January 17, 2006
Does it taste great, or less filling?
What can I say, this is my favorite domestic, run-of-the mill beer.
Filed by Kevin at 10:22 pm under Reviews
3 Comments
Where are the reviews?
Can you believe it has been over a week since we last posted to the site? Well, you can rest assured we are working hard to come up with our next review.
From an editorial standpoint, we are going to mix things up a bit. Instead of just reviewing beers via a Podcast, we’re going to do it the old fashion way - by typing some of them up. We’ll still give you all the witty, dry (err. drunk) humor that you have to come to expect from our first two Podcasts, but in written format.
In any case, we have updated to Reviews page to identify the beers we have already reviewed, and the ones coming.
P.S., Many of our visitors may not know that we also have an online forum for your hops pleasure. There really isn’t much content as of yet, but we hope to get some people excited about participating. How does free beer sound? Oh wait, that must violate some sort of interstate law; how about the enternal gratitude and admiration of your fellow beer man? 
Filed by Kevin at 8:02 pm under Site Related
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January 8, 2006
Definitions of Brewery Types
Brew Pub:
A bar/restaurant which usually serves food and makes beer to consume on the premises. Typically they don’t bottle and sale other than in very small “take them with you” quantities. One local example is Rock Bottom Brewery. Great food, great beer and you can purchse liters etc. They don’t distribute their beer however.
Microbrewery:
Generally a microbrewery makes and distributes less than 15,000 barrels of beer yearly. The beer is packaged and distributed for off the premises sales. Some brew pubs meet this criteria, but I would still define them as a brew pub.
Regional Brewery:
A regional brewery packages and distributes between 15,000 and 1,000,000 barrels yearly.
Large Brewery:
A brewery that produces more than 1,000,000 barrels of beer annually. Anheuser/Busch, Miller etc.
Beer Marketing Company:
A company who puts their label on a beer that is produced for them.
Filed by Paul at 11:33 pm under Breweries
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Iowa Breweries and Brew Pubs
On a quest to locate some local area breweries I have come to realize that we really don’t have a whole lot of choices. Quite a few have closed in recent years unfortunately. The largest was a regional brewery, Dubuque Brewing and Bottling who produced 100,000 barrels a year since 1898 and closed in 1998. Most now are microbreweries and only produce on average 1,200 barrels a year. One I came across that is still open is Millstream Brewing in the historic Amana Colonies in Amana, Iowa. Look for a future Podcast episode dedicated to Millstream Brewing. We will try to take a tour of the brewery prior as well. The only other one I could find was called Hardscrabble Enterprise in Hopkinton, Iowa and is still under planning stages.
On the other hand we have a nice selection of brew pubs. Some of the local ones in the Des Moines area are Rock Bottom Brewery (try their Stout, especially with desserts), Granite City Food & Brewery, Court Avenue Brewing, Raccoon River Brewing and Olde Main Brewing in Ames. Again look for future Podcast episodes on each of these local beers.
Filed by Paul at 11:15 pm under Breweries
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Upgraded to Wordpress 2.0!
On a whim, I decided to upgrade the publishing system of TheHopsReview.com to a freshly released version of Wordpress 2.0. It really turned out to be a potential nightmare.
All I can say to anyone wanting to do this procedure, is to be sure you backup everything prior to upgrading (like it says in the instructions.) Especially, if you have custom themes in place, as it seems the install wipes them out. When I first went to the homepage, only a blank screen appeared, because our theme had disappeared. OH NO! I just about had a stroke. But, In the end, all I had to do was copy back our custom themes and javascript files and the crisis was averted…
How does it work? The new version of Wordpress is spectacular. The enhanced posting mechinism (WYSIWYG) is certainly welcome. And the AJAX functionality is a nice bonus.
CHEERS!
Filed by Kevin at 8:57 pm under Site Related
2 Comments
January 7, 2006
Podcast: Episode #2 - Anchor Steam
We are on a roll
Our second Podcast is official.
In episode #2, we head out to the San Francisco bay, to review a beer that has been virtually handmade since 1896.
Download as a MP3 file.
iTunes users, click here
Links from the Podcast:
Filed by Kevin at 6:36 pm under Podcasts
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January 2, 2006
The Big Book o’ Beer
The Big Book o’ Beer:
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About
the Greatest Beverage on Earth
Rating: out of 5
Author: Duane Swierczynski
Year: 2004
Publisher: Quirk Books
This book is packed full of all types of beer related information, including the science of beer, general history and often where your favorite beer might be made.
It’s a pretty cheap purchase as well. If you have a little extra spending cash from the holidays, this would be a great book to add to the beer man’s book shelf.
Filed by Kevin at 9:22 pm under Books, Beer Making, Beer History
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