The Ott's NASCAR & Brewery Tour
Tim and Johnna Ott's tour across America
Two words: ohh boy! This place is huge, very popular and a wide selection of very, very good beer. We had a flight of Capital Gold vienna lager, Batch 1656 hazy double IPA, Oktoberfest marzen and Milk Man nitro stout while listening to some live music on the patio & snacked on some Dot’s pretzels. Beer: good, singer: not so good.
Its Sunday-funday again! Believe it or not but this is our 3rd day in town and only our 3rd brewery – yeah, hard to believe. We started this fine afternoon with a flight of Bob’s Ale cream ale, First Run blonde ale, Westown americna IPA and Diablo red IPA. It’s the first time we ever had a red IPA – usually its been a red ale but it was pretty good. The rest of the beers were just OK – nothing to get too excited about. Those of you with a keen eye will notice there are five beers in the pic below but only four beers listed above: the beertender gave us two pours of the blonde ale because “it wasn’t pouring right”. Nice!
After a busy day of running errands, it was nice to wind down with a flight of Maple Pecan brown ale, Esquire Joe amber ale, 2Hop Shakur west coast IPA and MLD vienna lager with a double kicker of Smores porter. What a night cap!
TGIF. After a 5 hour drive down from Minnesota, we met up with some long-time friends Steve & Sharon at local German restaraunt Hessen Haus and enjoyed some good food and great beers before stopping here on our way back to camp at the Iowa State Fair Grounds. Its hard to top some good german beers but a flight of Sound Check IPA, Get A Little Hazy IPA, Red Rambler red ale, Oktoberfest marzen and Runaway Bay tropical stout gave them a run for the money. The marzen was a close 2nd to the to the four different bees we had at Hessen.
We just boarded the crazy train. Pickle beer. Nitro Vienna lager. After well over 600 breweries, we have never seen these two beers on the menu. We are wrapping up our Sunday-Funday with a ticket on a flight of Freudian Sip nitro vienna lager, Homes Landing saison, Pickle Pilsner czech pils and Highway 101 west coast IPA. The pickle was so overbearing that we had to drink that one last because it overwhelmed our pallets.
Ahhhh, another brewery offering 5 beer flights in lieu of just 4. Think of it as a bonus beer! We tried the No Trace american IPA, Cosmic Tiara pale ale, TOPO begian white ale, Hops! I Did It Again (Britney series) hazy IPA and the small batch Flannel Roots fall lager (oktober). The Britney wasn’t as good as we hoped so the beertender gave us a sample of the other hazy Low Visibility which was much better….Baby One More Time!
Boom goes the dynamite…..or the island. This popular brewery cranks out a decent variety of beers that could satisfy anyones taste. We had a flight of Fixie abbey blonde, Fyn’s Fog NEIPA, Bell Rock west coast IPA and Oktoberfest marzen while listening to some Oldies on the house music. The great thing about craft breweries in the fall – a lot of them have Oktoberfest beer which is one of our favorites. The brewmaster and owner Jim had to go and spoil us with a taster of the Brimstone tripel….heavenly. He even invited us to his annual Begium Brewery Tour next year – can’t wait!
One word comes to mind when we tasted all four beers: yummy. It’s not too often that we couldn’t decide which beer was the best, the Cream Sota cream ale, Monkey Grinder IPA, , Hunnay Bear brown ale or the Jucyfication hazy IPA. In the end, the juicy had a slight edge over the other three.
Our last stop of the day is a doozie: five 5oz pours of a little of everything: Schifdtbier house lager, Tripel Point tripel, Current Obsession NEIPA, Every Day I’m Vassin NE pale ale and kicker of Cafe’ on Miel milk stout. Everything was easy-drinking except the stout which was full of flavor yet light for a stout. We call it a kicker because we ordered it after sipping on the first four beers thinking a stout would be a good way to close out the day.
The beertender at the last brewery told us this place was “kinda weird” but we aren’t quite sure what she meant. She mentioned something about “cafeteria style seating” which could explain the booths along the windows but all in all they have a decent beer menu and mostly IPA’s. They don’t offer flights but do 5 oz pours so we ordered a round of four consisting of the Kraftwerk german pils, Pizza Rolls NEIPA, Livin’ Rent Free american IPA and Pool Spray cold IPA. The best on was the NEIPA.
