Biere Des Moines - Orval

Despite the popular Raygun T-Shirt's claim, Des Moines is French for The Monks. The name according to some historians refers to Trappist Monks. Most folks who like good beer know that certain Trappist monastic communities own and run breweries. These "Bieres Des Moines" are considered some of the finest in the world, and lo and behold many of these beers are available right here in Des Moines. Hence, I figured it only appropriate in the coming weeks to give a rundown of a few readily available to us here in Central Iowa. I'll start off with my personal favorite:

Orval

That bottle is even prettier in real life.

Hailed by a particular subset of beer geeks as the one of the finest beverages on the planet Orval may be both the most approachable and complex of the Trappist beers. The Abbey of Orval makes only two beers. One is made only for the Monks and one to be sold to the public. The monks drink Petit Orval and precious few outside the abbey have tried this beer. However we are so graced to have regular access to Orval here in Des Moines at beershops like Beer Crazy, Ingersoll Wine & Spirits, and almost all the Hy-Vee locations.

Orval is one of those rare beers that strikes that perfect balance of complexity, nuance, and approachability. The beer pours an orange color with a big rocky head. The aroma and flavor are a feat of perfect balance with an olfactory character of fresh grassy and fruity hops with some funky hay and barnyard like aromas. The flavor follows with a champagne like dryness and a perfect hoppiness with both citrusy fruity and grassy herbal notes. The hop bitterness provides a nice balance to the lightly fruity and tart flavors provided by a blend of Trappist and wild yeasts. The palate is bubbly like a lively champagne. A treat for lovers of sparkling wine and pale ale alike Orval is truly one of my all time favorite beers, and one I've been in love with since the first time I tried it.

Now go to the store and find some. In all likelihood it's right down the block.


Look for more Bieres Des Moines in the coming days.

And then things got surreal.

I just saw La Folie in a grocery store.

Peace Tree Double IPA

For us in Des Moines and indeed Iowa in general we're just not accustomed to beer hype.

No, we usually leave that sort of business safely some three hundred miles to the east of us. We might have gotten our first taste of beer hype this weekend. I couldn't help but get choked up watching our little city growing up when it was announced that Peace Tree Brewing would be holding an official release of their new Double IPA at Beer Crazy this Saturday. Well that's not exactaly true, I heard that the release would be at 1 o'clock, so of course I showed up an hour early to stand alone with my wife in front of the Jeroboam of Chimay proudly displayed as you walk into Beer Crazy, taunting us in all it's glory.

After resisting the charm of a comically large beer bottle, we went out to lunch to return at 2. After a quick sampling, a short talk with the owners of the brewery, and a purchase of four bottles I was on my way. No big lines, no hassle, just a few Des Moines beer lovers making the best of it buying $2.50 bottles of limited release beer. I quietly slipped away using my upmost restraint with four lovely bottles.

How was the beer?

It was wonderful, thank you for asking.

I'm not one to care more about a big beer (by this I mean high abv) than say a more standard strenth beer, but this is easily among the best I've had from this brewery. The aroma on the beer is fruity, sweet, & seems more dominated by the belgian yeast used than the hops which is weird because that's kind of the opposite with Hop

Wrangler (The IPA upon which this beer is loosely based), either way it smells good. The aroma has a distinct sweet almost floral character that works really well alongside that fruity yeasty thing I was talking about as well as the piney and citrusy hoppiness. Furthermore I like the flavor, I actually like everything I taste in this beer. It is indeed a lot like an intensified Hop Wrangler, so all the oddities of that beer are amplified here. Now when I say oddities you must understand, I mean this in the best way possible. This and the Wrangler are beers that don't jump through a hoop for you and do exactly what you want them to, but as the glass progresses everything sort of weaves it's self together. This is, I believe the concept behind these two beers and I think it's executed very well in both cases. That said I'll say a little more about what's going on here. We've got a fruitiness and a citrus character that is unmistakably from west coast American hops sort of melding along with a fruity belgian yeast strain, which I might add seems to be becoming more and more dominant with each batch this brewery uses it in. The pineapple flavor is pretty nice in this beer, now lots of times you get pineapple from a yeast or a hop and sometimes it tastes like a pineapple flavoring, or a pineapple candy if you will. This beer tastes like genuine fresh pineapple. So what, you've got a West Coast Belgian IPA on your hands? But that's not the case, I think when I first had Hop Wrangler I wished it were the case. Again with this one, these guys are going to make you think a little harder than that. Beyond all the fruitiness the beer is very bitter in a sort of herbal old world hoppy kind of way. Think of something like the biting bitterness of a good Classic German Pilsner. Then add to this all a sort of musty dank character. Theres lots going on, but everything is balanced out to where it doesn't seem messy at all.

For a 9% abv beer the alcohol is perfectly concealed and this is frighteningly easy to drink.

Cheers to Peace Tree, keep up the great work, you are exciting Iowans about beer, which is no small task!

High Proof

I want to use this, my first entry to talk a little bit about a bit of semantics near and dear to my heart. It's no big deal to everyone around me, but to this geek the term "High Proof Beer" sends chills through my spine, each time I read it I can seriously feel the blood in my veins getting hot.

Why should I care so much? Do allow me to elaborate.

Mr Weber defines the word "proof" when pertaining to alcohol as "the minimum alcoholic strength of proof spirit b : strength with reference to the standard for proof spirit; specifically :alcoholic strength indicated by a number that is twice the percent by volume of alcohol present

Did you folks read anything about beer in that definition? I didn't either. However I have not inches from where these fat fingers type a list from the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division titled "High Proof Beer", I keep this because it is the last of such lists published before Iowa's beer laws changed in March of this year. Such a respected ;) bureaucratic organization as the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division must know what they're talking about, right? Quite wrong in fact, the designation of a Proof on a beer shows that the Iowa ABD was much better at laws than facts, but that's their job right? Well before March their job was also to distribute whatever beer over 6.25% alcohol by volume they deemed worthy to be sold in the state, a job whose execution left many beer lovers in Iowa wanting.

So what does all this have to do with terminology and why I'm so angry? The reason the Iowa ABD was distributing this beer was because of a law, a law that states that liquor sold in the state of Iowa be distributed by the Iowa ABD. By definition of the law, any beer over 6.25% Alcohol By Volume was considered Liquor. By comparison no wine even twice that strength is or ever has been considered liquor here. We had a clear legal fallacy until march of this year that treated many many beers as liquor. As liquor their strength had to be weighed in proof as opposed to the more traditional and appropriate designations associated with beer such as "Alcohol By Weight" "Alcohol By Volume" or "Gravity". Henceforth any beers sold through the state were called "High Proof Beers" by the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division.

In the past few months I've heard bar and store owners, patrons, and employees using the term "High Proof" in regards to beer, and what's worse I've seen it in print on posters, menus, and advertisements of such establishments both in Des Moines and throughout the state. Ladies and Gentlemen, the law has changed, the terminology is obsolete, using the term "High Proof" only reminds us of dark past, and makes us look like backwoods, bumbling, ignorant fools in the beer world. Let's move on.