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Midwest Traveler: Iowa brewery may be world's 'second best'

Bob Pelini_

Team MVP
Dec 14, 2014
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http://m.startribune.com/variety/travel/322433251.html

To many locals in Decorah, Iowa, Toppling Goliath Brewing Co. is just the latest business to fill the old space once occupied by a flower shop, a record store, a burger joint and a pizza place.

To beer fans, that modest brown building just outside of Decorah’s quaint downtown, above a bend in the Upper Iowa River, is home to the world’s second-best brewery. That’s right, the world’s second-best brewery. In northeast Iowa.

Started six years ago like so many of the nation’s 3,500 breweries — on a tiny system in a backroom by an ambitious home brewer — Toppling Goliath has become an unlikely craft-beer Goliath. Tales of its outsized stouts and India pale ales have drawn a steady steam of tourists to the little town hemmed in by cornfields.

Though Decorah, home to the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, is the epitome of “cute little Midwest college town” — Luther College was founded here in the 1860s — it is an unlikely brewing Mecca. Decorah sits 150 miles from the Twin Cities, the same distance from Madison, Wis., and 200 miles from Des Moines. To be here, and to drink the freshest version of a world-class beer lineup, effort must be made. And people make it.

“Of everyone in here,” taproom manager Todd Seigenthaler said while surveying a crowd of 25 one afternoon, “I see one local. And she’s from 20 miles away.”

“We drove a long way to be here,” said Nick Yemm, 29, of Peoria, Ill.

“We’re on our way to Florida,” said his wife, Betsy Yemm, 27.

Yes, they had driven the exact wrong direction, but the four-hour detour was worth it, they said, especially when paired with the chance to play on a grass tennis court in Charles City, Iowa, another 50 miles west.

Nick Yemm explained that he had tried two of Toppling Goliath’s IPAs, called Intergalactic Warrior and Golden Nugget, while visiting Iowa City for a concert last year.

“I was pretty much sold,” he said.

On this day, Yemm was trying a different Toppling Goliath beer for the first time, an American pale ale called PseudoSue. It’s a beer that showcases the fashionable and fruity citra hop (think ripe mango). Yemm was happy.

Tap room becomes a destination

Beer-scoring websites such as BeerAdvocate and RateBeer deserve much of the credit for turning Toppling Goliath into a destination. According to RateBeer users, Toppling Goliath makes the single best beer in the world (Kentucky Brunch, an imperial coffee stout aged in whiskey barrels) and is the second-best brewery in the world. According to BeerAdvocate users, Toppling Goliath makes seven of the top 100 beers in the world. Toppling Goliath is distributed only in Iowa and Wisconsin, but expansion to Minnesota and other states is coming soon.

Though Toppling Goliath founder Clark Lewey said hard work has mostly fueled the brewery’s success, he acknowledged that the Internet has helped nurture the legend in a town previously known largely for a family of bald eagles that became an Internet sensation. (Search “Decorah eagles” — you’ll see.)

“I find it amazing how many people come to visit us,” Lewey said.

Home brewing spills into success

The legend began with Lewey’s home brewing, a hobby he started in late 2008 with a kit his wife had given him for Christmas. Though his siblings weren’t fans of his hop-forward beers, they did embrace the lager he made as a tribute to their grandmother, Dorothy.

Though Dorothy’s New World Lager continues to be Toppling Goliath’s “gateway” beer, the stouts and IPAs birthed the legend. The IPAs, in particular, spurred his interest in starting a brewery because he couldn’t find those beers in northeast Iowa.

“I got sick of traveling an hour to buy my beer in La Crosse [Wis.] or Rochester [Minn.],” Lewey said.

Toppling Goliath took off quickly after opening in 2009 and now brews most of its beer at a production facility a couple of miles from the taproom. A still larger facility is being built in Decorah, and Toppling Goliath has joined forces with a Florida-based Brew Hub to expand production and distribution. But the truest experience is stepping into the taproom.

I ordered a 4-ounce pour of everything Toppling Goliath had on tap; the tray of 10 beers made for a luminous, effervescent rainbow, ranging from pale yellow to pitch black. Half were pale ales or IPAs, and no surprise, those were the beers that shone, bursting with elements of fresh tropical fruit and pine. In an industry full of IPAs, they truly were a cut above.

Seigenthaler said many Decorah residents learned of the brewery after RateBeer named Kentucky Brunch the best beer in the world in early 2015.

“Local farmers would come in and say, ‘I want the best beer in the world!’ ” Seigenthaler said. “I’d ask what they usually drank. They’d say, ‘Oh, I drink all kinds of stuff — Bud Light, Miller Lite, Coors Light.’ I’d hand them our lager instead.”

Others know exactly what they have in Toppling Goliath, such as Tim and Carol Stoddard, who sat on the patio with fellow locals. The Stoddards said they have traveled to California with bottles of PseudoSue to make friends of bartenders.

“They were excited,” said Carol Stoddard, 61. “They comped us.”
 
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Decorah beer>>>>>>>>>>>>> Seattle beer. Fact. Reap it.

I am sure SP is aware of this middling product. It just hasn't been worth mentioning. He'll undoubtedly write a review on his upcoming visit to Iowa.
 
http://m.startribune.com/variety/travel/322433251.html

To many locals in Decorah, Iowa, Toppling Goliath Brewing Co. is just the latest business to fill the old space once occupied by a flower shop, a record store, a burger joint and a pizza place.

To beer fans, that modest brown building just outside of Decorah’s quaint downtown, above a bend in the Upper Iowa River, is home to the world’s second-best brewery. That’s right, the world’s second-best brewery. In northeast Iowa.

Started six years ago like so many of the nation’s 3,500 breweries — on a tiny system in a backroom by an ambitious home brewer — Toppling Goliath has become an unlikely craft-beer Goliath. Tales of its outsized stouts and India pale ales have drawn a steady steam of tourists to the little town hemmed in by cornfields.

Though Decorah, home to the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, is the epitome of “cute little Midwest college town” — Luther College was founded here in the 1860s — it is an unlikely brewing Mecca. Decorah sits 150 miles from the Twin Cities, the same distance from Madison, Wis., and 200 miles from Des Moines. To be here, and to drink the freshest version of a world-class beer lineup, effort must be made. And people make it.

“Of everyone in here,” taproom manager Todd Seigenthaler said while surveying a crowd of 25 one afternoon, “I see one local. And she’s from 20 miles away.”

“We drove a long way to be here,” said Nick Yemm, 29, of Peoria, Ill.

“We’re on our way to Florida,” said his wife, Betsy Yemm, 27.

Yes, they had driven the exact wrong direction, but the four-hour detour was worth it, they said, especially when paired with the chance to play on a grass tennis court in Charles City, Iowa, another 50 miles west.

Nick Yemm explained that he had tried two of Toppling Goliath’s IPAs, called Intergalactic Warrior and Golden Nugget, while visiting Iowa City for a concert last year.

“I was pretty much sold,” he said.

On this day, Yemm was trying a different Toppling Goliath beer for the first time, an American pale ale called PseudoSue. It’s a beer that showcases the fashionable and fruity citra hop (think ripe mango). Yemm was happy.

Tap room becomes a destination

Beer-scoring websites such as BeerAdvocate and RateBeer deserve much of the credit for turning Toppling Goliath into a destination. According to RateBeer users, Toppling Goliath makes the single best beer in the world (Kentucky Brunch, an imperial coffee stout aged in whiskey barrels) and is the second-best brewery in the world. According to BeerAdvocate users, Toppling Goliath makes seven of the top 100 beers in the world. Toppling Goliath is distributed only in Iowa and Wisconsin, but expansion to Minnesota and other states is coming soon.

Though Toppling Goliath founder Clark Lewey said hard work has mostly fueled the brewery’s success, he acknowledged that the Internet has helped nurture the legend in a town previously known largely for a family of bald eagles that became an Internet sensation. (Search “Decorah eagles” — you’ll see.)

“I find it amazing how many people come to visit us,” Lewey said.

Home brewing spills into success

The legend began with Lewey’s home brewing, a hobby he started in late 2008 with a kit his wife had given him for Christmas. Though his siblings weren’t fans of his hop-forward beers, they did embrace the lager he made as a tribute to their grandmother, Dorothy.

Though Dorothy’s New World Lager continues to be Toppling Goliath’s “gateway” beer, the stouts and IPAs birthed the legend. The IPAs, in particular, spurred his interest in starting a brewery because he couldn’t find those beers in northeast Iowa.

“I got sick of traveling an hour to buy my beer in La Crosse [Wis.] or Rochester [Minn.],” Lewey said.

Toppling Goliath took off quickly after opening in 2009 and now brews most of its beer at a production facility a couple of miles from the taproom. A still larger facility is being built in Decorah, and Toppling Goliath has joined forces with a Florida-based Brew Hub to expand production and distribution. But the truest experience is stepping into the taproom.

I ordered a 4-ounce pour of everything Toppling Goliath had on tap; the tray of 10 beers made for a luminous, effervescent rainbow, ranging from pale yellow to pitch black. Half were pale ales or IPAs, and no surprise, those were the beers that shone, bursting with elements of fresh tropical fruit and pine. In an industry full of IPAs, they truly were a cut above.

Seigenthaler said many Decorah residents learned of the brewery after RateBeer named Kentucky Brunch the best beer in the world in early 2015.

“Local farmers would come in and say, ‘I want the best beer in the world!’ ” Seigenthaler said. “I’d ask what they usually drank. They’d say, ‘Oh, I drink all kinds of stuff — Bud Light, Miller Lite, Coors Light.’ I’d hand them our lager instead.”

Others know exactly what they have in Toppling Goliath, such as Tim and Carol Stoddard, who sat on the patio with fellow locals. The Stoddards said they have traveled to California with bottles of PseudoSue to make friends of bartenders.

“They were excited,” said Carol Stoddard, 61. “They comped us.”
I think Big Grove is regularly putting out better beers than TG these days.

The hazy IPA series they did a few months back was freaking amazing.
 
I think Big Grove is regularly putting out better beers than TG these days.

The hazy IPA series they did a few months back was freaking amazing.

Come on. Not even close. There are some decent BG beers and I drink a lot of them, but those breweries should not be mentioned together.
 
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Come on. Not even close. There are some decent BG beers and I drink a lot of them, but those breweries should not be mentioned together.
Just my personal taste. I will say, I am typically drinking Big Grove fresh from the tap on premise and most TG I get is in a can, so it's not a super fair comparison. But this was perhaps the best beer I drank all of last year, love this stuff:
Capture.PNG
 
My sister's fam just came out from the Midwest to visit, and brought along a cooler filled with TG brews (Supa Sumo, PS, PS Galaxy hopped, Pompeii).

I had texted a couple of my home-brewing buddies to see if they wanted any before she went shopping.

Response: "I will take as many Toppling Goliath beers as you can get your hands on"

These guys go to the Great American Beer Festival annually, and they know what good beer is like. And we have plenty of very good craft brewing places out here; TG is clearly one of the best around.
 
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Love me some TG and also Pulpit Rock also in Decorah. That said, don't sleep on BG. Turtle Hunter, Easy Eddy and ShadeShine are three really, really good beers. BG is really hitting it's stride in the past year.
 
Love me some TG and also Pulpit Rock also in Decorah. That said, don't sleep on BG. Turtle Hunter, Easy Eddy and ShadeShine are three really, really good beers. BG is really hitting it's stride in the past year.

Aren’t those all limited release? Their regular starters- IPA and Pale Ale are average at best. Do you think they’ll add any of them to regular rotation?
 
Easy Eddy is all year and easy to find. I think Big Ed might be limited or at least more difficult to find

Right. I even saw it at hyvee last night. It’s ok.

If I’m drinking fresh and local to Iowa City, I’m having a Juice Factory or tank puncher from ReUnion. So much better.
 
Aren’t those all limited release? Their regular starters- IPA and Pale Ale are average at best. Do you think they’ll add any of them to regular rotation?
Seems like we have this thread once a year. I personally can't stand any of the TG beers. I am all about pilsners.

Edited to note that in once such thread, someone recommended Bohemian Rapids Czech Pilsner and it was quite delicious.
 
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I think Big Grove is regularly putting out better beers than TG these days.

The hazy IPA series they did a few months back was freaking amazing.
Huuuuuge fan of the hazy IPA series. I’ll agree, those were better than most IPA’s put out by TG.
 
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