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Summer is here, and so is our Warsh Pail Ale.   We bottled it off yesterday, and if you come out to the brewery, it will be fresh off the line.  We tinkered with the dry hopping method, and I think you will be pleased by the results.. do let us know!

Next weekend, June 2nd and 3rd, we will have some fun events going on even if you can’t make it out to Amana.  In Iowa City, we will doing our usual Rootbeer Float stand with the Arts Festival.  We will be doing the same stand with Heyn’s Ice Cream of Iowa City for the Jazz Festival in July as well.

In Des Moines, we will be at the Festival of the Farms at Living History Farms serving our soda and beer on Friday June 2nd.

We are nearly done with the beer club orders.. it will be nice to get some space in our relatively new warehouse back.  We have been using every inch of it the last few weeks!

The Maifest beer is nearly gone.  As this is written, there are only a few cases of it left in the salesroom.  Its only may 26th.. that is one beer that you just can’t be late for or you will miss it!

Our Saison’s were well received at the Belgian Beer Experience at the Old Capitol Pub in Iowa City last weekend.  We tried out a regular Saison, a Wheat Saison, and a Wheat Saison spiced with Chamomile and Black Locust Varietal Honey (from Noble Bee in South Amana, by the way).  I think the jury was split between the first one for its simplicity, and the second one for its subtle nuances.   Buckley and I are currently thinking up a way to try to produce this more regularly on our ‘pilot’ system.  We don’t have any extra tap lines in the salesroom, so you’ll have to come out to the festivals to try our Saison!   We figure this will give the people who say “oh, Millstream, I can get that anywhere” something to excited about this summer at the many beer festivals we attend !

Well our annual Maifest Celebration here in Amana was a truly great time for everyone. The weather was easily the best we have ever had in recent memory. Sunny and Warm, without the late in the day chill that we usually have as the sun gets low in the sky. I don’t if we are lucky or if its a sign of global warming… I hope next year will be that nice too!

We have been doing plenty of brewing here at the brewery. We are doing two beer of the month clubs this month, a first for us. This has the cellar the most full it has ever been! All this brewing has kept me too busy to post on this page, so let me do a recap of what has been happening around here.
We now have distribution of our products in central Illinios through Specialty Distributing. To show this off, Tom and Teresa attended the Peoria International Beer Festival last weekend. The event was a great time, with 4000 attendees and 200 beers to try. Tom said he was very busy serving samples, as you can see:

Here are some of our new Illinois accounts: Friar Tuck, 1401 W Glen Ave, Peoria

Old Chicago (on tap at both Peoria locations)

Super Liquor, 818 E War Memorial Dr, Peoria

There was a great article this weekend in the Iowa Press Citizen paper about local homebrewers. I think the reporter did an excellent job! I was happy to get in the term “gourmet beer”, a phrase I would like to see used more often for what we make here.

Here at the brewery Kevin and I have been getting ready for the Belgian Beer Experience that will be held at Old Capitol pub in Iowa City on May 27th  May 20th (my bad). Tickets are on sale here. We are preparing FOUR different Saisons this year. They are already done, and will feature some interesting spice additions, including Saffron and Chamomile. Here is a pic of our test fermentation system (high tech stuff):

And last but not least, a cute Pumpkin picture. Here she is guarding our grain from the evils of mice: