It’s a week of sober reflection here at Klockow Brewing Company.
But that’s just because we’re behaving ourselves prior to next weekend’s annual Klocktoberfest!
All jokes aside, we are deflating a bit after a huge weekend here at the brewery. In many ways, it was pretty standard, as far as our normal business hours were concerned. But you may have seen that we also hosted an after-hours event on Saturday, Iron Range: Radiance Drag Show! A first for us as a business, we initially got both great feedback and a few wet blankets. The later folks didn’t seem to amount to much because audiences exceeded expectations (more than 100 tickets sold, far beyond standing room only)! The evening: phenomenal! The audience: electric! The performers: what word to use other than fabulous!

So if there is, in fact, any actual sober reflection happening here this week, it’s concerning how we can make drag shows a more regular occurrence here at Klockow Brewing Company. It was too successful to be just a one-off, so stay tuned for future dates.

Ok, What Is That?
If you’re a regular brewery visitor, there’s a distinct chance that you’ve seen this phrase thrown around a bit, especially this time of year: wet hop. I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not the colloquial term for jumping in a rain puddle. No, it’s much better! To properly explain it, though, first we need to talk a bit about how most beer is made.
The core ingredients in beer are water, malted grain, yeast, and hops. Maybe you’ll find a beer that’s fruited or otherwise has some adjuncts to the recipe, but those four are the main ingredients. Looking specifically at the hops, a lot of people might be surprised to find out that the hops that are used in nearly all beer production, from the smallest microbrewery to Anheuser-Busch itself, use processed pelletized hops. The reason for this range from quality control to longevity to convenience. They’re easier to measure, their flavor is concentrated, they have a longer shelf life. In short, it’s a bit of a no-brainer to send those hop cones to become dried and processed into little bits that look like rabbit food when it comes to commercial scale brewing.
But it sure is fun to use hops fresh off the vine! And boy what a difference it makes in flavor.
“The hops are literally plucked from the vine when they’re at their peak in the growing season - they’re ready to be harvested. And within a day or two we turn them from wet hops into our beer,” said co-owner and master brewer Andy Klockow.

Wet hop is the freshest designation of hops, as even a “fresh hop” beer includes a drying period in order to help preserve the hops. Wet hop, on the other hand, have to be used immediately after harvesting, sometimes only within a few hours.
“You get more dankness, some grassiness, and really just capturing what fresh hops smell like and taste like,” added Andy.
Besides the time constraint when it comes time to use wet hops, there’s also the quantity question. On average, it takes five to ten times the quantity of hops brewing this way because you’re also bringing along any moisture and other vegetal matter that processed hops would not have.
We’re talking about this now because of the release this week of our 22 Hop Rd. Wet Hop Hazy Pale Ale, a favorite brew of ours amongst people who care about fresh ingredients. All the hops were grown locally at CR Hops Farm.
“We chose to do a wet hop because — it’s about catching the essence of hops at their peak freshness,” said Andy regarding the 22 Hop Rd.
Of course, anything that seeks to capture freshness of flavor is going to be, at its core, temporary. We wish our wet hop pale ale wasn’t so fickle, but alas, tis the nature of the beast. But the good news is that it’s out RIGHT NOW, and will be for many weeks! The freshness might be fleeting, but we’ve got some amount of time here. I mean, it’s not like it has the life span of a mayfly or something.

It’s not often that beer drinkers get to enjoy what the wine community calls terroir, or sense of place. For wet hop ales, though, the flavor of the garden comes through in ways rarely seen in beer. You don’t just get to taste the sum of its parts, but also a hint at where those parts came from. And because of that, no two wet hop ales will ever be quite the same, no matter how hard you try.

We Barley Know You, But We Hop to Change That. It’s the Yeast We Can Do: Anthony Beer
Question: How long have you been a regular here?
Anthony Beer: I don’t know about regular, but I’ve been coming here since pretty much the beginning. Probably around 2018, in that neighborhood, yeah.
Q: You’ve had a lot of time to think about this, so what is your favorite Klockow beer?
AB: I’m pretty seasonal with my beer, with my drinking. I think the best overall I’ve ever had — and this isn’t just Klockow, it’s anywhere — is Magic Roundabout (Barrel-Aged Imperial Vanilla Stout). I think that is the best, but I also can’t drink that in August when it’s 85 degrees out. When it’s warm, I really like the Superior Lobe (Hefeweizen). And the colder it gets, I transition to the Oktoberfests and the BHKs (Nut Brown Ale) and the barrel-aged stouts.
Q: When you’re not drinking Klockow beer, what do you like to drink?
AB: What do I like to drink or what do I drink? Because on the daily I drink too many Busch Lights. [Laughs] But I do enjoy a good bourbon in many different capacities. On the daily, it’s Busch Light and the simple cheap stuff, and then when I can it’s the good bourbon.
Q: Very economical! With this good bourbon or Busch Lights, what do you like to eat with that?
AB: If you look at me, you can tell that I like food. So I think that my favorite food overall is going to be a good surf & turf. I love a good ribeye with lobster. If I had to pick a last meal, I think that would be it: ribeye with lobster tail.

Q: What do you do for work?
AB: I’ve been with the city of Grand Rapids for a little over 11 years, and I work full-time at the cemetery as the assistant cemetery sexton. I do all the maintenance; equipment maintenance, grounds maintenance. Dealing with customers. Selling graves. And obviously completing burials and things like that too.
Q: What do you like to do for fun though?
AB: For fun, I’m a big hunter and fisherman. That’s probably the most common thing that I do that’s fun for me. I do steelhead fishing in the spring and bass and Muskie fishing through the summer and fall. And once fall hits, I’m a big duck hunter, and get into deer hunting a little bit.
Q: More things to eat!
AB: Yeah, lots of food. Lots of good eats.
Q: What’s a fun/interesting fact about yourself?
AB: See, now this was the question that I was worried about.
Q: Everyone is.
AB: I was worried about two questions, because you always have some damn wildcard question that’s ridiculous, and then you have “what’s interesting about you” question. I have a lot of interests and I do and am involved in interesting things, but when you ask a question like that, you realize how damn uninteresting you are as a person. [laughs]
Q: Everyone has something that most people don’t really know.
AB: Man, I dunno. Probably the most interesting thing that I can think of that people might now know is that I have a love and appreciation and passion for aviation. I’ve been going to the air show in OshKosh, Wisconsin, every years since I was 4 months old. Other than 1990 when my brother was born, and 2014 when my oldest daughter Gracie was born, and I think one other year when we weren’t able to make it, I’ve been there every year for the past 39 years. Now I volunteer for a week to help set up the convention and the show. If there’s something people don’t know — everybody knows I hunt and fish. Everybody knows I’m a grave digger. Not a ton of people know that I’ve always had a passion for aviation.
Q: See, that’s a great answer! But now, the last question: you’re dropped into a jungle island and you’re only able to have two items with you… besides clothing. You’re not naked. What are those two items and why?
AB: Probably a… well, number one for sure would be a ferro rod, or a ferrocerium rod. It’s basically like a flint but better than a flint for starting fires. It’s able to be wet and still start a fire. And then honestly, in a jungle environment, probably a pot to boil water. To be able to hydrate. Because beyond that, I think I can fashion things I need to procure food. Like I said, I hunt and fish quite a bit. So I would hope those two things would be able to keep me alive. I can purify water over the fire. Cook food over the fire. So a ferro rod and a pot would be the two things that I’d bring into a jungle environment if I could only have two things.

~

Thanks for checking out our humble little brewery! As long as you keep coming by, we’ll do our part by making the best damn beer possible and serving it in our always inviting atmosphere.

The Klockow Staff

Beer and Shrubbery Drops this Week:

Local, etc -

Bottles & Brews Liquor - Grand Rapids
SuperOne Liquor - Grand Rapids
Bear Ridge Pizza - Cohasset
SuperOne Foods North - Grand Rapids
SuperOne Foods South - Grand Rapids
Locker Room - Coleraine
Eagles Club - Grand Rapids
Sammy’s - Grand Rapids
38 Outpost - Grand Rapids
Rocket’s - Cohasset
Pokegama Plaza Liquor - Grand Rapids
NoPo Coffee Co. - Grand Rapids

Little Falls, etc -

Westside Liquor - Little Falls
Vintage Pub - Askov

Twin Cities, etc -

Princeton’s Liquors - Maple Grove
Stinson Wine, Beer, and Spirits - Minneapolis
Scandia Olde Town Liquor - Scandia
Home Town Liquor - Braham
Isanti Municipal Liquor Store - Isanti
South Lyndale Liquors - Minneapolis

Brainerd, etc -

Deer Haven - Remer
Westside Liquor - Baxter
SuperOne Liquor - Baxter
SuperOne Liquor - Crosby
Red River Liquor Co. - Akeley
Happy Tree - Emily

West World -

Brew Ale’s & Eats - Perham
Dorset Corner Off Sale Liquor - Park Rapids
Landmark Liquors - Perham
Continental Divide Brew Pub - New York Mills
Vergas Liquor Store - Vergas

North -

Revelation Ale Works - Hallock