At least Iowa is good for something

Despite my consistent whining about some of the good beer that is unavailable in Minnesota, all it takes is a trip to a state that doesn't have it as good as we do to bring me back to reality. Last weekend, I was in Iowa for my college homecoming and took the opportunity to visit a local liquor store to check out their wares. I had called ahead, and so I knew that they would have some Gumbalhead from Three Floyds--an excellent hopped-up wheat beer. I picked up three bottles of that (anyone wanna trade?), and a variety of other beer that isn't found in Minnesota.

In case you can't read the labels, from left to right, that's Gumbalhead, Hoppy Brewing Hoppy Face Amber Ale, Blue Frog Red Frog Ale, Lost Coast Pale Ale, ReaperAle Deathly Pale Ale, Millstream Iowa Pale Ale, and MacTarnahan Mac's Ale. The ones I've tried thus far are solid.

Sure, none of these beers come to the North Star State, but Iowa--at least Benz Liquor Depot in CR--doesn't have nearly the quantity of quality craft brews as Minnesota. And no Surly either.

Homebrew Update
Oh, where to start. It's been a busy summer and fall, filling the basement for winter. The Barleywine, Double IPA, Alt, Sweet Stout, Belgian Dubbel, and Winter Warmer are in bottles and the Steam, India Brown Ale and IPA are fermenting. With Tony's coaxing, we've begun to get off-recipe and tweak some of the kits, even making up our own. The Winter was a real treat to brew, as we added a little of this and a little of that. We doubled the grains, added some molasses, fresh ginger, honey, coriander, cocoa powder, juniper and dry hopped it in the primary. When we bottled it it reminded me a bit of Anchor Winter. The Double IPA is excellent, the hops balance the alcohol, which is probably around 7% abv. We have a couple empty carboys to fill, so I'm sure we'll be back at it next week.