Hub City may soon be no more

hoboscratch · Post by **hoboscratch** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 8:03 am

America's beer market is flooded. Iowa's is not even close. But like you are all saying, Hub City could have succeeded if they would have been more innovative. Say what you want about Peace Tree, they're trying. The imperial IPA they make is a pretty tasty beer. I haven't had the Imperial Stout yet.

BrewHound · Post by **BrewHound** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 9:48 am

TappedOut wrote:The grocery store market is flooded with good beer. Maybe one day the bar tap market around here will catch up.

Unfortunately I don't see that happening anytime soon, as much as we would all love to see that. As long as Bud and Miller control like %95 of the market share (meaning thats what people drink). Adding the good stuff at the local watering hole will most likely not happen. Tap space is a premium for bars, and the big guys give them all kinds of free crap to keep only there stuff on tap.

But, I would so very much love to see a couple of good beer bars go up in this town considering we don't really have even one good beer bar.

TappedOut · Post by **TappedOut** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 10:41 am

There was a story in the Gazette a while back that the guy that previously ran the Chop House downtown was opening up a restaurant/beer bar downtown (different location).

BrewHound · Post by **BrewHound** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 11:25 am

TappedOut wrote:There was a story in the Gazette a while back that the guy that previously ran the Chop House downtown was opening up a restaurant/beer bar downtown (different location).

Wow, I did not see that story. This is one of those times where I would be more then happy to eat my words if it happened.

hoboscratch · Post by **hoboscratch** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 11:29 am

The guy that owns Red's Public House (CR, not North Liberty) is the former owner of the Chophouse. Hopefully that is not his idea of a beer bar, and there's something else in the works.

JimF · Post by **JimF** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 11:42 am

My wife & I ate there a couple of weeks ago. They had a "house" beer on tap. I asked about it and the guy tending described it as a Amber Boch with a little more hops. I passed on it. They had a couple of decent bottle beers.
On Apr 6, 2011 12:29 PM, "hoboscratch" <brew-news@crbeernuts.org (brew-news@crbeernuts.org)> wrote:

The guy that owns Red's Public House (CR, not North Liberty) is the former owner of the Chophouse. Hopefully that is not his idea of a beer bar, and there's something else in the works.

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TappedOut · Post by **TappedOut** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 12:35 pm

The story, assuming I'm recalling it correctly, said it was going to be in the old Witwer center building.

Of course, there is always the question of what they mean by a beer bar. Does it mean they have Fat Tire, Boulevard Wheat, 312, Guinness, and Blue Moon, or perhaps something a little more interesting? (Of those, I'll take the Boulevard Wheat with a lemon slice, thank you.)

BrewHound · Post by **BrewHound** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 12:50 pm

hoboscratch wrote:The guy that owns Red's Public House (CR, not North Liberty) is the former owner of the Chophouse. Hopefully that is not his idea of a beer bar, and there's something else in the works.

You ain't kidding, we had a board meeting there and I was very disappointed in the selection available. However, in there defense this was about 6 months ago when I was there. So I don't know what they are serving now.

Mr T · Post by **Mr T** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 1:32 pm

It is reds public house. Its a beer bar..but not in our sense of the term. Lots of tall boy options and silos.

Up until recently they had no Draft system.

I frequent the place as its got great sevice typically...decent prices and ok beer. On the weekends it slammin in there from all the pub crawlers.

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TappedOut <brew-news@crbeernuts.org> wrote:

The story, assuming I'm recalling it correctly, said it was going to be in the old Witwer center building.

Of course, there is always the question of what they mean by a beer bar. Does it mean they have Fat Tire, Boulevard Wheat, 312, Guinness, and Blue Moon, or perhaps something a little more interesting? (Of those, I'll take the Boulevard Wheat with a lemon slice, thank you.)

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carrisr · Post by **carrisr** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 3:51 pm

My friend, who is opening a restaurant down in New Bohemia this fall (or after the road construction is done) says there are still plans to open a new brew pub next door. That's someone else's project, so I don't know any details other than they are still planning on it.

TappedOut · Post by **TappedOut** » Thu Apr 07, 2011 9:46 am

A new brewpub in town? Sounds awesome! Hope they can pull it off. We'd be stepping up in the world. A whole 2 1/2 brewpubs in CR. New Bohemia sounds like a good place for it.

Of course, the devil's always in the details. It could be like the bad old days of Cedar Brewing, or it could be awesome.

The only problem is that I'd feel so dirty about cheating on t.

brownbeard · Post by **brownbeard** » Thu Apr 07, 2011 10:03 am

You can get to Red's Ale House in about 25 minutes from anywhere in CR. When I lived in Minneapolis, if I wanted to go to a good beer bar, in town, I would have to drive more than that. Unless you live in the right part of town, I am sure San Diego would even require more than 20 minutes to get to a great tap house. We are spoiled in that we can drive all the way across town in less than 10 minutes.

I would love to see a better beer bar in town. But if you have lived in Iowa for any amount of time, things are definitely looking up. There is every reason to be optimistic about our beer future in this area. People out west are begging for the Bell's beers we can buy in the grocery store. People out east cannot get the New Belgium "Lips of Faith" series that is on grocery store shelves in Iowa.

Chin up, you bunch of crybabies. It's a great time to be a beer drinker. My pint glass is half full.

BrewHound · Post by **BrewHound** » Thu Apr 07, 2011 10:36 am

brownbeard wrote:You can get to Red's Ale House in about 25 minutes from anywhere in CR. When I lived in Minneapolis, if I wanted to go to a good beer bar, in town, I would have to drive more than that. Unless you live in the right part of town, I am sure San Diego would even require more than 20 minutes to get to a great tap house. We are spoiled in that we can drive all the way across town in less than 10 minutes.

I would love to see a better beer bar in town. But if you have lived in Iowa for any amount of time, things are definitely looking up. There is every reason to be optimistic about our beer future in this area. People out west are begging for the Bell's beers we can buy in the grocery store. People out east cannot get the New Belgium "Lips of Faith" series that is on grocery store shelves in Iowa.

Chin up, you bunch of crybabies. It's a great time to be a beer drinker. My pint glass is half full.

Yes you can get to Red's inside of 20 minutes, however, that is a long way to drive and unlike many other places, that is out of town so 20 minutes is a larger distance then in most cities. The other part is around here that is one hell of a cab fair to get there and home, you are going to pay out the wazoo for it, and since I am cheap and not willing to make that drive after even having 1 or 2 beers, that kind of takes it off the list for me personally.

I will concur that things are looking up in Iowa, don't know about your analogy to Bell's beers and the New Belgian Lips of Faith series. We can't get Russian River or Stone stuff here, nore Dogfish head, Surly, etc... that is a matter of geography more then anything. Breweries are going to start local and expand outward by region closest to home taking into account states alcohol laws. So, I guess I would say that it is nice to see breweries doing well that they can expand and these items are starting to flow into Iowa, also the change in the law did really help our state.

The other thing I think is it has a lot to do with this area. Look at Iowa City they have a much better beer scene (speaking in bar service terms). This is because the college kids are demanding better beer. CR does not seem to have as much of that demand. Guess CR must be filled with NASCAR folks, long live "Bush light".

Seeing you with a half full pint must have been poured less then a minute ago or it would have been 1/8 full by now.

Mr T · Post by **Mr T** » Thu Apr 07, 2011 10:49 am

Cj..were talking reds down town cr not north liberty..
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BrewHound <brew-news@crbeernuts.org> wrote:

brownbeard wrote:
You can get to Red's Ale House in about 25 minutes from anywhere in CR. When I lived in Minneapolis, if I wanted to go to a good beer bar, in town, I would have to drive more than that. Unless you live in the right part of town, I am sure San Diego would even require more than 20 minutes to get to a great tap house. We are spoiled in that we can drive all the way across town in less than 10 minutes.

I would love to see a better beer bar in town. But if you have lived in Iowa for any amount of time, things are definitely looking up. There is every reason to be optimistic about our beer future in this area. People out west are begging for the Bell's beers we can buy in the grocery store. People out east cannot get the New Belgium "Lips of Faith" series that is on grocery store shelves in Iowa.

Chin up, you bunch of crybabies. It's a great time to be a beer drinker. My pint glass is half full.
Yes you can get to Red's inside of 20 minutes, however, that is a long way to drive and unlike many other places, that is out of town so 20 minutes is a larger distance then in most cities. The other part is around here that is one hell of a cab fair to get there and home, you are going to pay out the wazoo for it, and since I am cheap and not willing to make that drive after even having 1 or 2 beers, that kind of takes it off the list for me personally.

I will concur that things are looking up in Iowa, don't know about your analogy to Bell's beers and the New Belgian Lips of Faith series. We can't get Russian River or Stone stuff here, nore Dogfish head, Surly, etc... that is a matter of geography more then anything. Breweries are going to start local and expand outward by region closest to home taking into account states alcohol laws. So, I guess I would say that it is nice to see breweries doing well that they can expand and these items are starting to flow into Iowa, also the change in the law did really help our state.

The other thing I think is it has a lot to do with this area. Look at Iowa City they have a much better beer scene (speaking in bar service terms). This is because they the college kids and they are demanding better beer. CR does not seem to have as much of that demand. Guess CR must be filled with NASCAR folks, so long live "Bush light".

Seeing you with a half full pint must have been poured less then a minute ago or it would have been 1/8 full by now.

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brownbeard · Post by **brownbeard** » Thu Apr 07, 2011 11:08 am

BrewHound wrote:So, I guess I would say that it is nice to see breweries doing well that they can expand and these items are starting to flow into Iowa, also the change in the law did really help our state.

The other thing I think is it has a lot to do with this area. Look at Iowa City they have a much better beer scene (speaking in bar service terms). This is because the college kids are demanding better beer. CR does not seem to have as much of that demand. Guess CR must be filled with NASCAR folks, long live "Bush light".

It's important to note that the beer law is less than one year old. And the change was immediate, and has been substantial. And it is only going to get better. Plus, distributors are taking notice that people here are buying craft beer. I know folks in IC who are driving to CR to buy La Folie and Le Terroir. Because they can't get it there. Outside of John's, our ability to buy beer in CR beats IC, hands down.

And I am not as convinced that their bar scene is that much better. I went to a concert downtown in IC last week. I had to search for a bar with a good beer selection. Most of it was nothing different than we have here. I did finally settle on a bar that a nice beer selection, but they were ALL Iowa beers. Most bars were offering Noble Pils as their premium draft. You can get that almost anywhere in CR on tap.