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.