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This year we sponsored two Ragbrai teams. Team Wimpy now has catchy Millstream Logo’s on their two Ragbrai Buses. We also sponsored Team Good Beer, which is a team that I rode with last week. We had some very catchy jerseys, and made a big ’splash’ on Ragbrai.

Our team was focused on trying to change the palate of the beer drinking on Ragbrai. To this end we called ahead to every bar on the route and tried to convince them to carry something better than the Big Bland Three beers. The ones that agreed ended up on our ‘bar guide’ which we handed out during the ride, and posted to all the Ragbrai websites. We also teamed up with one of our sponsors, Old Capitol Brew Works, to get the word out when they got an outdoor ‘beer tent’ in Ragbrai towns.

One of the best stories came from Redfield, Iowa. This is a town west of Des Moines and normally out of our distribution area. The owner of the bar was convinced try carring our beer. His wife tried to talk him out of it, saying that ‘no one would show up’ to drink that stuff and they would be stuck with it. They ended up buying four cases of Millstream. When our team of 20+ riders got to the bar in the early afternoon, they only had 3 bottles left to sell!

Thanks to Ladora, Iowa, for putting Millstream Schild Brau and German Pilsner on Tap at their Ragbrai Tent.  They said we even out-sold Miller (but not Budweiser with their fancy aluminum bottles)!  I hope they raised enough money to purchase their new firehouse.
Our jerseys have Lederhosen on the front and beer bubbles on the back and were a big hit. We even fielded several offers from people who wanted to buy the jerseys off our backs while we were riding!

TeamGoodBeer on the last day before we all rode into Muscatine together:

The Firkin Bus

We also received plenty of press coverage:

Press-Citizen Article

Des Moines Register - No we aren’t Team Firkin, but good coverage nonetheless… and yes, we really did have big ‘beer spill’ on the bus!
The cover of Go Iowa City

Press Citizen Online

 Oh last but not least, we have here a photo of non other than former presidential candidate John Kerry enjoying a Millstream Rootbeer float with one of our Teammates.  Good job Emily!

It was hot, but that did not deter the record turnout at this years Tour De Brew Bicycle riders.  We had over 170 riders for the 32 mile ride, which is more than double over last year!  One rider came from as far away as Portland, Oregon!  Other out of staters came from IL, MO, MN, WI, and NE.

We started at the Old Capitol Brewpub in Iowa City.  People gathered up and fortified themselves with pints of Pale ale and Paul’s lastest creation, Big Black Snake malt liquor.  I can testify to the power of the Big Black Snake   The two buses full of people who had parked their cars in Amana arrived around noon, and we began to push off to the next beers stop.   We rode through the nice new bicycle trails in Iowa City and Coralville until we got to Twelveth Street in Coralville.  We then pushed on in the 90+ degree heat to LL. Pelling in North Liberty where the THIRSTY Homebrew club was setup.  They had quite a spread!  A double IPA, a Mild, Pale Ale, Irish ale  and a couple of other brews were available from club members, plus a big keg of cold water which was very popular.

 From there we went on through North Liberty and past the Greencastle Airport.  It was so hot, that I could hear the pavement sticking to my tires!  Eventually we made to the John’s Grocery stop, underneath a big old oak tree near the intersection of Old Highway 6 and Highway 6.  There we gratefully drank a few pints of John’s Generations White Ale, and the citrus flavor seemed particularly refreshing.

 It was then just six more miles to the Millstream Brewery.  Everyone sat outside and enjoyed the fine weather, which was registering 98 degrees at 4pm.  There was brats inside the brewery and a place to sit in the shade, everyone seemed pretty happy, checking out each others bikes.

Thanks again to Team Wimpy, who used TWO buses this year to get everyone back and forth. 

Update: The Daily Iowan has a nice article with a photo montage of the ride!

Good news, Lance Armstrong is coming to Iowa for Ragbrai!  He is going to be riding the route from Newton to Marengo… This includes the town before Marengo, Ladora, which is going to be serving our beer.  What are the odds of Lance stopping to have a Millstream?  If he does, we would dearly love to have a photo of that!

 Remember to get warmed up for Ragbrai next Saturday (July 15th) during the Tour De Brew.  We are meeting up at Old Capitol Brewworks in Iowa City from 10am until noon, when we are all pushing off to ride 30+ miles to Amana.  There will be two beer stops along the way to help quench your thirst, courtesy of the THIRSTY homebrew club and John’s Grocery.  And naturally there will be more thirst quenching upon arrival at the brewery. 

On July 29th we will be hosting the Toys for Tots Fun Run motorbike ride.  You can register here at the brewery at 11am.  The ride will have stops at Black Diamond RoadHouse in Windam, Old Capitol Brewery in Iowa City, Baxa’s Sutliff Bridge in Sutliff, and Melsha’s Tap in Swisher. 4:00 pm is last bike in at the Millstream Brewery. Its about a 100 mile ride,and the route will be marked so don’t worry about getting lost!There will be ‘poker hands’ at each stop and motorcycle games at the brewery at the end of the ride.  Contact Teresa at the brewery for more info 319 622 3672.

 We have been in the local papers lately!  The Press Citizen ran an article quoting me talking about Beer and Bicycling last week.   I am very happy he quoted my bit about beer being better than Gatorade 

Also the Des Moines Register ranked the Schild Brau Amber as the Sixth most important thing to consume in Iowa.  Its a pretty long list, so we are glad to be near the top.  What would Iowa be without some good beer?  Thirsty?

Last week I went to visit Iowa’s first microdistillery. The Cedar Ridge Winery and Distillery is located inside Benz Beverage Depot in Cedar Rapids.  Jeff Quint is the head ‘vintner and distiller’, and was very nice and gave me a full tour. Jeff is using the still to make Vodka, using fermented apple cider as a base. This gives his vodka a noted ‘fruity’ character. Even fruitier is his Grappa, which is made from the fermented juice after pressing grapes. His Grappa has received from great reviews around Iowa, and I have to say, I found it very intriguing. A friend of mine who visited Italy, says it is better than any Grappa than he had over there. He is also working on a port (fortified wine) and an Apple Brandy. He said he has no plans to produce Gin, since the spices would stain the system and affect the flavor of his vodka. I got try everything, and by the time we were done I had left a considerable amount of dirty glassware…. every tasting required a new glass, and I didn’t want to ‘chug’ this stuff, as I knew it would get me pretty drunk! Here are some pictures of his state of the art still and the barrels he ages his liquors in:

Now a word on how he is able to do this on under the Iowa Liquor Control system. First of all, Jeff says he got a special bill passed a few years ago to allow this in all of the pro-native wine Legislation. Good job!

Now for the details of this arcane system as he explained it to me. He is not legally attached to Benz Beverage depot, the distillery is a separate business, and there is even a door to provide complete separation. When ever he makes a batch of alcoholic liquor, he has to convince the state to ‘buy it’ from him. If the state is not interested, he has no way at all of selling it within Iowa. He then has to pay to have it shipped to the liquor warehouse in Ankeny. The state then holds on it and charges a ’storage fee’ until the liquor is sold to a class E licensee in Iowa. The state delivers the liquor and gets cash on delivery, but does not actually pay Cedar Ridge until 30 days later, and it only pays what was sold.. until something is sold, Jeff is out the costs of his raw materials as it ’stored’ in Ankeny.   Note that all this means that every bottle of Liquor sold at Benz from Cedar Ridge first has to travel all the way to Ankeny (near Des Moines), and then all the way back to Cedar Rapids. Then when it is sold, the money goes back to the state, and then back to the Distillery some time later.

All this makes the making of beer seem so simple!

I wish Jeff Quint and the Cedar Ridge Winery and Distillery good luck in the future.  Oh, and they also make some fascinating local wines, but i’ll have to save that for a future article.