Elkader's growing beer scene

Clint W · Post by **Clint W** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 7:31 pm

This past weekend I went with my wife up to Elkader to visit her family. While they were catching up I went over to Scheras for a few beers. I have not been in there for a while and was blown away, again, by their beer selection. It was posted earlier on the board that Frederique, the owner, had started distributing and he has a lot of really great beers. After talking for a while he mentioned wanting to put somthing together for the Beer Nuts. He mentioned doing a tap takeover of one off beers at the end of February or the beginning of march. They also have beer dinners every month. Heres a link to the restaurant which has their beer list.
http://www.scheras.com/index_files/Page1430.html
I also found out that Fennlelly's is planning on opening a brewery soon. They have a pretty good beer selection as well. Lastly, there is going to be a home brew store going in down town as well. Sorry about the rambling message but I thought some of you would be interested in this.

Beers I had at Schera's:
Dark Hops, Beer Here-Denmark
Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel, Brasserie d’Achouffe- Belgium,
Duchesse De Burgogne, Verhaeghe- Belgium
Genese, V-Belgium
Urthel, Hop It

tony b · Post by **tony b** » Wed Feb 08, 2012 10:15 am

Cool!

Were the beers you tried on tap or just in bottles?

Matt F · Post by **Matt F** » Wed Feb 08, 2012 10:26 am

The food there is really good and unique. Algerian food is not common around here. They have a lot of stuff on tap.

quinton · Post by **quinton** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 11:03 am

When taking into account beer selection, food and ambiance, Schera's is probably my favorite place to have a beer in Iowa.

Elkader and the surrounding country are beautiful and intriguing as well. Worth checking out.

I am a bit biased. My family has been going up to NE Iowa for 20+ years.

Matt F · Post by **Matt F** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 11:11 am

Ditto, love NE Iowa. Great canoeing, fishing, biking, hiking, camping... Lots of nice areas and cool little restaurants in small towns. Toppling Goliath in Decorah has been a nice addition to NE Iowa.

Mr T · Post by **Mr T** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:23 pm

Is that the place with the killer patio next to the bridge? If so me and my biker peer group stop off there often during the summer to eat and put a few back on the patio.. Don’t think I’ve ever actually hung out inside, although it looked like it could be a cool night spot

From: Matt F [mailto:brew-news@crbeernuts.org]
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2012 11:12 AM
To: brew-news@crbeernuts.org
Subject: Re: Elkader's growing beer scene

Ditto, love NE Iowa. Great canoeing, fishing, biking, hiking, camping... Lots of nice areas and cool little restaurants in small towns. Toppling Goliath in Decorah has been a nice addition to NE Iowa.

Matt Franklin
Slappy Brewing North

Post generated using Mail2Forum (http://www.mail2forum.com)

TappedOut · Post by **TappedOut** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:43 pm

Toppling Goliath is a great place. The last time I was there I struck up a conversation w/ the guy behind the eagle-cam at the bar. He was giving advice to another local who was devastated that hawks were eating his chickens. The beer is good there, too.

Matt F · Post by **Matt F** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:50 pm

TappedOut wrote:He was giving advice to another local who was devastated that hawks were eating his chickens. The beer is good there, too.

Do you recall his advice? Having problems with that myself. While I am not devastated and it is kind of cool having live Animal Planet like theater, I don't want to run out of chickens. I ran fishing line spaced one foot apart across the top of the fence. Since doing that the chickens have been safe, but it's only been a week. Can't shoot them as that is an expensive fine and I would prefer to keep the hawks around any way to control varmints.

Mr T · Post by **Mr T** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:11 pm

We sure do have a wide variety of topics on this brew forum.. haha.

Hey FogHorn Franklin.. is that Henry Hawk after your chicken.. I say boy.. is that Henry the Chicken Hawk.

From: Matt F [mailto:brew-news@crbeernuts.org]
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2012 2:50 PM
To: brew-news@crbeernuts.org
Subject: Re: Elkader's growing beer scene

TappedOut wrote:
He was giving advice to another local who was devastated that hawks were eating his chickens. The beer is good there, too.

Do you recall his advice? Having problems with that myself. While I am not devastated and it is kind of cool having live Animal Planet like theater, I don't want to run out of chickens. I ran fishing line spaced one foot apart across the top of the fence. Since doing that the chickens have been safe, but it's only been a week. Can't shoot them as that is an expensive fine and I would prefer to keep the hawks around any way to control varmints.

Matt Franklin
Slappy Brewing North

Post generated using Mail2Forum (http://www.mail2forum.com)

Matt F · Post by **Matt F** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:34 pm

I snapped this shot of him in action.

TappedOut · Post by **TappedOut** » Fri Feb 10, 2012 9:25 am

The trick is to convince him that the dog is really a chicken. Actually, I think his advice was that if the hawk gets one, keep them well-protected for a day or two and the hawk will move on. Otherwise he'll keep coming back for a delicious meal.

Matt F · Post by **Matt F** » Fri Feb 10, 2012 9:55 am

TappedOut wrote:Actually, I think his advice was that if the hawk gets one, keep them well-protected for a day or two and the hawk will move on. Otherwise he'll keep coming back for a delicious meal.

We kept them in the coop for about a week and that seemed to help. The first couple days the hawk came back but brought another hawk. Apparently it thought there was enough to share. I came home one day this week and they were all spooked like a hawk had visited, but I think my fishing line screen must have bought them enough time to reach safety. Thanks for the follow up.

Clint W · Post by **Clint W** » Fri Feb 10, 2012 7:29 pm

It does indeed have a great patio. My wifes family that lives in Elkader told me that only weird people go in there. After seeing that some of go there I tend to believe them.

Gjoseph · Post by **Gjoseph** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 1:58 pm

Yeah I haven't been there recently but my wife's family is from there and distant relatives own the Johnson Restaurant in town. Who knew it had a beer scene - might make visiting the in-laws more tolerable.