Our first stop in the Hawkeye/Shocker state. (if you follow the two big Universities) is at Confluence Brewing Company in Des Moines. What caught my eye from their website was this nugget, “It all started, improbably enough, with a failed attempt to make “raisin almond beer.”
Yeah, that sounds bad but it had to get better from there and now here are the beers that I would pick from their portfolio:
First is the canned (along with their Des Moines IPA and Farmer John’s Multi-Grain Ale) is the Capitol Gold….”Glowing like the Iowa Capitol dome in Iowa’s capital city, Des Moines, this golden lager is brewed with time-honored German brewing methods. Its slightly sweet, bready, malty flavor is balanced perfectly by traditional German noble hops with medium-low hop bitterness.”
Second in my taster tray would be the Citra Blonde. I like that hops are being deployed into beers that allow the hop to really shine through and since I love the Citra, this would be a no-brainer to try.
Last but probably not least or even last would be the Blue Corn Lager. Sounds interesting. Grain forward beers are rare but can taste oh, so good.