Progress and Saisons

Well, it has been a little while since my last post so I figured I'd post an update and some photos from recent brew days.  We have really been working hard on finding a location and have discovered that it is a truly difficult task!  There are so many city, state and federal regulations to weed through (some of them contradictory) that it makes it quite a daunting task to figure out what is required.  We have visited several places, put a bid in on one location, are planning a bid on another location and all while keeping our eyes on the city for other potential locations.  Throughout this process we have known that much of our equipment has been ordered and has no place to go!  So, we are also making contingency plans in order to store our equipment until we have secured a lease.

T-shirts have been printed, business cards have been received, Polo's are ready for embroidery, website design is in full swing and, of course, beer has been brewed!  We continue to feel very confident about our preparation and just need to nail down a location to get all of the licensing requirements underway.  While this location search has been difficult, the confidence I have in my partners and those who have been kind enough to help us along this journey continues to grow every day.  Our meetings are relaxed and fun, but we still get stuff done (occasionally Ryan's or Brandon's wife has to prod us to get back on topic, but that's another story)!  We are all ready to start brewing beer and formally introduce our beer to the Des Moines area...just need to find a spot to settle down!

Speaking of brewing, we have been pretty busy on that front as well.  We continue to experiment with different hop varieties, malt bills, yeast, spices, fruit, etc to develop a wide variety of high quality beer.

One example is a Sour Cherry Lavender Saison.  For those unfamiliar with the style, a Saison is also called a Farmhouse Ale.  It was traditionally brewed as an alternative drink for farm laborers during the harvest.  It is moderately hoppy, lots of floral aroma and traditionally is on the low end of the alcohol spectrum (laborers don't get much done when they're wasted!).  This version is an attempt to stay (sort of) within the spectrum of a traditional Saison regarding the hops, floral aroma and alcohol; all while adding a little extra bit of something (i.e. Lavender and sour cherries!).  Below are some pictures from transfer day (moving from secondary fermentation over cherries into the keg for carbonation):

Cherries turn a really strange color after sitting in fermenting beer for a week and a half!

Another shot of the cherries and beer being transferred to the keg.

Me trying to get the last bit of beer out of the fermenter.  There were 4 pounds of cherries in that bucket so it was a little difficult getting to the beer!  (As a side note, Brandon would have been in this photo as he was helping me, but he was doing something inappropriate for the web and had to be cut out of this!)

More to come later, as usual.

Here's to a quick appearance of spring!

Cheers!