Friday Drankin’: Big Grove Brewing

The Friday Drankin’ series is great, as I try to review a different brewery in the city of each respective opponents. That is good for one-off opponents like Vanderbilt or TCU, but for regular opponents like Iowa I am going to run out of breweries before too long. Iowa City only has a few breweries, and last year I did ReUnion Brewing. This year I picked Big Grove Brewing.

Big Grove Brewing

1225 S. Gilbert St.

Iowa City, IA 52240

Big Grove’s main location is located just across the Iowa River from campus and they have a second location in nearby Solon with a restaurant. They have a large selection of regular beers as well as seasonals:

Boomtown Premium - 4.5% ABV - Brewed in the heart of Iowa City with the choicest Midwestern barley and select hops, Boomtown is a classic, easy drinking beer. You work hard, demand the premium.

Red Headed Stranger - 6.8% ABV - Light caramel and toffee notes from caramel malt transition balance a medium bitterness and strong hop aromatics. Dry hopped with Citra and Mosaic to give a dank, fruity hop punch.

Zandar! - 5.6% ABV - The nitro milk stout from hell, well, at least the filter pass was for our brewery. Zadar! pushes sweet chocolate and coffee notes in a rich roasty body. The original batch followed Batch #666, so it seemed fitting to pay tribute to when Solon briefly became the set of a “horror” movie back in 1989.

West Main Wheat - 5.2% ABV - The first beer we ever brewed has a blonde hue and slight haze from fresh cracked wheat. Malty sweetness is balanced by a citrus zing and honey-floral finish. Notes of relaxation and sunsets round out this refreshing American wheat ale.

Big Gove also cans many of their beers, so I will have to find a six pack this weekend in Iowa City and bring it home.