New Brewery in Iowa
My Salesman Dan just told me he stumbled onto a new brewpub in Iowa. Beck’s Sports Grill in Waterloo has just added a brew room to their existing sports bar setup. This was news to me! They opened this month and already have several beers on tap. Anyone live in Waterloo and have more on this story? All I could find was some reviews on Beer Advocate.com and this little article.
I will invite the brewer down here as soon as I can. I would like to show him our brewery, and help out in anyway that I can. More breweries is good for Iowa and good for us! Hooray!
Update: Dan brought in a sampler tray listing the beers available at Beck’s.
Frogs Leap Light
Red Dragon
Thirsty Buzzard Cerveza
Bald E’s Kristallweizen
Bald E’s Hefeweizen
It says the weizen is a true german-style beer. I hope so, a good banana/clove hefeweizen is a hard thing to find!
Second Update: Here is a nice link to an article about the brewery
Thanks to onebrewlove.
February 4th, 2005 at 4:16 am
I’m afraid that your enthusiasm was a bit premature. Check out the following link: http://www.micropub.com It appears that Beck’s has installed the same system as Dubuque’s Bricktown, or as I like to call it Blechtown.
February 5th, 2005 at 1:35 am
I didn’t mean to imply that Bricktown and Beck’s were under the same ownership. I only wanted to point out that they are using the same extract system and the same kits that Bricktown uses. Perhaps if they have a dedicated brewer, rather than an ad hoc member of the bus staff, they can provide something of better quality. However, if Beck’s sticks to the kits ala Bricktown, then I have my doubts.
Here is where I learned about the system Beck’s is using:
http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2005/01/26/wcfentertainment/pulse/42553cd26a75ed1586256f8f004fd2d7.prt
Take care.
February 5th, 2005 at 11:27 am
Ahh that is very interesting link! So much so I added to the main article. (you can’t do html links in the comments thanks to spammers).
The idea of doing a brewpub in such an offhand way.. is kind of scary. As anyone reading this page knows, making beer is not easy. Not having a trained brewer on hand to fix things when the go wrong is a bad idea. I can completely see now how Bricktown got to where it is today. I hope whoever is manning the helm in Waterloo sticks around!
February 5th, 2005 at 11:39 am
Hmm, are you sure they are the same owner? If so, I know that there is one thing different. Bricktown apparently has no ‘permanent’ brewer. I’ve heard from various sources that anyone can show up and brew.. And their beers seem to represent that. Its a pretty sad state of affairs.
This place definately has a brewer. Dan has spoken with him, and he says he is trying his best, though he does not have formal brewing education (not everyone in the field is lucky enough to have one). I hope that I can help them out..