Also along our road trip we will be driving through Des Moines. Again looking for a good brewpub in this area. Thanks guys and gals!
Not sure about a brewpub, but you should definitly check out El Bait Shop and Zombie Burger ... you're likely to score some Toppling Goliath.
There are three that I know of. Raccoon River, Court Ave and Rock Bottom. I liked the first one, really liked the second one and haven't been to the third. El Bait Shop is a bar, a really great bar.
El Bait will do growler fills of most things and you can buy bottles too. Exile would qualify as a brewpub too, I guess. 515 Brewing and Confluence are awesome local breweries, but they don't have food. I haven't been to Court Ave since they switched brewers. Raccoon River does pretty mediocre beers, IMO.
El Bait Shop, along with having one of the best craft beer tap selections in the Midwest, also has fantastic food. As Matt mentioned, they do growler fills and those can be taken out, but any bottled beer purchased I believe has to be consumed on premise. They do have a very nice bottle selection to go along with their top notch draft options. As for actual brewpubs, my favorite is Rock Bottom. Yes, it's a "chain", but the head brewer there (Eric Sorenson) brews some amazing beers of his own creation outside the standard Rock Bottom offerings. If you have a chance to try his sour beers, be prepared to be blown away. Food is pretty solid too. Another fantastic option for draft selection with growler fills is The Keg Stand in West Des Moines. Don't let the fratty name turn you off, they have some awesome taps and will fill ANYTHING they have on tap in growler. El Bait has the stipulation that the beer must be on tap for at least 2 weeks before they'll fill growlers from it, therefore, they rarely fill TG beers, etc. Another bonus of The Keg Stand is that they have some of the best wings in town, if you are into those?
In that case...they have some great and rare beers for sale sometimes, but you'll pay a HUGE premium for them!
Not really a brew pub also is the Library Cafe on 35th and University. It's a small place but they have pretty good sandwiches and about 30 craft beers on tap of which I think about 10 are Iowa brews including TG. Not sure on the growlers policies. Also if you are looking for bottles Drugtown west on University has one of the best bottle selections in town.
Yeah it seems like they are charging bar prices for carry out. http://elbaitshop.com/beer My guess is around 200% mark up.
Hey...I notice the face in that avatar...is that you Davo? It's Nick here....from the old 515 Crew board/Haunted Basement shows. Cheers to a fellow craft beer and punk rock nerd!
Yup it is me the one and only DaVo. Isn't that the same avatar you used on 515? Well, you know the rebellious and subversive nature of craft brewing and punk make them a wonderful match. Good to see ya.
Yeah would be nice. I just moved back into the Drake area and have been stopping in there off and off.
