Big Grove Brewery, Iowa City IA

27 September 2024

This is my second visit to Big Grove and it was absolutely as enjoyable as the first! They have a HUGE space here which isn’t surprising, given their proximity to the University of Iowa, and there’s a lot of outdoor space including a children’s playground. I decided to sit at the bar, but that part of the building was still wide open to the fresh air.

I took advantage of my hotel room not being ready yet to have two flights of four plus food and had a very pleasant visit. Flight #1, left to right:

Boomtown – Golden Ale, 4.5% – If I really, really liked light beers, this would be a great one. As it was, it was a bit too mild for my taste; I would have liked to have some more flavor in it, more like a Kölsch perhaps.

A Greener State of Mind – Pale Ale, 5.8% – Big Grove partnered with GreenState Credit Union (!) to brew this refreshing citrus-forward pale ale. Proceeds benefit the Izaak Walton League of Iowa. I rather liked it! It’s easy-drinking and would be a great all-day drinking beer.

Oktoberfest – Märzen, 6% – this is an award-winning beer and I can definitely see why — it’s very pleasant and exceptionally well-balanced. I still prefer the true German Oktoberfests, but Big Grove’s offering certainly does give them a run for their money.

Arms Race – Pale Ale, 6% – I chose this one partly for its name, and it wasn’t a bad choice. But of the four in this flight, this was #3 in my ranking.

After looking over the tempting food choices and thinking about how hungry I was (or wasn’t), I decided on an appetizer, the Brewer’s Board. Doesn’t this look enticing? And so it was, with a perfectly baked pretzel and smoked sausage to go with the beer cheese and mustard.

For flight #2, I decided to go with four of their five “Eddy” beers, a series of variations on a theme. From left to right:

Easy Eddy – NEIPA, 6% – This is “Iowa’s top=selling IPA” but it was very mild compared to most of the NEIPAs you get in New England. It was good, but I far preferred the next one.

Equinox Eddy – IPA, 5.2% – They describe this as an XPA (Extra Pale Ale) “that’s clean and bright like the autumn sun.” It relies heavily on Nectaron hops to “bring forward crisp tropical pineapple, passion and stone fruit flavors” and all I can say is that I’m going to have to explore Nectaron hops in my own beers! I loved this one; it and the Oktoberfest were my top two favorites of the day.

Freezy Eddy – Cold IPA, 7% – I haven’t quite figured out the whole Cold IPA thing, but I like to try them. This is an IPA that’s made like a classic West Coast IPA but with pilsner malt and lager yeast. It’s tasty, but still … I’m just not sold yet on the style.

Royal Eddy – Imperial IPA, 9% – I have to say, this did NOT taste like it was 9% alcohol! I liked it a lot, but I didn’t really get to enjoy it because work intruded at this point…

I’ll just conclude by saying that Big Grove was every bit as enjoyable as it was the last time I visited (2023?) and I certainly hope to get back here again. As with Blind Tiger Brewing in Topeka KS, Big Grove makes the state it’s in worth visiting 🙂