Brewery Reviews, Quad Cities; Front Street Brewery/ Blue Cat Brew Pub/ Bent River Brewery

Well, Jim and I got up to the Quad Cities in about 2 hours, we went to our buddy Jay's as they were having a cookout. Jay showed me around the house and offered me some beer. The first was Ithaca CascaZilla. It was a hopped Red Ale, very similar to the beer I had just had at Destihl. Then he offered me a mix six pack of the beers from Saranac, which was great, since I've only had their Pomegranate Wheat. Jim was having a good time with Jay's family (Jay said, "I think they like him more than me") so Jay and I jumped in the car and headed to 2 liquor stores, the first didn't have a great selection, nothing made me really want to buy, but the second (named the Liquor Box) had some that I had never seen, so I picked up a six pack of Hook and Ladder's Lighter, Backdraft Brown, and Golden Ale.

The Lighter was decent, malty flavor, caramel, maybe some butterscotch, the golden was similar. The Brown was ok too. After we finished those, we jumped in the car as we had breweries to go to.

The first one was on the other side of the river in Davenport, Iowa, Front Street Brewery. There were 6 beers on their sampler. I couldn't tell what was what either. It looked like 6 varieties of the same thing. The back left one is supposed to be a "brown". Go ahead and click on the image... does that look brown? The beers clockwise from the back left are:
Front Street Specialty Brown; Old Davenport Gold; Cherry Brown; Hefeweizen; Cherry Gold; Cherry.

They have 3 cherry varieties on tap. I'm thinking the hops and barley shortage has hit this brewery. If you look at the picture, where the cherry gold is, it says Stout. They were out of stout. They were also out of their Raging River. All that was left was flavorless beer. Now, perhaps this wasn't a good representation of their beers since Iowa has been flooded recently, and maybe they weren't able to brew during that time, but an explanation of that would have been appreciated. Instead, I got 6 glasses of the same (or similar) thing.

We joked that the beer was actually the flood water (as we left). This place was not a good experience. I doubt I'll go there again. (My notes say, "I will never come here again" but maybe in the winter... if they have their stout back).

We left there and came back over the river to Rock Island and headed to Blue Cat Brew Pub. I had already had their Big Bad Dog Olde English Ale on March 20, so I was looking forward to this place. They had 6 beers on tap, including the Big Bad Dog. I ordered their sampler, Jim had another coke (he was the driver) and Jay had the tripel.

The bar was too dark, so I didn't even try to take a picture. Their beers had much more variety than Front Street. They had Wigged Pig Wheat; Tucks Tenacious Tripel; Big Bad Dog; Ramblin Raspberry; Bowfish Imperial Stout; and a Pale ale. All the beers were pretty good.

The bar had an internet jukebox, similar to the one at Mike and Molly's but it didn't have the unlimited selection, so I played some Ministry, KMFDM, Anthrax and some other stuff. As I was on my 6th sampler there and 6 at the last place, and 4 bottles at Jays, and 2+ in Bloomington, I kinda had to pee. Jay had mentioned earlier that the restroom at Front Street would be the nicest one of the night. While I didn't use that one, I can agree that Blue Cat's restroom wasn't a great experience. When I flushed the urinal, water (from the top, not the bottom) showered me. My shoe was wet, almost like I stepped into a puddle. That, wasn't great. I actually chose that urinal, because the other one looked BROKE-er.

One of the bartenders looked like Greg the Hammer Valentine. The guy checking ID's upstairs had that hippie body odor thing going for him, which was also unpleasant. The beer was good, other than that... the place had work to do.

We finished off the Quad Cities breweries at Bent River. I was instantly put off from this place when I had to pay a $3 cover to enter (I'm not there for entertainment, I'm there for beer) Add to it, they put a friggin stamp on my hand... what am I 19?

They had 8 beers on tap, which was nice, and they were all relatively different styles. Sorry, the picture is dark. There was: American Wheat; Strawberry Ale; Raspberry Wheat; Mississippi Blonde; Oatmeal Stout; Uncommon Stout; Hefeweizen; and a Pale Ale.

The Uncommon Stout was probably my favorite beer in the Quad Cities for the night. The samples were generous and I wasn't able to finish all of them. Even with Jay helping, we left part of the sampler on the table. The brewing equipment is directly behind the bar. There's no glass separating it... if you jumped over the bar, you'd be in the equipment, which was rather neat, I've never seen a place that close before. The music was too loud (for a guy who just wanted beer) but then, it was Saturday night at Midnight. I think I liked the hefe too, but I can't really make out my notes. Since we had to pay cover charge and the music was too loud, we lifted a plastic pint glass that Jim's coke came in, we paid $9 for the cover, they owed us.

We left there and went to a place where Jim claims he'd always walk in and the bartender would get his black and tan right away. So we went in. The guy turned to Jim and said "Guinness right?" Jim said "close, black and tan". Jay also got a black and tan, I went with a Goose Island Harvest Ale. Jim had another, Jay might have had another, I just drank the one (I think) and then we ate olives.

Everything was going good, right up until the shot of malt vinegar. I don't remember WHY we did a shot of malt vinegar, I just know Jay and I took a shot of malt vinegar. The bartender was also nice enough to give us a plastic mixer that they had a bagillion of behind the bar. I think it used to be called Finne's Irish Pub; but I'm not sure.

That's pretty much it for the drinking. The best beer and biggest variety was Bent River, but that also had the music that was too loud. The worst beer was the quietest and nicest bar. Right in the middle was Blue Cat.

We didn't go to Granite City, as that's a chain, and has the same beers at each location.