Recent content by jumbopackage

  1. jumbopackage

    Iowa Tap Room - Opening Feb/March 2016 - downtown Des Moines

    I'm hearing first part of March. Pretty excited for this place.
  2. jumbopackage

    Fill your growler at the grocery store

    I think there are plans to add growler stations to the actual Class C liquor stores at some point. Confusingly enough, the market Grill/Cafe places will also fill growlers (32 or 64 oz I think...though not sure) and could even before the law change.
  3. jumbopackage

    Session Beer

    This is mostly right. Hoppy stuff does tend to cost a little more to make, particularly the varieties with harder to find (read: more expensive) hops. It mostly boils down to scale, though. The amount of labor it takes to produce beer really doesn't change as the size of the system goes up. If...
  4. jumbopackage

    The 10 best breweries in Iowa

    We're going from being 10 times smaller than Exile to just 4 times smaller than Exile in the next couple weeks! Also expect Exile to get a boost in perception soon....
  5. jumbopackage

    The 10 best breweries in Iowa

    Beatnik is a fairly classic Berliner Weisse (maybe a bit high in ABV for the style, but not far off). It's one of the beers that makes perfect sense if you're going to do a great variety of beers in the German tradition. Also, it's always nice to be included in these lists, but they don't...
  6. jumbopackage

    Anyone here brew their own beer?

    Get a wye and another ball valve with a barbed end on it from micromatic (I bet beer crazy has them too). Unthread the ball valve on the existing regulator and replace it with the wye, threading the ball valve into the other open spot on the wye. Then you just connect a hose to the new valve...
  7. jumbopackage

    Toppling Goliath announces Florida brewer partnership

    I'd say that it depends. If you're doing anything designed to age, you're generally going to end up in bottles, either corked/caged or waxed or whatnot. I'd argue that a fresh IPA will be better off in a bottle off a high quality filler than a can, all else being equal. You can generally...
  8. jumbopackage

    Favorite craft bar

    We are very picky about where our beer goes, and I'd have zero issues with putting it on at any of the FCP-run places, including EBS. They do a great job of making sure stuff doesn't stick around longer than it should, and I've never had a beer at EBS that I feel isn't what it was supposed to...
  9. jumbopackage

    New brewery coming to Valley Junction - West Des Moines

    That's not true in Iowa. Native breweries in Iowa are actually licensed the same as distributors. They are allowed to have a single retail license which can sell any and all beer (including beer from other breweries, and cider/wine under 6.25% ABV) at retail directly to consumers in any/all...
  10. jumbopackage

    Anyone here brew their own beer?

    I brew my own :) Though I haven't home-brewed in a long time now. Just don't have the time for it anymore. It's a great hobby, and there are lots of folks that do it these days. There are a couple of "clubs" (the Iowa Brewer's Union in Des Moines, Ames Brewer's League in Ames) which can be...
  11. jumbopackage

    The cost of Craft-article

    I don't think that the government has an official definition of "craft brewer". As far as they are concerned, a 1bbl nano and a 1000bbl macro are the same in terms of taxes and regulation (in general...there are always bits and pieces that apply differently depending on what you're doing and the...
  12. jumbopackage

    Beer ratings sites

    I like to watch them all. The most informed ratings are generally Ratebeer. The most fanatical are on BeerAdvocate. The most common is untappd. That's mostly just my observation, though.
  13. jumbopackage

    Beer Trading

    In and around the Decorah area, I bet they sell more Dorothy's than almost anything else. It probably sells at least 2:1 over everything else in their taproom. It's sort of their "fat tire" in the area, as it were. And it's a pretty good lager, really.
  14. jumbopackage

    cityview top 100 bars in Des Moines

    I take all of these lists with a grain (or block) of salt. Also note that this is "100 Bars that they like", not "top 100". Take that for what it's worth :smile:
  15. jumbopackage

    Pumpkin beer power rankings

    I think it's right around 6% this year. it moves around a little depending on how much of the pumpkin ferments (if any). It's kinda a pain to brew with actual pumpkin, which is why a lot of breweries just use pumpkin pie spice (which is what a lot of people associate with "pumpkin flavor" anyway).