Briar Creek Brewery

                My grandparents, during the prohibition, brewed beer so that they would have some around when friends came over or during the holidays. The beer was a success and the tradition kept up into the late 1950's. The story of beer bottles exploding because one of my uncles tried to get higher alcohol in a batch was a favorite of mine and always got my dad to make explosion sounds, "Boom kapow pachoo!"

              My dad, as the youngest son, did not deal with making the beer and did not know much about the process. My grandpa died, before I could ask, in 1968.  My grandma said that she thought she had a recipe around somewhere and she tried to find it, all to no avail.  The "beer exploding" uncle said that the recipe was simple and he didn't think it was written down and he didn't remember it. So I gave up...for a bit.

               My wife and I were walking into a farm store, in Iowa, and there was a beer kit on sale. I first thought, "They didn't use a kit!" My wife looked at it and said that she thought I might enjoy it. 

               I brewed the beer kits and it was fun, but I keep thinking of the beer that my family would have been happy with and those first tries weren't extraordinary. I started to brew beer in an attempt to find a smooth, complex-tasting beer. My first few attempts lead to very plain beers. I read several books on brewing in order to avoid more of the standard taste of beer and on my next try I brewed this Towhead Ale and the reviews have been good.  Tasters thought we should sell it.

                Well that was several years ago and here we are with a brewery that is putting on the shelves the exact beer that I brewed on that first attempt.