FHB's Holiday Spectacular! 2017

Hollie and Brian, our winners!

Hollie and Brian, our winners!

We had a fantastic time yesterday at our first holiday party! Big thanks to the Over the Hill Brass Band for the festive tunes and everyone who donated to support their cause of music education. Our ugly sweater winners were Hollie and Brian Meyer for their handmade beer holder sweaters. Hollie’s even had a crowler holder complete with a FHB crowler. (We are not immune to adorable pandering!) Honorable mention goes to Dawn Siefken who made herself into an amazing holiday fireplace (complete with an elf on the shelf) and Joey Golly who dressed as sad-bunny-Ralphie from A Christmas Story.

Earlier in the day we also hosted a local hand-made gifts fair.  

Pictures of the fair and band and ugly sweater participants below.  

 

Islay Scotch barrel-aged Imperial Porter FAQ, crowler edition

IMG_9062.jpg

We've gotten a lot of these questions in the last week so here are all of the answers in one spot.  We're so excited about this beer, as its our first barrel-age release.

Q: Why are these crowlers special?
A: Special size (750 ml), new label, and rare (only 100 were made). Can be enjoyed now or aged.

Q: How long will they last?
A: These crowlers were purged of oxygen and filled from the bottom, meaning they can be aged for several years if they’re stored at cellar temp (65 or lower). We’d recommend trying one now and sticking one in the cellar to see how the flavors develop and round out over the next year. If you’ve never aged beer before, this would be a great one to start with. 

Q: What's an Islay?
A: It's an island off the west cost of Scotland, in a region famous for whisky production. It's pronounced "EYE-luh."

Q: What does this beer taste like again?
A: Boozy heaven
A, Part 2: This colossal porter has been aged in Islay Scotch barrels for 4 long months, imparting a massive amount of the peat-smoked malt and oak flavors used to make the Scotch that spent the last decade or so in there. (10.4% abv - 30 ibu)

Q: How many do you have left?
A: The lion's share was sold last weekend but we have some left! Limit 3 per customer per day.

SBA Porter.jpg

Happy Halloween!

Our winners!

Our winners!

Mason City, your costumes are amazing and Saturday night was so much fun! Our staff-favorite costume contest winners are Cindy and Web Graves for their Hitchcockian "The Birds" outfits. We couldn't get over all the tiny details and Web's dangling eyeball. Thanks to everyone who came in tonight to celebrate Halloween with us!  

Thanks to Grandma's Cupcakery for the amazing cupcakes!

Thanks to Grandma's Cupcakery for the amazing cupcakes!

Here is our gallery of pictures from the party:

Fundraiser/Awareness Party for Crisis Intervention Service

22780666_10154830190730824_8153408686591898111_n.jpg

We have a lot of people to thank today!  Feeling very grateful that this event went so well!  Through ticket sales for soft pretzel flights and tips at the bar tonight our awesome customers raised $934 for Crisis Intervention Services here in Mason City in honor of Domestic Abuse Awareness Month.  We'd like to give a shot out to Mad Batters Bakery, maker of amazing pretzels (shown below), Paul Weitzel who donated his musical talents, and all these great sponsors who donated door prizes:  NIP Fitness, Z'mariks, Lorado's, State Street Deli, The Quarry, Little Chicago, LD's filling Station, Lucy & Olive. 

What pairing was your favorite?Spinach Artichoke w/ IPABacon Jalepeno Cheddar w/ American WheatCaramel Apple w/ Autumn BockDouble Chocolate w/ Robust Porter

What pairing was your favorite?

Spinach Artichoke w/ IPA
Bacon Jalepeno Cheddar w/ American Wheat
Caramel Apple w/ Autumn Bock
Double Chocolate w/ Robust Porter

The money raised will benefit CIS and their mission to provide persons affected by domestic violence, sexual assault and homicide with professional, confidential, 24-hour services including safety and support and to prevent violence in north Iowa communities through education.

You sounded great, Paul!

You sounded great, Paul!

Molly didn't have anything purple to wear so grabbed a purple ribbon instead!

Molly didn't have anything purple to wear so grabbed a purple ribbon instead!

IMG_9337.jpg

Thanks to everyone for a great night.  There are already plans in the works to do something similar next year!

 

 

 

(Also thanks so much to our friend Vonchae for making this awesome purple pumpkin tip jar! It's made out of a crowler!)

Our first wet hop beer

Wet Hop small.jpg

We are pretty excited about our first ever wet hop beer, which is the Wet Hop Session IPA that is out this week.  We love this beer and are so glad we made it, but have jokingly nickname it the "logistical nightmare beer."

For those of you who don't know, most beer is made with hop pellets or dried cones, which have a long shelf life if stored correctly and are pretty easy to transport and store, but still have that lovely hoppyness that (most everybody) loves.  When a brewer makes a wet hop beer, he or she is using fresh-off-the-bine (hops are grown on bines not vines, fun fact!) hops.  The fresh hops have an extra earthy-citrusy-grassy smell and taste that you don't get with pellet hops.  

Why "logistical nightmare?"  Fresh hops are BULKY and have to be used within 24 hours of picking so that's why wet hop beers are rare  -  there's only one short window each year that you can produce them and transportation is kind of tricky.  You have to find someone willing to go pick up some big-bagged fresh hops for you at exactly the right time.  In our case, this person was FHB co-owner/marketing lady Molly, who had her car in the shop but was able to borrow a sweet green mini van to make the journey to the Iowa Hops farm in Newton to pick up the goods.  This is what a borrowed van of Cascade hops looks like:

28 pounder!

28 pounder!

The hop picking, hops pick-up, and drive time were all coordinated with Jake's brewing day, so at the right time Molly started north and dropped off the hops just in time for them to be thrown in the boil.

Wet Hop3.jpg
Wet Hop5.jpg
Wet Hop4.jpg

We hope you like the new beer!

Logo sign finally finished

IMG_7102_small.jpg

It took a very long time but our make-shift DIY logo sign is finally up!  It's been quite the journey getting the darn thing finished and on the wall so we thought we'd share a bit of behind-the-scenes goodies here.

We wanted our circle logo on that wall, but we want the taproom to be as versatile as possible so we wanted to make sure the sign was really lightweight so we could pop it down any time we wanted a blank wall for something.  But we also wanted the logo really freaking big.  Like dining room table big.  And preferably we wanted to spend only as much as was in the change drawer behind the bar.  :)  An impossible task!?  Nope!  (Thanks to Pinterest and duct tape.)

First, we bought some big pieces of foam board at Menards and drug it back to the brewery while it was flapping around in the truck (while it snowed).

Next, we projected the design on to the foam boards and then used a Sharpie to draw in the lines.

Then we borrowed Molly's dad's saw and Molly got to use her first-ever power tool!  Worked great.  Very exciting.  Purple foam lint freaking everywhere.

We were shocked it didn't look awful.  

Then it was time for a beer.

The most labor intensive part of the process was that we covered the whole thing in duct tape.  We wanted to 1) make sure the two pieces of foam board stuck together and 2) create a crazy texture and 3) didn't really think about any other ideas besides duct tape.  We'd probably do something different if we were to do this again.

Last step was to cover the whole thing in several generous coats of random paint that was laying around.

And then it was done!  

We lost track but we think it cost around $40.  Not bad!!!

We'll replace it with something fancy whenever it falls apart.  For now, please enjoy our small business shoe-string budget mega sign.  We kinda like it!