Breweries to survive coronavirus?

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Macloney

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Feb 28, 2014
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I suppose, I just don't want to stick my relatives with a growler they can't refill for awhile. Better them than me, I guess.

Are there breweries that are refilling growlers in the DSM metro?

Do Iowa breweries fill growlers of other breweries? (Under normal circumstances.)

Here in KS they will only fill house growlers and therefore, I am out of the growler game.
 

kmcbrid

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Mar 23, 2006
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With 3 taps, do you go through more CO2, then when you were only running one large keg, or is it about the same?

Good question, don't know if I have monitored it that closely to tell if I go through more CO2 with 3-5 gallon kegs, vs. 1-15.5 gallon keg. Given that it ends up being about the same amount of beer, with the 3 kegs vs. the big one, I would say it is about the same.
 

Cyinthenorth

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They're refilling growlers? Local breweries in CR stopped refills due to the pandemic and only sell new growlers/crawlers.
They are indeed. I was surprised too, but they haven't turned me away yet
 

baller21

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I suppose, I just don't want to stick my relatives with a growler they can't refill for awhile. Better them than me, I guess.

Are there breweries that are refilling growlers in the DSM metro?

The only one I’ve found in the area doing growler refills is Fenceline in Huxley. They sanitize it first by running it through their dishwasher.
 

ianoconnor

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For those with homebrew setups, do any of these breweries sell kegs with corny ball lock hookups or are they all Sankey?
 

Entropy

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Oct 27, 2008
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My wife and I have been buying Big Grove/Lion's Bridge/Iowa Brewing Co beers at Hy-Vee. We may do some online ordering from LB and IBC soon. I'd hate to see any one of those three shutting down.

I'd like to support Quarter Barrel and Third Base as well, however I'm not aware of them having cans/bottles, so harder to support.
Spouse and I ordered food from LPSF, so I stopped in and grabbed some beer from Thew Brewing Company.
It's pretty good!
 
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Macloney

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For those with homebrew setups, do any of these breweries sell kegs with corny ball lock hookups or are they all Sankey?
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JP4CY

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Depends on how long this goes on. I'm sure a lot of businesses can go on paying rent, property taxes, electric, etc for a month or two. After that, it's a crap shoot.
Yeah I'm probably just a little brainwashed from hearing that some of the Metro's staples like Confluence and Firetrucker are still doing great. But a place like Fox or Brighrside sure.
 

Cyclonepride

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Yeah I'm probably just a little brainwashed from hearing that some of the Metro's staples like Confluence and Firetrucker are still doing great. But a place like Fox or Brighrside sure.

I'd imagine breweries are similar to restaurants (some are combined), and restaurants are notorious for a lot of start ups and crashes. Not a lot of margin for error there usually.
 

CYdTracked

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Mar 23, 2006
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Maybe we need to start another thread for this topic but what restaurants have you heard are closing their doors for good? Just saw that Trostel's Dish announced they are closing permanently. Sounds like they were already struggling and this pandemic just hastened their decision.
 

cc1091

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It sound like Millstream has brought back most of their employees after being mostly shut down for a few weeks.

Also, looking at the way Big Grove's Easy Eddie is flying off the shelves of my local HyVee, Big Grove must be doing OK. I've also heard that Iowa Brewing is doing quite well. I know Clockhouse has been offering their product if you have one of their growlers (or want to buy one of their growlers), but you have to make arrangements to show up at their door during certain hours and on certain days. Someone else reported about Thew, I can't improve on that. Lion Bridge has info on their web page, their in store can sales seem to be doing OK. No word about Quarterbarrel. Third Base was closed and not answering its phone early in the crisis, have not tried back but imagine that they could have enough food traffic to keep the place above water. Not sure if Third Base would let their beer go out the door in their crowlers. No word on Backpocket except their product is still in stores. ReUnion has posted on their website that they are opening up on Friday May 8 (probably under restricted restaurant rules?). Hope that House Divided can survive at least until I can visit once... Kalona Brewing Company has details for ordering their product on their website (wondering if they are doing their own distributing, I haven't seen them in my HyVee for a while).
 

GrindingAway

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I would love it if there was something like an Iowa only version of Tavour (if not familiar it's basically a craft beer by mail club). I'm someone out in the sticks and a ways away from all my favorite breweries. I used to have regular reasons to travel to Des Moines and would stock up there, but those trips are gone for the moment. I've been hitting the local HyVee but the selection is just so so here.

I've been stepping up my consumption levels to do my part to support breweries. Mainly sources through larger Tavour orders. If I had an option to do similar but Iowa focused I'd love to.
 

CoachHines3

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big fan of barntown in waukee

been trying to stop in at least once a week for crowlers/ four packs
 
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CloniesForLife

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Breweries in MN are having trouble getting growlers and now even cans for crowlers and our stupid laws don't allow 4/6 pack sales out of the breweries. So well liquor stores are making bank, some breweries are struggling