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Hello Everyone

 Right now we are very busy at the brewery getting everything ready for the big Oktoberfest Celebration that we are having tommorrow.  I sure hope you all are coming out!

Last week there were mutiple beer festivals on the same day.  We were unable to send a personal representative to the one in Mount Horeb, WI, so instead we sent up some of our most loyal fans.  Here is their report:

At the last minute, Dave Gross of Verona, Wisconsin arranged for a Millstream booth at The Thirsty Troll Beer Festival in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. Pat McArtor and I (Tim Rask) drove up from Iowa City with a shipment of 3 1/6 barrel kegs—two of Schild Brau and one of John’s Anniversary Ale.

On the drive up, we grabbed a late dinner at Mount Horeb’s Grumpy Troll Brew Put (Mount Horeb has a troll theme, in case you weren’t aware—it’s some kind of Scandanavian thing, but we were there for the beer, not the trolls. On Saturday morning, we took a van over with the Millstream supplies, then the three of us rode our bikes on the Military Ridge Trail from Verona, an nice little pre-fest ride of 13 miles. (Dave’s wife, Cindy, joined drove out separately).

The fest is in its fourth year, and one of the volunteers told us it seems to double in size every year. It started out with 100 or so visitors four years ago and this year they expected 1000 people to crowd the beer tent and festival grounds. Cool, rainy conditions probably kept them under 1000 this year, but a large, festive crowd still packed the tent.

Even though we were familiar with most of the breweries at the fest, we still found a few surprises. Furthermore Brewing of Spring Green, Wisc had a pale ale with hints of black pepper, the Corner Pub of Reedsburg had some bourbon barrel port, and Lakefront of Milwaukee had this year’s version of their famous Pumpkin Beer, one of the great fall seasonals.

Despite our late entry, we had a great location in the tent—just down from the food vendor, and between the wine booth and Bell’s of Kalamazoo (Jason, the Bell’s rep, kept us well supplied with bottles of their fine brew). Our booth was at the end of the tent, and it proved to be the starting point for a lot of the samplers. Some people didn’t get too far, as we had a lot of returning drinkers, and we received a lot of raves for both brews. In fact, the beer proved so popular that we were completely out of beer with an hour of fest time still to go! The music tent was right behind us, too, but the rain put the kibosh on the Kissers (who sounded really good) after only one set.

Sunday morning, Pat and I checked out the beer selection at Brennan’s Market in Madison, where Chris, the beer guy, was very pleased to see us. He said that Schild Brau was one of their best sellers and he’d already had some customers stop in and ask for Millstream, based on sampling it at the fest.

Thanks, Aaron, for letting some veteran festival goers get some time in on the other side of the sampling table! A great time was had by all.

Hmm a grumpy troll?

Saturday was a great day for the Annual WQPT Brewhaha in LeClaire park in Davenport.  It was sunny and warm with a gentle breeze coming across the Mississippi River.  Last year had a big turnout of over 2000 people, and this year was no different.  What was different was that we brought more beer!  Our beers were very popular, and we were busy serving Oktoberfest, Rootbeer, Wheat, John’s Generations White Ale, Warsh Pail Ale, and Schild Brau Amber.  That was about the order of their popularity.  By the end of the fest all we had left was Oktoberfest, and that was because we brought more of that than anything else! 

It was good to see our friends in Mugz the local homebrew club.  They brought 95 gallons of homebrew to serve!  They reminded me that they would like us to help judge their land of the muddy waters competition, which is two weeks after the Thirsty Classic Competition that we hold here at the brewery (on Nov 4th).  So mark your calendars and get your homebrew ready! 

We also got visit with our just-over-the-border breweries Blue Cat brewing and Bent River Brewing.  Dan and Bernie from Blue Cat had a very nice Trippel on tap, and they reminded me that they are still having beer dinners at their pub every month.  Bent River had their famous Uncommon Stout, which has an amazing coffee flavor…. I don’t think Rich will reveal his secret to getting so much coffee in a beer like that, its awesome! 

We were right next to the Budweiser crew.  They seemed more focused on bottles than last year, and didn’t have their fancy tap system out. They were really pushing their new Chinese imports, plus their new ‘organic’ lineup.  Pretty interesting, a sign of the times I suppose. 

   This weekend we will be serving beer at Brewnost in Cedar Rapids, The Independence Brew BBQ in Independence IA, and at the Des Moines Oktoberfest (inside the 101 lounge).

Oktoberfest is less than two weeks away!

September is the Month for beer festivals.  So far we have attended two this month, and we have several more to go.

On the Sunday of labor day weekend we held the Second Annual Iowa Festival of beers here in Amana.  This time we had double the turnout from the previous year, with over 500 people.. even though it threatened rain all day!  We actually ran out of glasses at the end and had to give people plastic cups to sample with!  The nine participating Iowa breweries served some very interesting beers.   Lost Duck from Fort Madison Iowa again had an one of the most interesting beers, this time it was a Cherry Cider.   Mike from Court Ave had a beer going through a ‘randalizer’ which is brewer slang for an water filter packed with hops, which gives the beer a real super hoppy aroma.
There was also had a seperate homebrew club tent for the four homebrew clubs that attended the event.  The ‘homebrew’ tent was very popular, as some really great beers were on tap there!  One of the the favorites was a Russian Imperial Stout done by Mark Simpson, from the Ames Brewers League.  He is the national 2006 Homebrewer of  the Year! I saw many homebrewers swapping ideas and techniques inside the tent.  Hopefully they received plenty of attention and some new members out this exposure.  We also hope they are busy brewing up entries for the November THIRSTY homebrew competition that we will have at the brewery!

Food was provided by Devotay of Iowa City.  Their Chorizo brats and Chili were a big hit at the event, and went very well with all the tasty beers on hand.

All this drinking was for a good cause, as we raised nearly 3000 dollars for Juvenile Arthritis Research. 

If you could not make it, mark your calendars, because we will be doing it again next year!

 Nick Sticka playing to a crowd

Mike from Court Avenue explains his hop machine to Tom Albert from Millstream 

Travis from Cedar Brewing was having a good time! 

Homebrewers handing out samples of their craft 

Tommorrow is the Quad Cities Brew Haha.  We are looking forward to hanging out in Le Claire Park and serving up some fine beers.