Quality was key--Millstream Brewing Co.

Head on down on  I-80 take a jaunt north on highway 151 and you arive in the Amana Colonies which boasts being Iowa's Handcrafted Escape, and what better place than this historic German community to house Iowa's oldest and largest microbrewery Millstream Brewing Co. So of course I had to take a trip over to the Amanas to check out Millstream and its amazing beer myself. I was greeted by one of the three owners Teresa Albert who owns and operates the brewery with her husband Tom and master brewer Chris Priebe. The trio bought the brewery,which was already fifteen years old at the time, in 2000 and began brewing shortly thereafter.  Teresa started my trip at the brewery at the top of the three levels at the brewery where they stay true to the handcrafted experience the Amanas have to offer by hoisting up and then dumping bag after bag of grain, each weighing in at 50 lbs or more. As most of you Iowans know 50 lbs bags of grain can get heavy real quick and I began to realize that this was no automated operation. We ventured back downstairs where Master brewer Chris was finishing up brewing in the brewhouse, took a quick trip to the basement where they house the majority of their fermenters and ended up on the second floor where they have their bottling line a referbished Coca-Cola filler.

Three of Millstreams Fermenters

After the quick tour we sat down in the small tasting room overlooking the brewhouse and I found a little bit more about how Teresa a 7-12 grade teacher her husband Tom and master brewer Chris have turned the failing Millstream Brewery into the success that it has become. At the time Teresa and the rest of her crew bought the brewery it was in bad shape, the brand was flawed the brewery was infection ridden and they had some work to do. They knew they had to be extremely cautious about the quality of beer that was going out to the stores. The brewery had a bad reputation that they had to change, so even though they produced 1,200 barrels of beer about 37,000 gallons in their first year, they had to throw out about 1/3 of the beer that first year. Quality was key and Teresa and her crew knew that they couldn't afford to send out any bad beer, they had to be dillegent about making and selling only high-quality beer. But after they worked out the infections and restored the brand Millstream Brewing Co. became an award winning brewery.

Award Winning Schild Brau

They now have five year round beers their Iowa Pale Ale, Windmill Wheat,Johns Generations White Ale,Back Road Stout , and the Schild Brau Amber a Vienna Style Lager that won a Gold at the World Beer Cup. For you non beer geeks out there, the world beer cup is a BIG DEAL, and an awesome accomplishment for Millstream. They also have four seasonals and most recently with the change in Iowa law they started producing their Brewmasters Extreme series where brew master Chris gets to flex his muscles and make high alcohol and full flavored beers. One of these beers the Big Honey a 9.5% hefeweizen with 120 lbs of honey is one of my new favorite high alcohol beers.
Teresa hopes to keep growing Millstream into a regional brewery and get into every state  surounding Iowa, three of which South Dakota, Wisconsin and Michigan they are already in. If Mllstream keeps on producing award winning beers like they have the past decade they will be right on track to that goal. So swing up off I-80 into the little handcrafted escape, and go get a tour at Iowas oldest brewery Millstream, and you probably should drink a few pints while your there too. Check in later on "My Brewing Adventure" with the Iowa Craft beer Tent.

Peace Tree Brewing Company - My Home away from home.

Peace Tree Brewing 107 Main Knoxville

Joe Patiently watching his boil

 So the first brewery that I will be writing about on this grand adventure for the Iowa Craft Beer Tent is my home away from home Peace Tree Brewing Co. I landed an internship at Peace Tree after doing an interview for a class project, and I havent left since.  Megan and Scott Ziller a husband and wife duo bought the run down  building that now houses the brewery because it was right across the street from their already established insurance agency, McKay Insurance.  After tossing around ideas of what to do with the building they ,along with Megans father Dan, decided what better thing than a microbrewery. So in the spring of '09 the Megan and Scott began developing the business plan that would become Peace Tree Brewing Co.,a name which the acquired from a local indian meeting spot.  Scott who was a homebrewer and had at first thought he would be the one doing the brewing, but the crew soon decided that they needed a professional. They hired Joe Kesteloot an ISU grad, who had been brewing with Cold Spring brewing in Cold Spring Minnesota. Joe started developing recipes and after fixing up the building and implementing their 20 barrel system Peace Tree Brewing Co. was underway in the spring of '10.

The award winning Blonde Fatale

 Since opening the brewery has expanded with more fermenters, more employees and continues to grow expanding their brand to four year round beers and many seasonals, one of which the Blonde Fatale just won a bronze medal at the North American Brewers Association. The brewery houses a tap-room open Thursdays Fridays and Saturdays where the fine people of Knoxville can come in and enjoy a pint or two of beer or even soda, but beware when drinking the 8.5% Blonde Fatale she'll sneak up on you.
Believe me when I say that Peace Tree is excited for the Iowa Craft Beer Tent and the opportunity to share their passion and their beer with the rest of the state. Peace Tree plans on bringing their Hop Wrangler IPA, My personal favorite and one of their seasonals the Hefeweizen. Come check out Peace Tree if your lucky  I'll even give you a tour if not make sure to stop by the Iowa Craft Beer Tent during the State fair and give em a whirl.

Road tripping through Iowa for the IOWA CRAFT BEER TENT

So Everybody its been awhile I know since I've been on here posting anything about anything, but guess what I'm back and in full swing. You'll be getting a blog post from me regularly now for the next month or two about an awesome event coming up at the IOWA STATE FAIR. The good people at Court Avenue Brewing downtown are helping put on the first ever Iowa Craft Beer Tent, from August 11th -21st (Fair time) there will be thirteen different breweries serving up awesome Iowa Craft beer to the many fair goers. I am one person lucky enough to know all thirteen that are going to be there, and because of just that luck I will be road tripping throughout Iowa and writing blogs on every brewery as they are announced to the rest of you lovely Iowans. Already announced Court Avenue, Rock Bottom, Back Pocket, Mad House , and Millstream all of which I will still be visiting and writing a blog about.  The rest of the breweries you will have to wait till they are announced on the Facebook page http://facebook.com/iowacraftbeertent, website www.iowacraftbeertent.com  or Twitter @IAcraftbeertent. Then you will be able to get a first hand account of the breweries, the people at the breweries, maybe a few snapshots and most importantly the BEER . Follow me on twitter @kaleblivingston or follow the Iowa Craft beer tent on Facebook and Twitter to catch more of "My Brewing Adventure" and learn a little bit more about the amazing beer Iowa has to offer.

A Killer day for a Killer three weeks

Joe and Taylor standing behind our killer tap box

Sold out crowd at Iowa Craft brew fest.

After three weeks of working at Peace Tree learning and gaining a better understanding of the industry, I didnt think anything could be any more fun than what I had already done. Then came the Craft Brew Fest, what a day. After finding a parking spot I walked to the small section of street in fron Racoon River Brewing Co. where the Iowa Craft Brew Fest would be held. I found Megan and Scott and soon after are crew of sunglass wearing rock star look alikes came bouncing out of the Peace Tree truck. We unloaded our newly built tap box made from an old cooler and a spare bumper and got the kegs ready for the day. at this point everything was pretty chill me and Megan folded programs and waited for people to show up. Little did we know that the people would come in mobs. Megan was taking money and I was trying to put wrist bands on everyone. Wearing my mohawk beer helmet we kept shuffling the 100s upon 100s of people through the lines. Eventually we ran out of  programs and glasses closed the lines and the real fun began.

Me serving up some Peace Tree

Next I took over for Paul at the tap-box and started handing out samples of beer, which became exciting fast. Never having a down time I constantly gave out samples of the Blonde Fatale, Rye Porter, Hefeweizen, IPA,Red Rambler and the Rye Barleywine. Making fun of everyone that asked for a "light " beer which Peace Tree does not have and commending those that knew what they wanted, made everything fly on by. I eventually adorned a blonde wig, along with my friends Keith Mccarthy, Ethan Logsdon and Rory Hennessy. At this point I filled up a pint glass  for myself and a growler and walked around and handed out samples to everyone in the crowd. I looked for two things empty glasses and hot chicks both of which I found in the abundance, this had to be my favorite part of the day. When I walked around not only did I achieve as Taylor says "Rock Star Status" but I actually got to talk to people and ask them what they thought about our beer, the festival in general, them it was awesome I met tons of amazing people most of which I will probably never see again.
As the day wound down I actually got to sample some of the other breweries beers, which were awesome. We finished off a keg of Hefeweizen and partied the night away (we'll keep where a secret). This was the perfect event to finish an amazing three weeks with Peace Tree. Megan, Scott, Joe, Dani, Taylor and Paul have all been awesome and I've learned a lot from all of them and thank them for this opportunity. But...I'm not gone yet. I must be doing soemthing right because Megan and the crew have decided to let me stay on for the summer working in the Tap Room and helping wherever else I can. I'm excited to keep this all going and  for any of you that have been reading about what I've been doing with Peace Tree follow my blog or follow me on Twitter @kaleblivingston just in case I post something that doesn't have to do with Peace Tree. Check in later on "My Brewing Adventure".

Ethan and Keith with the Blonde Fatale wigs

CRAFT BREW FEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well this is one of the last blog post I will be putting up for my internship here at Peace Tree Brewing Co. Everything has been awesome so far the past couple of days I've done everything from filing, to inventory, to cleaning kegs. I did do a tasting Wednesday night at the Knoxville Hy-Vee Wine and Spirits, which went pretty well. I was amazed at how many people walked out of the store carrying busch light and other light beers, I guess we stell have some educating to do. Tonight Joe and Megan are doing a tasting with our distributor Fleck. Friday Peace Tree will be taking over the Hideaway in Iowa City and serving only Peace Tree products, it should be an awesome event.
Then Saturday is the grand finale of Craft Beer Week here in IA the IOWA CRAFT BREW FESTIVAL!!!!!! Which I am super excited for. I highly reccomend coming down and take part in the unlimitted sampling of 80 different Iowa beers, it's going to be epic. You can get tickets on iowabeer.org for an awesome price of $15, come check it out. I will be around look for the dashing blonde with the Blonde Fatale shirt and come over and sample some beer. I'll let everyone know next week how everything went, check it later on "My Brewing Adventure"

CRAFT BEER WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Well not much has happened that was too overly exciting since my last post. Last thursday I did a little bit of everything did some filing, cleaning etc. My good friend Devin Linn did come over Thursday afternoon and I gave him a quick tour and we had a few pints and talked with Joe for awhile. Friday I had a meeting for my senior class president duties.
Monday started off the AMERICAN CRAFT BEER WEEK with Joe and I believe Scott going down to El Bait Shop for an event with the Iowa Bewers Union. This week will have many events that Peace Tree will be doing in conglomeration with American Craft Beer Week ending in the first anual Iowa Craft Brew Festival at Racoon River brewery, which you can purchase at  Iowabeer.org The next event will be a beer tasting Wednesday at the Knoxville Wine and Spirits, that I will be working. For more information on Craft Beer week go to www.craftbeer.com Stay tuned to "My Brewing Adventure" to find out more events going on this week!!

Pure Awesomeness.....I dont know May 11

 Today we did quite a bit of bottling, three whole pallets  right around 3,500 bottles if I'm not mistaken. It was crazy crazy hot in the brewery with the temps reaching the high 80's and Joe brewing I was drenched with sweat the whole day, but even with the heat it was a good day free of any set backs. I did finally find a place to have an awesome tenderloin , which is hard to do. Hometown Meats in Knoxville amazing, loved it. As I was finishing up the day I did start thinking about some things that happened during the day.
 The first, was a gentleman that came in during our lunch. He wanted to try one of our beers and he wanted one that was like a beer that he had 50 years ago while in Germany. He didn't know what kind of beer it would be, what style, or what it even tasted like.  As Taylor poured him a sample of Blonde our strongest beer in alcohol content but our lightest beer, after a quick taste he said well that one is weak. So Taylor poured him a Rye Porter one of our darker beers and he immediately before even tasting it said he'd buy a six pack. I kind of stood there taken back, he hadn't even tasted it and he thought it was going to be the beer he wanted. The next thing that happened is my good friend Jim, who is in amsterdamm right now wrote on my Facebook wall and I quote "first beer post for Kaleb...Jupiler beer tastes like busch light and keystone mixed....pure awesomeness". As soon as I saw this I was so confused how a mixture of Busch light and Keystone could be anything close to awesome. 
So as I drove home from Knoxville back to Indianola these two incidents kept my mind preoccupied. I finally came to a conclusion, that they just don't know any better. The gentleman that came in has become conditioned to the idea that any beer light in color, is most likely weak and junk and anything thats dark has to be a good beer. Jim has become acustomed to light lagers being the best tasting high quality beer.  In the end I realized that I'm around people that understand ,a lot better than me, what good beer is. The average Joe off the street most likely doesn't know the difference between a Budweiser and the Blonde Fatale , even though the latter is a lot better. I realized somtimes I need to take myself out of this bubble and think about how other people percieve beer, not me and the people I'm around. It makes me think about barrier that needs to broken to really push craft beer into a larger market. Thats all for today Check in later on "My Brewing Adventure"