Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

I stopped by Benz at a quarter to five and they had probably 5 cases sitting out. Funny if in three hours they got rid of all of them...

Mmmm, Hopslam! I forgot just how tasty this beer is. Had some at Red's tonight and boy was it yummy. I'm going to call Benz tomorrow and see it they have any left. I wish this wasn't such a limited release beer.

Hey no problem I wanted a couple of sixer's as I am considering sending some to Jamil to see if he would do a clone recipe of it on "Can You Brew It". Costs a little up front but if he puts up a kick'in recipe, would be well worth it.

The whole reserve thing kind of pisses me off, I don't like that game because where do you draw the line. What if I email him right now saying I would like to reserve next years entire shipment? So, I have never been a big fan of it. If they want to put on a web site and you pay through the net then pick up that is one thing. But the chick took my name and said do you want me to call you if he doesn't pick it up or take both cases. one person 2 cases and they don't know if he is going to take it. Anyway enough of that.

Benz had I think it was 6 cases when I was their at 6:50 PM and they said they were open another 1:10, so if anyone is interested if you are there at opening or shortly there after, I am sure you could get some. Because they didn't have anyone in the store or parking lot. However, I would not wait long.

Mr T wrote:Matt, I got the other sixer… CJ was there too and he couldn’t shake them loose on the two cases they had reserved for folks. So while I was there CJ called up another Hy-vee on edgewood, no go.. and then took off to benz which had a few left for the same price.

Lesson learned is at Hy-vee center point, its NOT first come first serve.. call ahead. News to me. Wish I would of noticed the Choc Indulgence.

I’m sure CJ will pipe in later tonight J

and thanks for letting me grab the last one CJ, although I was bummed because I wanted more.




From: Matt F [mailto:brew-news@crbeernuts.org]
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 7:16 PM
To: brew-news@crbeernuts.org
Subject: Re: Hopslam Watch to go live on Jan 10th


I bought a 6-pack of Hopslam @ the Center Point Rd. Hy-Vee for $17.99. They only had two 6-packs left and a few singles when I left. They also have the Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence in 750ml for $13.99. It was labeled as $15.99 but they said that was wrong. I grabbed a bomber of Madhouse (Newton, IA) IPA. It is made with Iowa hops.




Matt Franklin
Slappy Brewing North

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

Actually they could get in trouble for "reserving" beer. If it's prepaid that's one thing, but reserved is illegal.

I just called Benz, they said they have around 7 cases left. I'm headed there now to get a couple of 6-ers.

Not sure if they were already paid for or not. Lets just assume they were. I don't want anything negative to happen and discourage them from bringing beers like Hopslam to Iowa. Wonder if they thought it would sell so fast at $17.99 a sixer.

I talked to the guy at Benz. The distributor told him that he'd been to all the Hy Vee's in town and pushed the Hopslam. Only one place wanted any as they all thought it wouldn't sell at that price. The next day they were calling begging for it but too late.

He was also told that Eastern Iowa got most of the allocation, and that Des Moines didn't get nearly as many cases. John's got more than anybody he said, and he also acknowledged that John's is the reason Benz was able to get as much, and other things that are hard to get. I thought it was cool that he admitted that, Those of us over here must buy a lot more of these specialty beers that the rest of the state.

He was actually still surprised that he has any cases left today, as he was expecting to be inundated. I told him it was probably due to some confusion over who had it, and that he could probably expect the Beer Nuts to come clean him out soon. I grabbed 2 sixers, as well as a bottle each of Ommegang Indulgence and Zuur. They only have a handful of each of these and he said there was very little chance they'd be able to get more. $14.99 each for 750ml.

Oh yeah, Johns is 100% the reason Benz has what it has. Johns is also 100% the reason that anyone in Iowa was ever able to get anything that was above and beyond the alcohol limit that was changed this past year. They pushed hard for the law to change, and long before it did change they were paying extra to make sure they had one of the best Belgian selections in the US. They even did their best to circumvent this by becoming a wholesaler, so that helped their entire cause. I have a buddy who used to work there and he would get calls from as far away as Vancouver asking for specific Belgian and other European beers. John's will always get more than Benz does of everything, and is always worth a trip to spend some of that hard earned money burning a hole in your pocket!

Benz is out of Hopslam. I just got their last sixer.

I tried the Madhouse IPA I mentioned picking up at the same time as the Hopslam. I really want to like these guys but their IPA is aweful. It was almost a pour out but I was thirsty. It had this weird flavor that was just like the first time I brewed a wet hop pale ale with my first good crop of homegrown cascades. The beer I ended up with had a flavor I can only describe as weird and not good. I wonder how these Iowa grown hops in the IPA were processed. Maybe that has something to do with it.

I'll bring one of my homegrown wet hopped beers from this past fall to the next meeting for a comparison. Mine started out pretty good, but over time began to develop an off flavor as well. Could be onto something common here?

BTW - as I write this, I'm sipping on a Hopslam!

Matt F wrote:I tried the Madhouse IPA I mentioned picking up at the same time as the Hopslam. I really want to like these guys but their IPA is aweful. It was almost a pour out but I was thirsty. It had this weird flavor that was just like the first time I brewed a wet hop pale ale with my first good crop of homegrown cascades. The beer I ended up with had a flavor I can only describe as weird and not good. I wonder how these Iowa grown hops in the IPA were processed. Maybe that has something to do with it.

I didn't want to put you off too much before you tried it. My boy said it might be one of the worst commercial beers he's tried ( and we've tried a few)!

Matt,

You say your first wet hopped beer, did you change anything in your process in subsequent wet hop batches that fixed this off-flavor...or was it just random weirdness (or not goodness - weirdness I can handle it's the not good part I like to avoid).

Yeah, I picked up a bottle of the Madhouse a couple of weeks ago, too. Like Matt, I really wanted to like it, but was sadly disappointed. I hope they can pull it together.

I heard Vineria still had Hopslam last Friday. Not sure if they still have any, I have not been there.