An occasional column of often-times mindless ramblings.

• The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported online yesterday that Pabst is for sale for a reported $300 million. As faithful Sioux Brew readers know, Pabst is only a marketing company. It owns no physical breweries. Its beer is brewed under contract by MillerCoors.

Pabst is comprised of a portfolio of “old-school” brands. Most notable being Schlitz and, well, Pabst. And this is what matters to Sioux Cityians. Pabst bought the brands of the G. Heileman Brewing Co., which bought the brands of the Kingsbury Brewing Co., which bought the brands of the Sioux City Brewing Co.

So, Pabst probably owns the Heidel Brau name and trademark. There is no mention of Heidel Brau on the Pabst website, but when I did a trademark search about 10 years ago, Pabst showed as Heidel Brau’s owner (as I recall it was a debtor in possession type of deal).

Upshot is that maybe any new Pabst owners would like to part with the Heidel Brau brand. Or maybe some local benefactor with a spare $300 mil. would like to bring the whole company to Siouxland.

Or, if someone could get the brand cheap enough, wouldn’t it be cool for a brewpub to open in Sioux City and start brewing Heidel Brau? I know the recipe is floating around there somewhere……..

-Tim Hynds

Random beer notes:

• Randy Tallman’s Belgian Wit that won grand champion honors at last weekend’s Schleswig Wine and Bier contest almost didn’t survive to see the contest. Tallman explained to the judges following the award presentation that he threw out half the batch “because it didn’t taste right.”

• Interesting to get a retweet from Twitter user “wiesnnews” who added a “Prost” to my annoucement of the Schleswig winners. Wiesnnews would be the Twitter account of organizers of the Munich Oktoberfest. I have to assume it’s legit…. most of their tweets are auf Deutsch. So Tallman and Appelt get props in Bavaria.

•Don’t want to drive to the Cities for Surly’s Darkness? Get thee to Monk’s House of Ale Repute in Sioux Falls at 7 pm on Nov. 17. Monk’s will be hosting a tapping party for a keg of the much-hyped beer.

• And, if more than one keg of Darkness lands in the Rushmore State, there is an itty-bitty chance that it could grace a tap line at Raziel’s in Vermillion. Remember, Raziel’s did score a keg of Surly’s 16 Grit imperial IPA.

• Millstream Brewing Company’s beers seem to be going over well now that they are being stocked in North Sioux City. Comments from local beer geeks who have not tried the Amana, Iowa, beers in a while are running very favorably – especially for Millstream’s Oktoberfest.

-Tim Hynds

An occasional column of miscellany.

Pass the mash is a new occasional column of beer-related news and tidbits that are worthy of posting, but are not quite beefy enough to warrant their own story.

Yes, it’s a blatant rip off of beloved former Cedar Rapids Gazette sportswriter Gus Schrader’s Pass the Hash column of miscellany.

* Amana, Iowa’s Millstream Brewery has ditched twist off crowns in favor of the pry off variety. Stay tuned for some “big” Millstream news….. Unless you follow my twitter feed (tfhphoto)….. then you already know.

* Empyrean Brewing of Lincoln, Nebr., has inked a deal with Sioux Falls’ Global Distributing to enter the South Dakota market. Global took deliver of their first shipment of Empyrean beers Wednesday.

* The hop harvest is complete at Lucan, Minn’s, Brau Brothers Brewing Co. About 1,200 pounds were harvested.

- Tim Hynds