Eric Rowley/Juice
Jeff Irvin, 31, shows the difference between two types of hops.
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Local breweries |
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Olde Main Brewing
316 Main St., Ames
Why you should go: They're the only local brewery bottling their beer to sell in stores. $1 pints on Wednesdays means you can sample every beer without breaking the bank.
Current beers: Dinkey Wheat, Off Kilt-er Scottish Ale, Long Face Amber Ale, Clone Pale Ale, Gryphonbrau Light, To Be Named Later Stout
Raccoon River Brewing Company
200 10th St.
Why you should go: Racoon River has an impressive assortment of seasonals, such as Java Joe's Porter, made with beans from the local coffee shop. The brewery also has a great pool hall, with free games on Saturdays.
Current beers: Tallgrass Light, Homestead Red, Bandit IPA, Vanilla Cream Ale, Stonecutter Stout
Court Avenue Restaurant & Brewing Company
309 Court Ave.
Why you should go: Mug Club membership gets you $3.25 24- ounce beers for the year (regular beers are $4.25 for 16 ounces) for $39 a year, plus a shirt, mug and admission to special Mug Club events. Seasonal beer dinners pair five-course meals with five excellent beers (Fall Beer Dinner is Nov. 13).
Current beers: Two River's Light, Capital Raspberry Wheat, Kaplan Hat Hefeweisen, Topping Pale Ale, Honest Lawyer IPA, Pointer Brown Ale, Blackhawk Stout
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery
4508 University AVe., West Des Moines
Why you should go: Rock Bottom isn't local, but it has few enough locations (29) that it doesn't feel too chainy. Des Moines brewmaster Brian Helton won a bronze medal at the Great American Beer Festival for his Roggenbier. Mug Club membership is free, with rewards based on visits.
Current beers: Heartland Light, White Tail Pale Ale, Mud in Your Eye Red, Lumpy Dog Brown, Rocktoberfest, roating dark beer, rotating wheat beer.
Granite City Food & Brewery
12801 University Ave.
Why you should go: Not local, but they do brew beer on site. Membership in the Mug Club gets you 10% off food purchases and $3.25 25-ounce tap beers ($2.75 during happy hour) for $20 a year, or $10 if you sign up on a Monday.
Current beers: Duke of Wllington (aka "The Duke"), Broad Axe Stout, Brother Benedict Bock (aka "The Bennie"), Northern Light Lager, Two-Pull Specialty Brew, Hefeweizen, Belgian Wit, Oktoberfest, Scottish Ale, Burning Barn Irish Red, Ostara Spring Ale |
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Brewer Jeff Irvin explains how beer goes from bags of barley to golden ales, a process that can take weeks
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10/08/2008 email this print this
Jeff Irvin has a biology background, something that comes in handy in his job as head brewer at Olde Main Brewing Company in Ames.
It's clear from listening to the 31-year-old Irvin, better known as Puff, talk that he's as interested in the microscopic life cycles in his brewery tanks as the beer itself.
"We start with malted barley kernels that have been tricked into germinating," Puff said. "It's full of starches and enzymes that are activated during malting."
A kettle where wort (water which is full of proteins, starches and sugars) is boiled.
Facing a blank stare, he puts that in layman's terms: "It's sort of like a big loaf of bread. You can't eat it all in one bite, but you can tear off little pieces. In the brewing process the yeast breaks down the sugars in small bits, releasing CO2 and ethanol as a by-product."
Puff ran us through the entire process of making Reindeer Fuel, Olde Main's chocolate porter holiday beer:
STEP 1: The malted barley is ground down and loaded into the mash tun. This is the fun part, since it involves lifting about a half ton of the grain 50-55 pounds at a time into a machine that grinds the grain down and pulls it into the mash tun.
STEP 2: The mash is mixed with water heated to about 160 degrees. It ends up looking like a giant batch of oatmeal. The temperature rises to halt the enzymatic process. It sits in there for about an hour, then the water is drained away and collected. This water, which is full of proteins, starches and sugars, is called wort. The grain left in the mash tun now weighs about a ton, thanks to the water it has absorbed. A lucky person gets to shovel it out into bins, which are collected by Iowa State University to feed to cattle.
Jeff Irvin, 31, shows the difference between two types of hops.
STEP 3: The wort is transported to a second kettle, where it is boiled. This kills anything unsafe. Boiling also helps evaporate water, concentrating the flavor. The process takes about 2.5 hours. As brewer "Big John" Rundall put it, "Brewing beer is a lot of hurry up and wait."
STEP 4: During the boil, hops are added, providing flavor. The earlier you add the hops, the more bitterness you get. The later you add it the more aroma you get. For the Reindeer Fuel, only about a pound of hops are added (up to six pounds go into other brews).
STEP 5: After the wort has boiled for an hour it runs through a heater exchanger. The hot wort runs one way through pipes, while cold liquor runs the other way. The cold liquor drops the wort's temperature from 211 degrees to about 60. The hot liquor goes into the mash tun for the next day's brewing.
STEP 6: The wort goes into fermenters to process. The chocolate porter is an ale, which means it ferments at around 68 degrees for 2-5 days, then it ages for two weeks. Because Reindeer Fuel is a seasonal, it will age longer, since it won't be served until late November. Chocolate will be added once the beer is done fermenting, so the yeast doesn't consume the sugar and take away the sweetness of the chocolate.
STEP 7: Once the first six steps are done, the beer is ready to drink. It moves to serving vessels, then to the brewery kegs, bottles and pulls. Each vessel holds about 465 gallons of glorious beer.
Local Breweries
Olde Main Brewing
316 Main St., Ames
Why you should go: They're the only local brewery bottling their beer to sell in stores. $1 pints on Wednesdays means you can sample every beer without breaking the bank.
Current beers: Dinkey Wheat, Off Kilt-er Scottish Ale, Long Face Amber Ale, Clone Pale Ale, Gryphonbrau Light, To Be Named Later Stout
Raccoon River Brewing Company
200 10th St.
Why you should go: Racoon River has an impressive assortment of seasonals, such as Java Joe's Porter, made with beans from the local coffee shop. The brewery also has a great pool hall, with free games on Saturdays.
Current beers: Tallgrass Light, Homestead Red, Bandit IPA, Vanilla Cream Ale, Stonecutter Stout
Court Avenue Restaurant & Brewing Company
309 Court Ave.
Why you should go: Mug Club membership gets you $3.25 24- ounce beers for the year (regular beers are $4.25 for 16 ounces) for $39 a year, plus a shirt, mug and admission to special Mug Club events. Seasonal beer dinners pair five-course meals with five excellent beers (Fall Beer Dinner is Nov. 13).
Current beers: Two River's Light, Capital Raspberry Wheat, Kaplan Hat Hefeweisen, Topping Pale Ale, Honest Lawyer IPA, Pointer Brown Ale, Blackhawk Stout
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery
4508 University AVe., West Des Moines
Why you should go: Rock Bottom isn't local, but it has few enough locations (29) that it doesn't feel too chainy. Des Moines brewmaster Brian Helton won a bronze medal at the Great American Beer Festival for his Roggenbier. Mug Club membership is free, with rewards based on visits.
Current beers: Heartland Light, White Tail Pale Ale, Mud in Your Eye Red, Lumpy Dog Brown, Rocktoberfest, roating dark beer, rotating wheat beer.
Granite City Food & Brewery
12801 University Ave.
Why you should go: Not local, but they do brew beer on site. Membership in the Mug Club gets you 10% off food purchases and $3.25 25-ounce tap beers ($2.75 during happy hour) for $20 a year, or $10 if you sign up on a Monday.
Current beers: Duke of Wllington (aka "The Duke"), Broad Axe Stout, Brother Benedict Bock (aka "The Bennie"), Northern Light Lager, Two-Pull Specialty Brew, Hefeweizen, Belgian Wit, Oktoberfest, Scottish Ale, Burning Barn Irish Red, Ostara Spring Ale
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