Co-owner Scott Lehnert washes cold filters used to filter out yeast at the Great River Brewery in downtown Davenport. Lehnert of Iowa City moved to Davenport with his partner, Paul Krutzfeldt, to open the brewery after moving the operation from Iowa City. (QUAD-CITY TIMES FILE PHOTO)

DES MOINES – Proposals to ease restrictions on Iowa’s microbreweries and distillers are gaining traction in the Legislature among lawmakers who see Iowa’s homegrown beers and liquors as economic development.

Senate File 2091, which cleared the Senate State Government Committee Tuesday, would allow the manufacture and sale of high-alcohol beer that contains 5 to 12  percent alcohol.

The bill is intended to allow Iowa micro-breweries to compete.

“This essentially evens the playing field that we’ve got with Minnesota, Wisconsin, other surrounding states,” said. Sen. Dennis Black, D-Grinnell.

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Olde Maine Brewing Co. of Ames and Eric Sorensen, head brewer at Des Moines’ Rock Bottom Brewery, each report via Twitter that amended  SF 2091 has been passed out of  Iowa Senate’s State Government Committee this morning.

The next stop for the bill is the full senate.

-Tim Hynds

NEW YORK (AP) – Molson Coors Brewing Co.’s fourth-quarter profit more than doubled because of favorable tax benefits even as it sold fewer beers, the brewer said Tuesday.

Worldwide volume sold of the company’s beers, including Blue Moon and Coors Light, fell 4 percent as people cut back on their purchases. Still, higher prices helped drive an 11 percent rise in net sales to $820.8 million.

Shares rose 69 cents to $42 in premarket trading.

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Amended  SF 2091 has been passed out of a subcommittee of the Iowa Senate’s State Government Committee.

The bill is scheduled to go to the full committee during its meeting at 9 am tomorrow and must pass out of that committee and into the full Senate by the end of the week to make lawmakers’ self-imposed funnel deadline.

Bills that fail to pass out of committee by the deadline are essentially dead.

-Tim Hynds

TOKYO (AP) – A clash over control has scuttled plans for Japanese beermaker Kirin Holdings Co. and smaller rival Suntory Holdings Ltd. to create one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies.

Despite seven months of negotiations, the two companies said Monday could not agree on an acquisition ratio, which would’ve determined control of the new entity.

Suntory’s founding family owns about 90 percent of the privately held company and would have likely become the new entity’s largest shareholder with a one-third stake.

The combined entity would have given Japan its first brewery capable of competing globally with the likes of Anheuser-Busch InBev NV. Kirin and Suntory posted combined sales of beer, soft drinks and foods of about $42.5 billion last year – higher than AB Inbev N.V. or Coca-Cola Co.

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Imperial anythings can be either of two things – a train wreck of a beer that is a caricature of its more plebeian sibling or a graceful addition to the family that expands upon the potential of its less regal family member.

Nefarious Ten Pin, an imperial porter from Durango, Colorado’s Ska Brewing Company is that graceful family member. It’s a subtle – but powerful – imperial that doesn’t lose the best traits of a porter.

Too often, imperial can mean overpowering. In the case of Nefarious, imperial means big but balanced. Roasty malt flavors do not distract from big porter flavors of mocha, dark fruit and light coffee.

Likewise, floral hop flavors are not relegated to obscurity.  Too be sure, hops are not the star, but also do not play a bit part. Consider the floral hop flavors that appear at mid-tongue  to be a very well cast supporting actor.

Nefarious Ten Pin pours a deep black with ruby highlights. Its beige head was tall, slow to recede and left lots of lacing on the glass. The beer’s aroma is of mocha, roast and flowery hops.

The mouthfeel of Nefarious is very smooth and lush – almost creamy. This contributes greatly to the beer being very east to drink.

Alcohol flavors or heat were unnoticed and at eight percent alcohol by volume, this could be a happy problem.

This beer has a long finish that keys on subtle roasty malt, chocolate and light coffee flavors. It finally ends on a chocolate-ish, floral hop note.

Nefarious Ten Pin was purchased at the HyVee Wine and Spirits in South Sioux City, Nebr. It is highly recommended.

-Tim Hynds

LONDON (AP) – Soon Britons will be able to get smashed at the pub while their pint glasses won’t.

The shatterproof pint glass was proudly unveiled by the government on Thursday. Officials swore the country would save billions in health care costs by coming up with a glass that doesn’t double as a lethal weapon.

But noticeably, no officials were talking about reforming the British binge drinking culture at the root of the problem.

There are about 87,000 alcohol-related glass attacks each year, with many resulting in hospital visits, Home Secretary Alan Johnson said as he introduced the two prototype shatterproof pint glasses.

“Glassing causes horrific injuries and has a lasting and devastating impact on victims and their families,” Johnson said. “I hope these designs will help bring an end to such attacks.”

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The following message was posted on Twitter today by Eric Sorensen, a Des Moines brewer:

“The word from Senator Black is that SF 2091 (Iowa Beer Equality) will now be presented to committee on Monday and then pass to the floor.”

For a listing (and e-mail links) to senators sitting on the state government committee, please see the comments on this post.

-Tim Hynds

RASCALS, Siouxland’s home brewing and beer appreciation club, will meet tonight, Monday, Feb. 8. The meeting will be held at El Fredo Pizza in Sioux City, Iowa, at 7:00 pm.

The featured style of the month will be IPAs.

This is the 1,000th post on Sioux Brew. Please allow me this indulgence.

The Sioux Brew blog began in May, 2007, the result of a slightly beer-fueled “dare” issued by my publisher over drinks with colleagues from our sister newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin.

Whenever I get together with colleagues from Wisconsin, I like to talk beer. And cheese, but mostly beer. And so do they. The discussion was very geeky and revolved around the relative merits of Lake Louie vis a vis Furthermore.

“If you think you know so (insert choice word here) much about beer, why don’t you write about it?” the boss interjected. Sounded good to me, so I passed the Camera Angles blog off to staff photographer Jim Lee and started Sioux Brew.

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