Crow Peak Brewing (Spearfish, SD)

07/15/12

Earlier this year I was able to try Crow Peak beers while visiting family in Sioux Falls, SD. Based on that experience and hearing a podcast interview of the brewer, I was inspired to visit it on the way back from Colorado. I can't find the podcast I heard, but here's a youtube interview dealing with the business side of brewing. Combined with Firehouse Brewing down the road in Rapid City, the drive back via Wyoming and South Dakota allowed me to log two brewpubs and avoid the dreaded cross-Nebraska route. Stopping at Monk's House of Ale Repute earlier in the trip, I received some great advice to drive through Spearfish Canyon outside of town that added exponentially to the beauty of the trip.

Crow Peak looks like a woodsy lodge driving up.  Log pole ceiling inside the roomy restaurant as I sit down at the colored cement bar of red, black and grey/green.  The brewery is behind the bar, separated by glass and more field stone. Six taps of Crow Peak beer line the wall with clear information for all of them. Combined with the definition of a properly filled pint nearby, they are clearly attempting to educate the local population in all things beery. I also like the attention to detail of the glass washer before each pint is poured.  Locals seem to like a pub pour known as a "dirty IPA," which is 11th Hour IPA with Pile-o-dirt Porter in any proportion desired.  All of this plus the named pint club glasses points to a dedication to serving the regulars.  I just get a good feeling from the attitude of the place that they are working hard to do quality work.

On this trip, I took advantage of the half pints to try several  new Crow Peak beers:

• Olde Crowe Winter Ale: 10 IBU, 5% ABV, light brown head that falls quickly over a dark copper colored ale. Malt, dark fruit and a hint of spice in the nose.
• Up in Smoke Porter: 35 IBU, 6.5% ABV. Creamy tan head on a near black-brown porter. Assertive smoke and roast in nose. Smoke is full and lingers in the nose. Full bodied and a light spice hidden underneath the smoke.
• Canyon Cream Ale: light ale brewed with local honey, super light, almost watery, very sweet. honey apparent and of a nice flavor, light spice in nose from 10 IBU or the honey itself. Super drinkable and a well done light beer.
• Lean Horse Ale: light ale with a white head and barely amber body. Strong caramel flavor that's hinted at in the nose. Odd but interesting flavor and I can see how some would like it, but too sweet for me.
• 11th Hour IPA: 70 IBU, 6.5% ABV. Big nose and a strong IPA. Citrus, especially grapefruit and a bit of passionfruit on top of a sweet amber to golden ale, back lit by the sun coming through the upper windows. 

Besides good beer, I do love local pizza.  So, I ordered a Oggie's four cheese for dinner: munster, mozzarella, swiss and cheddar. Boxes of pizza in the cooler with Lindeman's and personal sized wine bottles for those that demand it. The bartender pulled it out and into a small pizza cooker. Thin crust with a complimentary burnt flavor on the bubbles underneath. Cheese is a nice blend. Not fancy, but good bar food that fits the atmosphere of the place and my personal predilections, including the paper plate and napkins. Drank the 11th Hour IPA for dinner and it blends well with the pizza. My kind of place and happy I didn't wait to eat at the Firehouse later.

Firehouse Brewing (Rapid City, SD)

7/15/12

As one of the only brewpubs in South Dakota, I've had Firehouse Brewing on my list for a long time.  I love the concept of a place built in an old firehouse, but the love affair ended there.  BA reviews are lukewarm at best and it seems like beer isn't necessarily the primary focus when looking online. With a fair amount of experience researching breweries, I've started to get a pretty accurate feel for a place ahead of time.  Plus, the guys at Monks in Sioux Falls said that I could find better places in Rapid City.  While part of the fun is being surprised, my beer-sense was spot on for this trip.  

As a walked into Firehouse at 8 pm on a  Sunday night, it was full to the brim and had a waiting list.  I hawked a seat at the bar after 15 minutes of lurking about and ordered a sampler of all of their beers.  Inside is clearly an old firehouse and a great brick building with a stamped tin ceiling in spite of the TGI Friday's decor.

The four ounce samples in low ball glasses were generous, but I didn't finish many of them.  Smoke Jumper Stout lead the pack with a drinkable smoked stout, and Smokin' Betty, another smoked beer but an amber this time, was a close second. But the rest dropped off precipitously.

    The bartender was friendly and helpful, but the sampler had no order or place mat to keep track of the beer.  I wrote down the beer names from the white board on the wall behind me and re-ordered them with the bartender's help to match my notes.  

Firehouse is a classic tourist trap brewpub in the vein of others I've been lured into before. In heavy touristy areas, my theory is that the beer suffers because there are no/few locals to serve and the quality falls as a result. Oblivious tourists will eat and drink there no matter what, so no reason to improve--just keep serving it up. We experienced this at Oak Creek Brewing in Sedona, Arizona a few years ago on a trip to see our niece Regan. And, I repeated the optimistic error at Estes Park Brewing outside of Rocky Mountain National Park, another pub where the traffic is to the detriment of the beer, just a few days before my stop at Firehouse. 

At Firehouse, the menu boasts the best food and brew in the Black Hills; I don't know about the food, but head to Spearfish and Crow Peak for the best beer in the area. 

Monk's House of Ale Repute (Sioux Falls, SD)

7/4/12

On 8th street in the downtown area of Sioux Falls, Monk's is down near where I think the defunct (and not great ) Sioux Falls Brewing was years ago. As a kid, I remember heading to Lewis Drug just over the river, but that downtown was something to just drive through on our way to the Empire or Western malls.

However, my folks-in-law said as kids they would go to downtown Sioux Falls because that's where all of the big stores (some names I didn't recognize) were located. By the time I was a kid in the 70s and a teenager in the 80s, it seems the Empire and Western malls were up and running so that I don't remember the hey day of downtown at all. Now, the renovated old buildings make downtown a destination again for bars and restaurants and the Falls are around the corner to visit--truly worth a stop if you are near by, especially frozen and lit for Christmas.

Opening in December of 2007 (according to the bartender), I have a hard time getting to Monk's since I tend to come home on holidays when they are closed. Today is the 4th of July, but the small crowd is enough to be pouring drafts to a few locals and me. Twenty three taps from my count and several pages of bottles, this is definitely the place for beer in Sioux Falls (and maybe the midwest outside of the Twin Cities). I noticed while finding the bar again that a JL Beers has also moved in downtown, but a negative experience in Grand Forks with JL meant I didn't even swerve in my quest for Monk's.


Let's start with the name. Monk's House of Ale Repute. Very clever and I just enjoy saying that I'm going there for the pun. Very gorgeous bar of distressed metal and a pleasant, not-too-dark space that's conducive to chatting. Friendly atmosphere and clients, I've always had a chat with someone at the bar in my sporadic stops. There's a TV in the corner, but this pub isn't built to be a sports bar--beer and good conversation are clearly the point. I vaguely remember that they built it all by hand when they opened and the place has expanded into a larger sitting area and a patio (empty today in the triple digit summer heat). Not overly large, Monk's is a cozy local that serves up some great beers.


Taps include some solid classics like Delirium Tremens and Duchesse de Bourgogne and western favorites like Deschutes and Grand Teton with a few locals like Crow Peak and Brau Brothers mixed in. However, the bottle list is extensive and loaded with quality beers in a wide range of styles. I was sitting next to Jim, who introduced me to the owner Jerry Hauck. Jim argued that Monk's is the best bar between Denver and Chicago, and was willing to bypass the Twin Cities.

While chatting, Jerry and I agreed that the Twin Cities has a real advantage of distribution options plus just sheer volume of potential customers when looking at a pubs like the Muddy Pig, Happy Gnome, The Republic, Town Hall Tap or Blue Nile as a comparison. But for being in Sioux Falls, this is an outstanding selection, especially for some beers from the west that aren't often found in the cities. Jerry did acknowledge that he thought his bottle list is second to none, and I would agree. However, since my time is always limited, I've never gotten past two or three beers from the tap line that I don't have on my database (a compliment all by itself).

In chatting with Jim and Jerry, they very nicely updated my beer schedule on my drive to Denver via Omaha and Rapid City (to and fro, respectively), giving me several places to consider that I had not found in my research. Very knowledgable beer folks and a pleasure to take advice from tonight.

Jerry even divulged some new information that Monk's is going to build a brewery in the back space that he used to sell organic furniture (natural wood used from mill). While some of the plans are understandably vague at the moment, he hopes to add brewed on premise beers around December. Asked why he was adding a brewery (besides the fun of it), he said "for the fun of it".

Expanding a bit more, the motivation to have a well run brewpub in Sioux Falls seems to also be a factor. According to Jim, Sioux Falls Brewing had been very good when it opened in the late 90s and I remember reading some good reviews and that they had won several medals, which had gotten me to go there; it was obviously not good when I tasted it in 2003. Since SFB went out of business, there hasn't been a brewpub in Sioux Falls except Granite City (which we argued whether or not it's really a brewpub with the fermentus interruptus system of shipping wort from Iowa to finish locally). Regardless of your GC opinion, there isn't a brewpub in town of the quality of a Town Hall that is constantly bringing locally inspired brew to a loyal clientele. I wish them luck and hope to sample some original Monk's beer in the future.

Monk's is truly an outstanding bar and not to be missed if thirsty in South Dakota. While I don't know if it's the best beer bar in the midwest, it most definitely gives nearly every bar I know from Denver to Chicago a run for its money. Do yourself a favor and stop in at Monk's House of Ale Repute.

Location:Monk's House of Ale Repute

Pile O' Dirt Porter (Crow Peak Brewing, Spearfish, SD)

Dark black, opaque beer with a velvety brown head that dissipates fairly fast. Roasted barley and coffee in the nose with slightly burnt note over a light hop spice. Smooth taste with the coffee predominates and finishes bitter. Carbonation seems a bit high for the style, but the mouthfeel is very satisfying and rich. I was very happy to buy this Crow Peak porter in Sioux Falls and like it a lot—and not just because it was the best thing in Sioux Falls!

11th Hour IPA (Crow Peak Brewing, Spearfish, SD)

Copperish IPA in the glass with rocky, off white head that falls while leaving large bubbles around the edge. Strong floral and spice nose, clean American style hops with lots of grapefruit. The nose really attracted me to this beer initially, in part, because I didn't expect such a hoppy beer from a SD local brewery when I bought this in Sioux Falls. Very pleasant surprise. The hop continues in the taste and has a good strong bite, a bit grassy—if you like chewing your hops, this is a good one. Slightly resiny and piney like a Double IPA can often be. Somewhat sweet finish to counter the hop sting. Nice IPA and fun to drink. Good luck to Crow Peak Brewing—hope to buy some more next trip to SD.