WHAT'S HOPPENING: Camp Harvestivus is Sept. 11 - 17.

What's Hoppening is a regular series highlighting points of interest and events that have taken place or will be taking place in the 515 Taproom. 

Welcome to Camp Harvestivus!

"Wait a second...Camp Harvestivus? I thought Harvestivus was just your typical Oktoberfest-style entertainment."

While last year's Harvestivus had the air of a traditional German-style harvest festival, this year, we've decided to make it our own. We're still using the name, Harvestivus, and tapping our Oktoberfest beer during the week, but we're adding a scouting angle. We've harkened back to our youth, where days were spent learning new skills, having fun and achieving goals.

Join our merry band of beer scouts for an entire week of Camp Harvestivus fun. You'll have the opportunity to earn Merit Stamps by completing challenges for prizes. The more stamps you earn, the more and better the prizes.

"What kind of challenges are we talking about?"

There are 20 challenges in all; from the creative, to the athletic, to just plain fun. Here is a sample.

Beer it backwards (pay it forward): Buy a beer for a perfect stranger in line behind you or at the bar.

515 Athlete:  Prove you ran or biked to 515. Or do 20 jumping jacks in the taproom.

Owner Brandon Selfie: Find 515 Owner Brandon and take a selfie with him. Post to social and tag 515 Brewing. Must be taken and posted the week of Harvestivus.

To become a beer scout you must get your Participation Stamp first by purchasing your Harvestivus wooden coaster for $1.

Check out the full challenge list and prizes here.

"I see for one of the challenges there is an opportunity to donate to the Iowa Homeless Youth (IHYC) Rooftop Gardens. What is this?"

For one of our merit stamp challenges, we wanted to encourage you to donate to a local cause with a harvest angle. We couldn't be more excited for Iowa Homeless Youth Center's Rooftop Garden project. The program will provide employment opportunities, access to locally grown healthy foods and food and nutrition education to transition-age homeless or low-income youth (ages 16-22). The gardens will include a combination of hydroponic growing systems (inside of a year-round functioning greenhouse), raised beds and vertical growing techniques on top of their downtown Des Moines location. 

In addition to growing food for themselves, the youth apprentices will operate the growing, harvesting, and packaging of the organic herbs, that will be distributed to local grocery stores, markets, and other retailers to sell to consumers. After construction and initial operating expenses, the Rooftop Gardens will be a self-sufficient program.

Even if you don't participate in our merit stamp challenges, we hope you'll consider donating a few bucks to help get this worthwhile project off the ground.

Learn more about the program here. 

"What if I'm not wild about doing the challenges? (Asking for a friend.)"

No worries. On top of the merit stamp challenges, we have several key events going on throughout the week that you won't want to miss.

9/11 - Trivia with a Charity Twist, 6 p.m. Bring in a new or gently used book, suitable for kids 11-14, and receive half off your first beer.

9/13 - Harvestivus Tapping (with special ceramic steins!), 5:15 p.m.

9/14 - 2017 Anniversary Bottle Release (it’s only 6 mos. late), 5:15 p.m. Limit 2/person. Buy 2 and get free beer coupon. (Stout of the Closet, our imperial stout, aged 6 mo. in Buffalo Trace barrels.)

9/15 - Growler Happy Hour, 2 - 5 p.m., $2 off all growlers

Get full details here.

Join us for Camp Harvestivus week. You won't want to miss the fun. Cheers!

Camp Harvestivus

September 11th - 17th, 2017
During normal business hours

Mo 3 – 9 • We 3 – 9 • Th 3 – 9 • Fr 12 – 11 • Sa 12 – 11 • Su 12 – 7

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Written by:

Cinnamon Rost (yes, that is my real name)

Marketing/Design Director || 515 Fan Support || Girl Friday

WHAT'S HOPPENING: ApocEclipse - Don't be Blinded by Science!

What's Hoppening is a regular series highlighting points of interest and events that have taken place or will be taking place in the 515 Taproom. 

It is a time to celebrate some Science.
There is a near total eclipse of the sun coming to Iowa on August 21st.  In Central Iowa, we will reach 95 to 96% of totality, an amount not seen in 63 years and this is the first total solar eclipse to move from coast to coast in America in 99 years!

We are going to have two events in conjunction with this historic day.

Saturday, August 19th.  
Staff from the Science Center of Iowa will be on hand for presentations about the upcoming Eclipse.
The first will be at 11:30 (we will open at 11:00 a.m.) and the second at 1:30 p.m.
You can NOT safely view an eclipse without special equipment.  The Science Center will have telescopes, special binoculars and glasses to demonstrate proper safe viewing procedures as well as talk about how eclipses have been "viewed" in the past (hint, it was pretty dire, but we assure you everything gonna be okay this time around.  No end of the world dragons are expected in 2017.)  This event will be family friendly and, shock, gasp, educational.

Monday, August 21st.
Need a place to go over lunch and enjoy the darkness?  We will open at 11:30.  We'll have a few things to help safely view the eclipse, but if you are planning on going to an event (The Science Center is setting up at the capitol.) come by afterwords.  If you mention that you "Survived the Eclipse" we will give you half off your first pint!

Here are some links and facts:
The eclipse starts in Iowa at 11:42 a.m. It will hit maximum darkness at 1:08 p.m. and end at 2:33 p.m.

What will it look like?  Here is a nice link with pictures and video.

Want some good reading on eclipses?  Try this article by Dr. Ethan Siegel.

THE BEER FACTS: Gruits!

The Beer Facts is a regular blog feature discussing all things beer and brewing.

What is a Gruit anyways?

Not the Guardian of the Galaxy,
the beer silly!

Gruits (pronounced Groo-it, kin-a like the Marvel comic book character) are historic ales dating thousands of years back that use herbs, flowers, and spices as the bittering agents to balance the beer instead of hops.
This could be a single herb or any combination of herbs, in an anything-goes kind of way, depending on what the brewer wants to put in or has access to locally. Below is a list of herbs that have been historically common in Gruits. (Note that yarrow was also recently used in the Pink Boot’s collaboration strong ale that was released!)

·      Yarrow
·      Bog myrtle
·      Heather
·      Marsh or Wild Rosemary
·      Sweet Gale
·      Horehound
·      Ground-ivy (also known as Creeping Charlie)
·      Sage
·      Juniper
·      Ginger
·      Mugwort
·      Aniseed
·      Caraway seed

Really, the list is endless as long as the plant is safe to ingest and not treated with chemicals.

Like a lot of styles, Gruits favorability waned due to a lot of reasons. In the 15-16th centuries, taxes, purity laws, preservation methods, and the rising popularity of hops contributed.

What’s in 515’s Gruit?

Brewing and Partying
like it's 999

515’s Gruit is taking a traditional method of using very locally sourced ingredients.  The 3 herbs include - Prickly Lettuce (which is false milk thistle), Dandelion, and Creeping Charlie (ground-ivy).

While Dandelion is quite known in wine making, the other herbs are a bit more unusual, but fascinating because we all know these as weeds right in our own backyards. Creeping Charlie is actually related to Mint and Prickly Lettuce is part of the Dandelion family.

In addition to these herbs for bittering, the gruit has Castle Malting Belgian Pale for the malt and a saison yeast that will give it additional character and mouthfeel.

It will be called Baby Groot.

"Why are you brewing this?"

Why not?! This style lends it self to endless experimentation and there has been a lot of interest lately in revived historic libations, such as meads and brews found at the bottom of the ocean in shipwrecks. With Gruits being some of the first types of beers to be made, and still very rare to find in breweries and brewpubs today, it’s an interesting history lesson in what our ancestors might have been enjoying.  What might seem unusual by today’s ingredient standards were quite common then, and still can be quite flavorful to the palate.  Come on down to 515 and try what might possibly be your first Gruit!

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Written by: Monica Ortiz Shinn

Beertender
Monica lives in Des Moines, Iowa and aside from craft beer, she enjoys a ludicrous amount of cheese, dreaming of time travel and annoying her taproom manager with New Wave 80's music (That she does!)

WHAT'S HOPPENING: Board Game Sunday

What's Hoppening is a regular series highlighting points of interest and events that have taken place or will be taking place in the 515 Taproom. 

"I've just bought this awesome board game and no where to play it.  I like beer too."
Well, I've got the solution to your problem.

Board Game Sunday is the second Sunday of every month.

We are partnering with Mayhem Comics and offering a special deal too.  Bring in a receipt dated during the week before and get half off your first beer.  It doesn't have to be a game purchase either. Go pick up a comic book or trade paperback and come sink into one of our comfy chairs in the lounge.  Beer and comic books go well together.

Board Game Sunday is something near and dear to a couple members of our staff's hearts.  (Yes, there are nerds on staff here at 515 Brewing.)
IF you have a large group coming, let us know and we'll reserve a table for you.  Those library tables work well for the really big games.

WHAT'S HOPPENING: Book Signings!

What's Hoppening is a regular series highlighting points of interest and events that have taken place or will be taking place in the 515 Taproom. 

Here at 515, we are pretty lucky to know some very talented people. Two of those people, our very own beertender, Micah, and 515 superfan and super artist, Carter Allen, will be having a joint book signing on Monday July 17th 5-7pm for their respective books that have just been released. There you'll have the opportunity to chat with Micah and Carter, as well as buy their books and have your copy signed.

You're probably asking, "What kind of books? What are they about? What are the deets? WHAT." Well, lucky for you, we talked to Micah and Carter beforehand to get those deets.

First up, Micah for her book Behind in the Count:

Summary of Behind in the Count: 
Derek Beaman had it all - a career in baseball, a marriage to his high school sweetheart, and a newborn daughter. Then, he suffered an injury that sent him into a downward spiral, and he lost it all. After a break and recovery, he's getting a second chance at his Major League aspirations with the Portland Pioneers. His future as a pitcher is bright, but he's still contending with the demons of his past.

Zella Hansen is pursuing her lifelong dream of a career in baseball management. Her role in the Pioneers' front office introduces her to Derek. Zella soon realizes her feelings are more than just an admiration of his talent, but Derek's history may be enough to end the game early.

Get to know Micah Chaplin:

When did you start writing novels?
Micah: I wrote my first novel in 2002 and published it two years later. Behind In The Count is my fifth self-published work and the second in this baseball romance series about the Portland Pioneers.

What got you going in the direction of baseball books?
M: After I fell in love with the sport of baseball, I decided to merge it with my romance writing hobby. I was influenced by the books of Kate Angell. While I obviously liked the love stories in her books, I also enjoyed the dynamics of her fictional team, the Richmond Rogues.

What is your writing inspiration?
M: I'm not sure I have a particular writing inspiration. However, Brandon Finnegan (currently pitching for the Cincinnati Reds) was the visual inspiration for the lead character in Behind in the Count.

Anything exciting coming up in your future?
M: Nothing exciting anytime in the near future, but I am getting married next summer.

Behind in the Count is available in paperback as well as on Kindle, which can both be found here: https://tinyurl.com/y97z6s5m. She will also have copies available for purchase at the July 17th book signing.

---

Next up, Carter Allen's new comic book: Ectyron Against Lagaxtu

Summary of Ectyron Against Lagaxtu

When the ancient evil of LAGAXTU emerges from the depths of the Earth, it is up to the tag team of the radioactive rooster ECTYRON and ATOM.I.K.E., the cybernetic giant, to take it down!

Get to know Carter Allen:

When did you start getting into comics and why?

Carter: I started getting into comics when I was a kid. I think the biggest reason I first got into them was the bright, colorful pictures. As time marched on, I got hooked on the storylines and the characters.

What is your drive to draw?

C: I try to draw every day. It's been something I've been doing for a long time and hope to keep doing in the future. It gives me a creative outlet, a chance to express myself visually.

What do you enjoy most in comics?

C: I'd say the first thing I enjoy in comics is the visual art, but the characters and story need to be equally engaging to make me love them.

What is your favorite comic book?

C: My favorite comic book is a three way tie between Walt Simpson's Thor, Marvel's Godzilla comic and the 1970s-1980s Star Wars books.

Ectyron Against Lagaxtu will be available for purchase July 17th at the book signing. Additionally, you can join Carter the 3rd Wednesday of every month for Drink and Draw 6-9pm in the 515 taproom. 

________

Written by:

Whitney Knightly

Assistant Taproom Manager
Whitney has been trained by MI6 in England and is a renowned super spy and international woman of mystery.

THE BEER FACTS: Nasty Woman Strong Ale

The Beer Facts is a regular blog feature discussing all things beer and brewing.

Des Moines Beer Week! So exciting with so many events! So many new brews to share!

Collaborations abound this week, and we have one to put on tap a few of our staff helped contribute to. Five of the 515 staff - Whitney, Barb, Micah, Aleigh and myself are all part of an organization called the Pink Boots Society. It sounds like a super, secret society, but I promise you it isn’t. PBS, for short, is an organization with chapters all over the world bringing women together to “assist, inspire, and encourage women beer professionals through education.” The local chapter, which started this past January, has women come together from all parts of Iowa and from all different areas of the craft beer industry to learn from each other. We have brewers, beertenders, managers, owners, hop farmers, and even staff educators who work for brewpubs as part of our chapter.

Some of the Pink Boots crew on brew day! Employees from 515, Peace Tree, El Bait Shop, New American, Firetrucker, C and S Brew Supply, Lion Bridge, and Front Street were in attendance.

Our first project to tackle was to get involved in the annual Big Boots Brew Day that happened on International Women’s Day in March. Megan McKay, owner of Peace Tree Brewing and member of PBS as well, was extraordinarily kind enough to host her brand new brewing facilities in the Des Moines location to brew our beer, with the help of her head brewer Joe Kesteloot. We are pretty proud to note that our beer was only the second batch to be brewed there!

We all decided to go with a variation of a historic ale style, so Molly Frana, Barbara Lynn Becker, and Sheri Houdesheldt all researched recipes and ingredients, coming up with a hybrid of a strong and old ale style. In attempting to make the beer a bit different, we went with using adjuncts of yarrow, a historically more typical herb used for bittering, as well as adding molasses to the end of the boil for some sweetness. To temper these strong ingredients we took advantage of the Templeton Rye barrels that Peace Tree has readily available, and barrel-aged the brew for a solid 3 months. The outcome is a malt forward brew, with notes of caramel and toffee, and an undercurrent of oak, vanilla, and whiskey. The herbal bitterness of the yarrow is just

Watching and learning about the mash-in process. 

enough to balance the brew and reign in the sweetness of the molasses that also comes through smoothing out this 9% ABV beer. It’s a delicious sipper of a beer that is certainly unique and a must try!

With such a strong beer, it needed a strong name, so it was dubbed thee “Unite: Nasty Woman Strong Ale.”  A portion of the proceeds of the beer sold will go to PBS’s scholarship fund, and another portion will stay local to help a women’s charity. You'll be able to find this beer at different breweries and brewpubs across the metro soon, but 515 Brewing will be tapping it as part of our Des Moines Beer Week festivities on Wednesday, June 21st. We hope to see you there!

Cheers!

________

Written by:
Monica Ortiz Shinn
Beertender

Monica lives in Des Moines, IA as part-time domestic goddess,  part-time super hero kicking ass and pummeling everyday sexism where she sees it. Her super powers include parallel parking, regenerative palate, and turning a crappy situation into a not-so-crappy situation. Her sidekick is a cat named the Melodramatic Melody, who’s super powers include sleeping for 20 hours a day and Jedi powers that have something to with big eyes and overwhelming cuteness, just like a manga character (you will do what she says, put the tuna down and no one gets hurt). You can also follow Monica on Twitter @BeerMeMon for beer and cat related nonsense.

What's Hoppening: Des Moines Craft Beer Week 2017

What's Hoppening is a regular series highlights points of interest and events that have taken place or will be taking place in the 515 Taproom.

Here is a list of 515 Brewing's events for Des Moines Craft Beer Week:

Azacca K.I.S.S. Tapping 
- Friday, July 16th at Noon
Azacca is our SMaSH release for the Craft Beer Week.  Barb decided to Keep It Simple (get it?) and created an amazing pale with some really good and interesting flavors.  You aren't going to taste anything like this, this week.
Single Malt - Castle Malting Belgian Pale
Single Hop - Azacca.
Did you know?  This hop is named after the Haitian god of agriculture.

Iowa Craft Beer Festival 
- Saturday, July 17th
If you are going to the fest downtown, come find us.

Nasty Women Strong Ale Tapping 
- Wednesday, July 21st at 3:00
Several of our staff worked on the creation of this beer and we'll be tapping it Wednesday.
Want to read more about this look on this blog. Monica has a whole write up about it.

Tap takeover at Hello Marjorie with Alluvial Brewing 
- Wednesday, July 21st
Marjorie reached out to us and Alluvial and the answer was "of course!" Come on down and hang, might be able to win prizes. Oh, there will be good beer too.
If you haven't been down to Marjorie yet, you should try it.It's very nice.
(They are located on Grand in the old Register and Tribune building)

Big OJ Tapping 
- Thursday, July 22nd at 5:15
This is the much anticipated Imperial American Pale Wheat.  Oh, My Stars and Garters, this is a good beer. We will sell the first 40 pours for only $1.00 starting at 4:15 and tap it at 5:15.

Azacca K.I.S.S. w/ Lychee & Thyme Firkin 
- Thursday, July 22nd at 3:00
From the depths of the brew house comes another of Barb's Frankenstonian creations.  We'll have this little baby on tap when we open.  Come have a pour while you wait for Big OJ to tap.

WHAT'S HOPPENING: Charity Trivia at 515

What's Hoppening is a regular series highlights points of interest and events that have taken place or will be taking place in the 515 Taproom. 

Almost a year ago we started an "every once in awhile" event;  a way to try and give more back to the community while making for a fun night.  It was a laid back trivia night where WE created the questions, the format and the prizes. 

May 8th - "What number did Jackie Robinson wear in the Major Leagues?"
Answer: 42, also the answer to "what is the Douglas Adam's meaning of life?"

We have a blast doing this, not only because you guys (seem) to be having fun, but also because each trivia night we partner with a different DSM charity. At the last event, we donated over 25% of sales that night to The Project, a member of Primary Health Care, one of the largest HIV/AIDS service and prevention agencies in the state of Iowa. 

Wink Martindale he is not, but that's a sweet jacket!

What you may or may not know is Matt, our resident idiot MC, and I research all the trivia questions, with help from the rest of our trusty and brainy staff. Our trivia nights early on were largely curated by Micah (one of our lovely beertenders) and June will feature categories and questions researched by Joe (maybe our most "lovely" beertender.)  Go team!

Trivia nights are the second Monday of every month, which makes our next event…. June 12th!

We are partnering with Clive Community Services, a local food bank and clothes closet. They are in need of laundry detergent in June, which means if you bring in a jug of laundry soap, you get 1/2 off a beer! 
Teams may be comprised of 1-4 people. Prizes include: free growlers to the winning team and free pints to the second and third place finishers.  

BONUS! If you follow us on Snapchat, there’s a good chance we’ll give you a free trivia answer the day of the event... Our username is fiveonefivebrew. 

Charities on deck: 

July: Furry Friends Refuge
August: Central Iowa Shelter and Services

September: Back to School Book Drive for Indian Hills Junior High 

Lastly, we are always open to suggestions on how to make the evening better! For example, if questions are too easy or too hard, or if you think Matt sucks… only kidding, because if you say that he will make me host trivia night and I can guarantee it’ll be less fun. Plus, the jacket doesn’t fit me.  Nonetheless, we are open to your input.

________

Written by: 
Whitney Knightly

Assistant Taproom Manager

Whitney has been trained by MI6 in England and is a renowned super spy and international woman of mystery.

THE BEER FACTS: ESB or Extra Special Bitter

The Beer Facts is a regular blog feature discussing all things beer and brewing. 

515 Brewing's Spiders from Clive is an Extra Special Bitter in the classification of English Pales...that's right, they are Ying to the Yang of American Pales. Weird, huh? We'll be discussing the specific differences a little later, but American Pales are derived from this sessionalable English classic. ESBs are also sometimes known as "Bitters" in the general term when poured from draft or cask, while "pale ale" is usually reserved for bottled versions of the beer. I know, confusing, right?

What is in an ESB?
The ESB is the strongest in a the ladder of styles- with Ordinary Bitter and Best Bitter being the other two- in terms of ABV, alcohol by volume, and IBU, international bitterness units, strength. Despite the use of the word "bitter" though, this is often deceiving when compared to most American beer varieties. IBUs typically range between 30-50, and the English hops used tend to be much more mild in their bitterness with flavors often characterized as herbal, earthy, woodsy, or even floral- I often think they actually have an English tea-like quality. ESBs can be fairly balanced in terms of malt and hop, with the malt notes of toast, biscuit, and caramel or toffee sweetness due to a dash of crystal malt added into the recipe. Fruity esters from English varieties of yeast aren't uncommon either, although sometimes you get a much cleaner and drier finish. The color, or SRM, of this style can range wildly from Pale to Copper, due to crystal and specialty malts, but most don't reach above 18 and tend to be an Amber shade.

Characteristics
While American Pales have evolved to be hoppy, citrusy, piney, resinous, and give you a punch of bitterness, the English Bitters have remained rather subdued in character in comparison. Like many other English beer styles, they've remained low in ABV as well, keeping them drinkable and sessionable (any beer 5.1% ABV and under) with a range of usually 4.6-6.2% just as American Pales have. Malt is not only darker in color, but also takes more prominence in a light, but often complex flavor compared to the true pale orange and golden hues of American pales. Carbonation is usually minimal as well, a traditional that has come from UK's Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).

Diacetyl?
While Diacetyl is usually an off flavor in most beer styles, it is actually acceptable in low quantities in Bitters, and sometimes even desired by the brewers. Buttery or butterscotch flavors often accompany the malt sweetness. It's also acceptable without diacetyl.

Did you know?

Spiders from Clive artwork by Carter Allen

"ESB" itself is a guarded trademark in the UK by British brewery Fuller, Smith & Turner. But it is used widely worldwide outside the UK to denote the style otherwise. Technically, the style is recognized by the BJCP and Cicerone as "Strong Bitter."

Other Examples of a "Strong Bitter"
Interested in trying some other authentic examples from across the pond? Head to your local grocery store or specialty bottle shop, or better yet, Royal Mile and see if you can find these classics: Samuel Smith's Old Brewery Pale Ale, Bass Pale Ale, Morland Speckled Hen, Timothy Taylor's Boltmaker, Fuller's ESB, Fuller's London Pride ...or until it runs out, our very own Spiders from Clive.

________

Written by: 

Monica Shinn

515 Beertender

Monica is working on her Cicerone certification (and will tell you all about it soon). 

515 Brewing...now with blogging capabilities!

Welcome to the second iteration of our blog, 515's Blood Sweat & Beers.

Wait...515 already had a blog? Yep, we did. Let's fire up the DeLorean and head back to 2011, when 515 was just a dream of four homebrewers. Brandon, Bailey, Dave and Ryan started Four Guys and a Keg blog to highlight the headaches and joys of starting a brewery. By the time June 2012 came around, the craziness of getting the brewery off the ground took center stage and the blog became a distant memory. (Our old posts are still there if you care to read them.)

With 515 now in its fourth year, it is time to polish off the blog. And luckily, we have the help of 515's talented taproom and brewing staff excited to share their knowledge. In upcoming posts you'll learn about general brewing and beer (The Beer Facts), the story behind specific 515 beer (Near and Beer to my Heart) and news and upcoming events (What's Hoppening).

Pour yourself a beer, pull up a chair and enjoy the read.

Cheers!

________

Written by:
Cinnamon Rost
Marketing/Design Director || 515 Fan Support || Girl Friday

800 Pound Gorilla...Check!

Call it what you will, an "800 pound gorilla", "red tape", "royal pain in the ass", "elephant in the room"...whatever you call it, we have had it.  Ever since we started the hunt for a location we had heard the possibility that we would have to have a grease trap installed at whatever location that was.  We thought that this "requirement" was due to a misunderstanding of the liquid waste that we would produce and that we could talk to either a person or representatives for various city agencies and they would realize that we had no need for one.

Then we found our location and thought that we had everything covered because it appeared a grease trap was already in place.  Sweet!  Now we don't have to worry about it and we could go forward!  Well, not so fast, we learned.  Turns out that there was no grease trap...just a few floor sinks.  Then we began formulating ideas, hashing out plans and generally chasing our collective tails.  Should we apply for a financial variance and try to get by with smaller grease traps under our brewing area and bar, should we seek out other sources of funds to just bite the bullet and pay for it, should we pack it up and find a new location (meaning there was virtually no way for us to open this year) or should we do something else?

Well, whatever frustration and discouragement we felt over the last several weeks while dealing with this uncertainty has finally come into focus.  We have a definitive plan and the support of our landlord who, throughout this entire process, has been absolutely wonderful to work with.  From the initial lease negotiations to this most recent issue he has been up front, honest and very willing to work with us.  Being a small business still trying to get off of the ground, that has been extremely helpful.

Soon we will begin the installation of a large in-ground grease trap and subsequent piping which should allow us to obtain signoff by the WRA (Water Reclamation Association), which (we believe) is the final signoff we need in order to get our building permits so that we can start building instead of demolishing!  While I am in no way suggesting that we have seen the last of the red tape and frustration, this has been such a huge deal (and potential deal-breaker!) that it is an incredible weight off of our shoulders.

I am really starting to feel like we are picking up steam right now.  It is helped out a lot by the fact that our brewhouse equipment (boil kettle, mash tun, hot liquor tank, etc) are currently in transit and should be at home in the brewery this Friday.  Additionally, we hit the final submit button on our TTB application which officially notifies the federal government that we are planning on opening a brewery and we need them to certify us and give us a license to brew!  On top of all that, this Saturday Dave is coordinating the volunteer army to help the Iowa Craft Brew Fest run (VIP tickets are currently sold out, but regular tickets are still available...get em now!)!  What an incredible week!

Cheers!

Delivery!

Those of you that have found our Facebook and Twitter pages (kudos to you, by the way!) know that we got a pretty large delivery the other day.  Though we have talked about it for awhile, we figured that the Craft Brewers Conference was a good time to unveil those outlets.  So, those of you who have found us, thanks for the follows and likes and for those of you who haven't found those outlets yet, we are going to be periodically updating things via those outlets...so give us a follow or a like (just no pokes...yet!).  So, back to the point of this post...yes, it was a large delivery, but was still rather comical that it took an entire semi to deliver it to us given the actual size.

Here comes the goods!

Dave doing his best to guide the driver

Though it looks like they are intentionally ignoring the driver, they truly did discuss the truck positioning!

Hopefully we were the last stop for this driver (and not the only one!) as the trailer was pretty empty, albeit for a couple of pallets with shiny stainless steel attached.

Brandon showed up a little late...but in style!

Frankly, it was all a little surreal.  Yes, we had a signed lease, a place to call home as well as a lot of paperwork indicating that we were a brewery.  True, we had written some pretty big checks many months ago when we ordered our equipment, but we couldn't really point to anything that proved that we were starting a brewery.  We could just be a few random people leasing a commercial property with an LLC.  That all changed recently with our shiny new fermenters.  First, however, we had to get the friggin' things off of the truck and into the building!

We did think ahead a little bit and adjust a furniture mover to accommodate our new arrivals 

Delivery driver pulling the first one off of the truck

Ryan doing his best to help out...appears the driver is doing more work than Ryan!

We all had pretty big grins on our faces as we inspected everything to make sure it met our requirements

Of all of the pieces included with these fermenters (we purchased fittings, racking tubes, valves and other equipment along with the fermenters themselves), we were only missing one single nut on the manway hatch.  Pretty successful, I'd say!

All 3 fermenters positioned outside the front door...now, how to get them in the building?

So, the first step was to remove the wooden guards that had been constructed around the fermenters.  The wood wasn't especially high quality, but they didn't skimp on the fasteners!!  As we removed the wood, I'm somewhat amazed that none of us got injured when things like this were everywhere!

After removing from the original pallets, we put them on our improved furniture dolly and rolled them in the front door.  Had we gotten anything bigger, there was no way in the world that they would have fit in the door.  So, when we are able to increase capacity and get a 7 or 10 barrel fermenter, we'll have to figure out a different way to get the silly things into the building!

First fermenter has entered the building!

We repeated the process with the remaining two fermenters and finally had all three fermenters safely inside the building.

Now, since we are still doing some demolition and still have some construction to do within the building, we wanted to make sure that we protected our investment from all of the dust.  Granted, we still will need to clean them thoroughly to remove any oils and materials left over from manufacturing, but we want to minimize any contamination that can get in there before we clean them!  So, after finally being unveiled to us, we had to wrap them back up with furniture pads and a really large roll of saran wrap from CostCo!

Brandon wrapping up fermenter number two.  You can see #3 pre-wrapped with saran wrap to close up all open ports.

So, it took a little while, but we now have three brand new fermenters just waiting for some freshly prepared wort.  Hopefully we will be able to fill them up somewhat soon and put them through their paces!  So, as mentioned earlier, though we all know we are starting a brewery and we have been working towards this point for quite some time it is really hard to describe how cathartic a feeling it is to have some of this equipment finally delivered to its new home.  Step by step, we continue to move towards our final goal...delivering hand crafted specialty beer to the Des Moines area.  Or, to throw out the tagline mentioned on our business cards, we wish to provide "exceptional beer for exceptional folks".  Look out Des Moines, we are on our way!

Cheers and have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend!

Iowa Craft Beer Festival 2012 is coming!

I don't know about you guys, but I love beer. And I love bridges. What could be more f'ing awesome than drinking beer ON A BRIDGE? Not a stupid viaduct. A real bridge that crosses water and everything!

Are you going to be in or near the state of Iowa on June 16th? The second annual Iowa Craft Beer Festival is coming up and you need to be there. Seriously. A metric truckload of delicious, handcrafted, Iowa beer, a bunch of amazingly talented Iowa craft brewers to serve it to you, a signature bridge in Des Moines, and most importantly - you - are going to all hook up with live music in the background and make sweet, sweet love to each other that day from 1-5 (2-5 if you aren't a VIP - you should really be a VIP, and it'll only cost you an extra 5 spot to sample beer for an extra hour). Tickets are available now, and if you don't get your money out of this, well, let's just say you'll get your money's worth out of this. Come out and enjoy the camaraderie that we, as craft beer lovers, enjoy. Mingle with the breweries that bring you delicious beer. And, most importantly, drink beer. On a bridge. You get to drink beer, ON A BRIDGE. Seriously. A real live freaking bridge! There might even be whales*.

*there probably won't be whales.

What a week!

So, one of the things that all four of us have been looking forward to for quite some time now is the 2012 Craft Brewers Conference, held this year in San Diego.  Brandon and Ryan went to the 2011 edition in San Francisco last year and were a little overwhelmed with everything.  They attempted to describe how incredible the experience was to Dave and I, but were really struggling to come up with the words to adequately describe it.

I now know why!

This was an absolutely amazing experience.  We were literally rubbing elbows with and talking to brewing industry greats like Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head, Jim Koch of Sam Adams and Charlie Papazian, world renowned homebrewer and president of the Brewers Association.  We had a random lunch conversation with Chris White, founder of White Labs yeast and author of Yeast: The Practical Guide to Yeast Fermentation. There were really too many of those experiences to name, but those give you just an idea of whose company we were in this past week.  It was truly surreal for a few reasons.  1. We were actually in their company and at their events.  2. they actually talked with us!  3. They seemed actually enjoy talking to us!

Then came the primary reason we were there, the conference itself and the expo.  There were seminars on all sorts of things, but it was kicked off by Sam Calagione talking about nano breweries.  It was really encouraging and exciting to be in the room with all of those people who were either in various stages of planning or had been open for awhile.  One brewery in particular had a ton of great information, Hess Brewing Company.  The brewery opened a couple of years ago on a 1.6 barrel system (51 gallons at a time), which is half the size of our operation!  He started a blog about their process as he couldn't really find a ton of information out there on the interwebs about starting small breweries.  This blog has helped many of the small breweries out there get started...we kind of called them the grandfather of the nano brewery!

Next came seminars on taprooms, yeast propogation, brewing with fruit, tips and tricks, and on and on.  So much information to absorb, but so much wonderful information.  Then came the beer.  Oh my word was there beer.  Everywhere you went there was wonderful, wonderful beer.  Throughout the day there were hospitality tents everywhere with food and drink.  Mixed in with the booths trying to sell us everything from full brew houses to bottle openers were booths with random wonderful beer.  Much of it we don't have being distributed in Iowa, but I sure wish it was.

After the last seminar of the day there were shuttles taking us to various places each night.  One night we went to Mission Brewery in downtown San Diego.  Absolutely gorgeous building.  Used to be an old bakery, but they had converted it to a brewery and tasting room.  Another night we went to Karl Strauss Brewery (no idea where it was, my sense of direction was so screwed up all week!) where there was more food and 16 separate breweries with beer....also a mechanical bull!  Once we returned, we were presented with even more opportunities to sample incredible beer.  In one of the courtyards of the hotel, they had constructed two cold boxes with 50+ taps in each one.  You could either filter through the two page list of available brews or just play brewery roulette and pick a number!

I could go on and on and on about this week and everything we learned and did and saw...but I can't put it all into one post.  I do plan on adding another post shortly that will include some of the images we captured throughout the week, but I want to leave you with an image of Ryan's protector.  This print was hung over the foot of his bed and watched over him each night.  Frankly, it's rather creepy!  I think the eyes do follow you around the room...however, he made it through!

Now, if we can just get an airplane to pick us up from the airport and actually get us home, that would be great!

Cheers!

Demolition Day 1

What a day!  As I mentioned the other day, we have signed a lease on a building where we will eventually open the doors of 515 Brewing Company to the public.  The building has been many things in its life...a restaurant or two, a bar or two and possibly a couple of things we haven't heard of yet.  Needless to say, we have to do some work to it in order to match our vision for the brewery and tasting room.

With the receipt of our insurance paperwork this last week and a floor plan more or less finalized, we are finally able to get our hands dirty and start work on cleanup/construction prep.  We have not acquired our official building permit yet so we aren't doing anything major, but one thing was known from the moment we all first laid eyes on the space...the carpet had to go!

It had to go for many reasons, really.  First of all, it had so much stuff spilled on it in the last however long it had been down that it didn't exactly smell of roses!  Then take into account the fact that we will very likely have liquid spill onto the floor on occasion and carpeting seems like a pretty silly floor covering!  We thought that once we loosened a couple of edges that the stuff would just pull up without too much trouble.  Um...no...how wrong we were.  I arrived first, thinking it wouldn't be that much trouble.  An hour later, this is all that I accomplished:

I had to stop pulling every couple of minutes to let my hands rest!

So, Ryan arrived after I had been working for about an hour and with a couple more tools and after about another hour we got this far:

That stuff just absolutely did not want to come up!  Next we tried to pull smaller sections up (about 12" wide).  That worked a whole lot better and the work on the carpet went much quicker...but was still pretty difficult.

One other thing we absolutely had to do was to remove a wall full of mirrors off of one of the walls.  One of the previous tenants in this place had even covered up two windows with mirrors.  Why, you ask?  We have no idea whatsoever!  It makes very little sense, but overall it doesn't matter because we have to pull them off anyway!  Below is what the wall looked like with all of the mirrors on it (forgive the horrible photo...just for an idea of the mirror wall!):

Our initial attempt at the first mirror (about 4' x 4') did not go well and we quickly broke a piece off.  It had been secured to the wall by half a dozen or more of these solidified putty-like disks.  Since neither one of us wanted to get cut and have to get medical attention on our first day of work we decided to unleash a little bit of frustration.  If the mirror didn't want to come down in one piece, we would make it come down in as many pieces as possible!  A few seconds later and a flying ice scraper and crowbar later and the mirror was down, Ryan and I were laughing somewhat maniacally and we could finally see what was behind the mirror wall!

After a suggestion by Ryan's wife during dinner, we did finally find a way to pull the mirrors down without breaking them (at least most of them) and finished off pulling down the rest of the mirrors.  If I remember right, we salvaged 3 or 4 of the 4' x 4' mirrors.  Not sure what we'll do with them, but once we get the wood  out of the windows it will be great to get some natural light into the brewery.

Photos of progress from day one:

Home Sweet Home

So, it has been awhile since my last post and work has continued to progress.  The website is continuing its evolution, recipes continue to be refined and we have looked at several more potential properties.  The property search, as I have mentioned before, is a very critical step in our plan as we can't file for our brewer's license without a location.

Our Realtor has been great to work with thus far.  He has put up with all of the requirements we threw at him and has been willing to work with us after normal business hours since all four of us continue to work at our original jobs.  We have been through some tough decisions and some tough moments in our search for a location, however, that search has finally come to an end!  We all got our keys to the new brewery (we can call it that now!!) on Friday.  I won't post just yet where exactly it is, but rest assured, that announcement will come soon enough.

This means that we can cross another huge "to-do" off of our checklist and now we can really start to build up steam towards actually opening our doors (now that we have them!).  You should be seeing some more activity in the next month or so.  We should be launching our website, opening up our Twitter and Facebook accounts, and, finally, releasing the location where we will be brewing and serving our beer.

I think I can speak for all of us that we were all a little giddy on Friday when we finally were able to put our hands on those keys.  It is a great feeling to make that huge step.  Now we need to finalize the ultimate layout of the brewery so we can submit our paperwork to the TTB (The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) so that we can get them working on issuing our brewery license.  That notice, along with similar notices from the State of Iowa and the City will allow us to finally use our commercial 3 barrel system to brew beer for sale.  Up until then, we can only continue to brew on homebrew setups in order to finalize our recipes.  Which, Brandon and I happen to be doing right now!  My Kolsh is now in the fermenter and Brandon's Shandy is coming out of the mash tun as we speak.

So, while it has been hard work up to this point in our plan, I anticipate things are going to get even more difficult over the next couple of months.  What is up next is to submit our licensing applications, clean up and build out the brewery/taproom, launch our official marketing plan and conquer the hundreds of smaller tasks remaining on our list.  It's going to be a crazy, crazy spring and summer, but it sure is nice to finally have a home for our venture!

Cheers and happy Easter everyone!

Experimental Adventures

So, Brandon and I had a long, but productive brew day yesterday and got to experiment a little bit.  Before I get to that, however, a quick update on the status of our business.  Still no location, ugh.  This part has been, by far, the most difficult part of the process to date.  We have a very narrow set of requirements and there are only a certain number of spaces out there (available or not!); making it a needle-in-a-haystack sort of search.  There are obviously a lot of federal, state, county and city regulations to juggle which makes the search just that much more difficult.  We continue to scour all of the commercial listings on our own as well as with the help of our agent.

Now, on to the brew day.  We were brewing a beer that was the idea of my girlfriend, essentially we were trying to recreate the flavor of a salted caramel in a beer.  For those who haven't done much (or any) brewing, there are some grains available that create some of that caramel flavor.  We have all used these in varying amounts in other brews, but this is the first where I really wanted to highlight the caramel flavor instead of using the caramel to support other flavors.

Time for a little Brewing 101!  A quick run-down of the initial steps we go through to make beer.  Beer is basically fermented sugar water with alcohol and carbon dioxide being the by-products of the yeast eating the sugar in said sugar water (yep, we're drinking yeast poop!).  The first step is to get the sugar out of the grain so the yeast will have something to eat.  We do this by soaking the grain in water at a specific temperature, allowing enzymes to convert starches to sugars.  Normally we just throw water in at a specific temperature, let it sit for an hour or hour and a half, then get the water out.  For this, though, I wanted to try something new.

I had been wondering about a mash method called decoction mashing for awhile and, while this is really more of an antiquated mash technique for use with grains that have not been modified with modern malting techniques (as well as other reasons), I thought that the process might help me extract more caramel flavor from the grain.  Essentially, for this method, the beginning is the same except we let it rest at a lower temperature than the "single infusion" method I described above.  After a period of time, a specific amount of grain is pulled out of the main mash and brought to a boil for a little while.  This is then added back to the main mash in order to bring the temp up to the temp we normally aim for with the single infusion.  From there, the rest of the brew day is the same.  This should, in theory, add more of a caramel flavor to the beer, and our first taste of the unfermented, cool wort seemed to bear that out.  I'm really excited about this beer.  If nothing else, it was (and is) a great experiment!  If you are interested in learning more about decoction mashing and seeing a video about it, try this link to Northern Brewer, Brewing TV.  Brandon also took a couple of photos during:

Stirring the Decoction

Decoction Close Up

While brewing we also bottled 3 batches of beer that had been carbonating: Mexican Spring (an Agave Lime Wheat), Sour Power (our version of a Berlinner Weisse) and Rooster Red (Irish Red brewed for the Des Moines Roosters Aussie Rules Football team).  I'm sampling Mexican Spring right now and I really like it.  Brandon's friend and wife tried it the other day as well and could really envision themselves drinking it while floating down the river in a canoe or kayak.  We also tasted 3 others that should be ready relatively soon: A Belgian Quad currently aged about 6 months, Big Nuts (Imperial version of Numb Nut Ale) and Sweet Grits Ale.  All 3 have a lot of potential, but are still a little young and the flavors need to blend a little more.

Mexican Spring

Anyway, I think I have rambled on long enough.  If you made it this far, thanks again!  I need to find a way to make some of these shorter...apparently I'm a little long-winded!  Either way, have a great night and we'll have more news later!

Cheers!

Reflections and Revelations

I've been doing quite a bit of reading recently.  Reading about the brewing process as a whole, differing mash schedules, yeast pitch rates, hop utilization, overall efficiency, recipe formulation, brewery operations, and on and on and on.  It occurred to me that one of the most rewarding (so far) parts of this process of opening a commercial nano-brewery is the learning.  There are so many parts of this process that relate back to me sitting in a classroom, bored out of my mind, because I had no idea how any of the information I was being taught would ever relate to the real world...but now I know exactly how they can relate!  I recently posted a photo of a stir plate in action that I had just completed building on Facebook and had several comments about it.  The one that stuck the most, however, was from my sister who said, "You guys should speak to a hs science class. Seriously. What could possibly get U.S. kids excited about science more quickly than the idea that they could use their new skillz to make BEER?! I just solved the science brain drain problem right there, people."  While I don't think there is a high school in the world that would let us come in to talk about our process, I do think there is a serious grain of truth there.  I have heard several stories of current professional brewers who happened to be in the right place at the right time and had the right professor steer them in the direction of brewing.

I always enjoyed science class and was generally pretty adept at many of the concepts, but still had no idea how in the world it was going to translate to my everyday life after high school and college.  My aspirations at the time really had nothing to do with applied science.  I had also always enjoyed building things and, sometimes more so, tearing things apart.  Now I am entering into a world that I should have known about years ago because it meshes virtually all of the skills and subjects that I have enjoyed!

I'm not sure I can speak for the other guys in this little self-reflective discovery, but what I do know is that I am unbelievably excited about moving forward.  All of these random interests are now concentrated into one specific endeavor.  Much to my girlfriend's chagrin, I am excited enough about this on a daily basis to come home after a full day of work only to cook dinner and go right to work on some project for the brewery.  Whether it is reading about craft beer trends, sourcing suppliers for our ingredients or building small electronics projects I have a hard time sitting around and not working!  Last night I forgot to eat dinner for the first time (I had a snack, but that really doesn't count!) because I was researching appropriate rpm rates for yeast starters on a stir plate!  Really?  I eschewed pork loin for research on stir plate usage?  I think I might have a sickness of some sort.  While I don't think my experience is identical to those of the other guys, I think all of us are really, truly enjoying this process.  Even though it has, at times, been extremely frustrating, it has been an overwhelmingly positive experience to this point, and many would say that we haven't even gotten to the fun part yet!

Stir Plate Assembly (yes, it's even on the kitchen counter!)

Completed Stir Plate in action