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The cellar is full! That is, we don’t have any empty beer tanks! We have been doing lots of 24 hr brewing to try to get caught up in the last few weeks. This has worked very well, I think we can thank our new assistant, Buckley for all of his work in making ends meet. The main reason for this, other than it is just a good thing, is that both Chris and I are taking vacation in the Summertime, which is normally something that is verboten in our profession. I’ll be gone for a week on RAGBRAI next week, and Chris will be gone for a week in August. I think everything will be fine without me, but I hope that nothing BREAKS while Chris is gone! Unfortunately, there is no way to get caught up on fixes!

It would be nice if it would cool down in August. Brewing in this heat is not cool, heh heh. It was 104 degrees in the brewhouse yesterday, and at 3 am it was still 98 degrees. Yucky!

They are finally done pouring concrete and have started framing our new expansion. Apparently this is all taking longer than anyone thought, but it is a pretty tricky little building to build. There really is nothing like building a brewery, there are many requirements, such as drainage and cooling to consider. The important thing is that they are doing everything right, which is what we need. After all, this building is going to be heavily used, we are sure of that!

Lastly some really good news!

Millie, our malt room kitty, has caught her first mouse! I don’t think anyone caught the monumentous event on film, but we are all so proud of her! Good mouser! She didn’t seem to proud though, mostly she was upset that her new toy was broken.

The Tour De Brew was a great success, despite the incredibly HOT weather. I never did here just how HOT it was, but that was not necessary, because we all could feel just how damn HOT it was! The only good thing was that the still, humid air did not contain any sort of wind, which does make bicycling easier. The heat wave made the ‘refreshment’ stops all that more desirable, like a mirage in the desert, something to fantasize about. Infact, I can say that inbetween North Liberty and Old Highway 6, the thought of a cold beer was about the only thing keeping me going!

We had about 85 people for the ride, which was a sizable jump from last years attendance. The first stop at John’s grocery was quick one, followed by a very nice stay at the Old Capitol Pub and Brewery. Old Capitol was the only Air Conditioned environment, and perhaps a little too inviting. Some people stayed longer than others, and so people on the ride were fairly well scattered. But at each stop everyone would be all caught up, only to get spread out again as the fast drinkers got on their way.

The next stop was at the yard in front of LL Pellings (a cement contractor). We had tried to get the stop in the park in North Liberty, but you know how it is, beer in public spaces gets frowned upon. This lot was grassy and fine, though it could use a bit more shade. Old Capitol Pale Ale was on tap, and it was mighty fine in the summer heat.

The second stop was at the corner of Old Highway 6 and ‘new’ Highway 6. Chris met everyone here with the van full of John’s White Ale. He was even smarter and brought a cold keg of Water, which was actually finished before the beer was!

There was this great couple on a tandem bicycle wearing matching blue outfits. They were always the last ones to every stop (except for the team in pink, who never left Old Capitol at all!) They were definately having a good time!

Thanks so much for TEAM WIMPY and their bus. It only gets a couple miles to the gallon, so we really appreciate their effort. We had several people plop down because of the Heat, and the bus was there to pick them up (and take them to the next beer stop, of course).

I just have time for a quick note that the Tour De Brew is this Saturday. Sign up at John’s Grocery in Iowa City at Noon, and then we will ride down the street to Old Capitol Brewpub for a tipple or two. We’ll be going through North Liberty and out past Greencastle Airport. On the way to Amana there will be two refreshment stands, courtesy of Old Capitol and Millstream. At the end of the ride there will Beer and Brats at the Brewery of course. There is also a bus to take you and your bike to the start or finish, courtesy of Team Wimpy. If you want to park your car here in Amana, the bus leaves at 11am. If you need a ride back from Amana at the end of day, the bus will leave around 6:30pm.

Its a 30 mile trip, but with the breaks, it should be like a few quick pints.

Good news! Today at our weekly Friday 20th Anniversary Dopplebock tasting, we concluded that the beer is ready for release! It has changed dramatically everyweek so far, slowly become a bit more dry and more carbonated each week. The beer has a fantastic malt load on your tongue, followed through by a rich caramel aftertaste. Its very chewy, and just a few sips will make you realize that this beer is very strong!

Infact, it is at the absolute limit set by our glorious state of Iowa, of 6.2% ABV. I was a bit worried actually that this beer might go over the legal limit, and I would have to ‘water it down’ . But the Pale and Munich malts that we used in grist of the beer left so much unfermentable sugars that the fermentation did not produce that much alcohol, which I sort of predicted, but you can never be sure about these things. This beer started at 19.3 degrees plato, and finished at 8.6 degrees plato, which is about a 55% degree of apparent attenuation. When you consider that most beers have a AA of 65% or higher, you can see that its not as strong as it could be. I think that is a good thing, I’m not a big fan of ultra strong beers, I like to be able to have more than one glass of whatever it is that I am drinking, and still be able to stand!

This beer was made to commemorate our 20th Anniversary. It took plenty of time and expense, and extra elbow grease to make this beer happen. Because of this and its limited 1000 bottle release in we are asking a suggested retail price 7.99 a bottle. It would be best served lightly chilled in an 8oz glass.

There also a few kegs of dopplebock in the basement. It has not been decided what to do with them. I think you may be seeing them at our 20th anniversary party and beer festival on labor day weekend (Sept 3rd).

Right now all of our taps are full at the brewery. We still have a few kegs of Saison left… the beer has been very well received! So well it make me wish we could do more of it, but alas, we can only make so many beers at once. Hard decisions have to be made.

One of those decisions is not to bottle Colony Oatmeal Stout during the summer, something that we recieve many complaints about each year. We have many fans of this beer who would love to be able to get a six pack of it in July, but in previous years we have found that the beer tends to languish on store shelfs, and take up very important tank space in the cellar. So this year and last year, we have have made a single batch in the spring that is completely kegged off. We sell this beer on tap and in liters all summer long. Last year we had stout until August, and as of today we still have over 6 kegs left, and I’m pretty sure we will make it about as long. We will brew another batch soon if I can find time in the brew schedule.. but right now that schedule is absolutely full of Schild Brau, John’s White Ale, and Wheat.

Update:

I just got a good pic of our dopplebock label for your viewing pleasure. Its even nicer in real life, since the yellow is actually gold foil. Teresa designed the whole thing herself, making it our first piece of in-house artwork.

I also neglected to mention that this beer will only be available at select accounts, so don’t expect to see it at your local grocery store. You might have to come out to the brewery to get it… well there is nothing like having a good excuse to do that!

This year we had really great weather for Jazzfest 2005 in Iowa City. It was great to partner up again with Heyn’s Ice Cream, a small Ice Cream store on Iowa City’s Eastside, and do Rootbeer floats. Buckley and I spent all day saturday serving up rootbeer floats and Ice Cream Sundaes. Kudos to our friend Kyle for helping out for a bit too. On Sunday it was the Heyn’s crew’s day to work the booth, but I still stopped in to check on the rootbeer. They got a pretty good rainstorm in the afternoon, so I was pretty happy that we didn’t pull that day to work!

As usual, we had many, many people ask what type of beer we had on tap. We would then explain that there is an Iowa City ordinance restricting serving beer outside, and we would direct them to the Dublin Underground, which was right around the corner and serves our beer. There was also a rumor floating around that someone had received a permit to serve wine at the festival, but I never did see if that was actually happening. It certainly is strange to have such a big event be dry. However, I’m not too concerned about it, because if the did allow beer concessions, the big guys would probably lock us out anyway, and I’d still just be serving rootbeer floats.

Ready to serve! Teresa did the price sign on our new oversize printer… snazzy eh?

Serving the first of many customers. Scooping hard ice cream is really tough work!

Our new warehouse is coming along nicely. I think they just have a few more concrete sections to pour and then they will be putting up the main structure. They say they have been held up a bit by all the rain we have had. The main concrete floor has big drain going down the entire length, and you can see in tilt that they did a good job with the pour.. there should not be any ‘dead spots’ were water will well up. I have worked in more than one brewery that needed a squeege to get water out of the corners, I can tell you it gets old pretty quick! We’re not sure when or if we will actually be doing anything wet over there, but its the sort thing you can’t add later so were having done just incase.

We all can not wait until its finished, we so need the space!