owned by the Groben family so you can sample both beers and wines on your visit there. The Dunkelweizen was a good beer but lacked the wow factor we were hoping for. It was still good enough that we hope to grab a growler of the Dunkelweizen the next time we visit their taproom.

Madhaus Dunkelswizen Bombers.

Drinking in The Library

Last night, Team Vanstra made our first visit to a recently reopened spot in Des Moines. I had not heard of The Library before because I think it was mostly known as a Drake University student hangout. It recently changed owners and is now a property of our wonderful friends at Full Court Press. They are the group who own El Bait Shop, Hessan Haus and Royal Mile (and a couple more) and I feel are mostly responsible for the revitalization of downtown Des Moines. The Library was much smaller than we imagined (as in five bar stools and five booths.  Max capacity maybe 35 people) and parking was an issue. I can't imagine ever trying to get in on a weekend night. But the atmosphere was cozy, the draft beer selection was impressive and the nachos were truly delicious. We both agreed we need to make a return on a warm summer night.... preferably when the college students are gone on break.

The Library Chicken Nachos and a Back Pocket Slingshot.  Not pictured, a Bell's Hopslam.

Monks and Zombies . . .

I am currently reading a book called Diary of a Part-time Monk by J. Wilson. It chronicles the author's experience last year of drinking only beer during the 46 days of Lent. Legend has it that many monks of the Middle Ages totally abstained from food but would drink water and rich vitamin laden beer to sustain themselves during that time. I'm enjoying the book but as much as I love good craft beers, it's not something I would ever wish to try. The same goes for home brewing beer. I want to leave beer making to the experts. There are so many wonderful beers out there that I couldn't possibly make one that was any better. Ours is simply a quest to try as many wonderful beers as we can in this short time we have here on earth. And if we happen to stumble upon a wonderful restaurant or fantastic recipe along the way, we will share.

We hope to try a new beer every week and write a short review. This week we sampled Zombie Dust from 3 Floyd's Brewery in Munster Indiana. It's not available in Iowa but we snagged a 6 pack during a weekend trip to Chicagoland. It had a nice burst of hops but it was not overpowering. A wonderful beer that will be difficult to get on a regular basis. Absence will make the heart grow fonder.

Super Bowl Sunday

Sunday night is family dinner night, but since most of our kids are teen+, most Sunday dinners consist of Team Vanstra and the princess.  Tonight's menu consists of baked and battered Parmesan cheese asparagus, Bell's Pale Ale Cheddar Cheese soup and a growler of Fire Engine Red from Court Avenue Brewing Company in Des Moines.

Crispy Parmesan Asparagus Sticks

Bell's Pale Ale Cheddar Cheese Soup

And our version.  YUM!

We've only just begun...

We've been told we need a blog to chronicle our brewery visits, and other miscellaneous adventures that almost always include drinking really good craft beer.  The other reason we need this blog is so we can remember where we have been and the beers we have tried.  We are almost 50...the old memory bank is not doing so well in the new information retention department.  It seems appropriate that our first blogpost include a picture of us at our favorite non-Iowa brewery...  Bells Brewery in Kalamazoo, MI.  Of course notice the Pikes Market Brewing, from Seattle, WA.   Just confirmation that we love breweries and we love beer...