Wow what a busy week here at South Union Brewing having a week off has been very good for getting things done! Last Saturday I started my week off right with a tour of Peace Tree Brewing in Knoxville. http://www.peacetreebrewing.com/

Peace Tree is located in downtown Knoxville in an old Nash Rambler dealership. The brewery takes its name after a tree that is now half submerged in Lake Red Rock. It was a meeting spot for Indian tribes back when they controlled what is now Iowa. They have just celebrated there 2 year anniversary on march 17th. I will have to say they have a very impressive operation for there size which I believe was 20 Barrels I could be wrong it seemed like a little more than that. There brew house had 4 glycol chilled fermentors which says there very interested in Turning out a high quality product. Most brewery's this size don't have this  kind of set up. There brew house was running at full capacity every tank was full! Also let it be noted that the sound of bubbling fermentors was competing with our tour guides voice this is the most beautiful sound ever!!

A shot of the 4 Chilled temp controlled fermentors

Now I was shocked to see there fermentors but what really blew me away was every beer geeks dream! Peace tree has a lot of barrel aging going on in there brew house right now! There were at least 2 types of barrels they were using. A small set of Rum Barrels from Cedar Ridge distillery and a bunch of Templeton Rye barrels. The T.R. Barrels are full of Red Rambler and will be released in July  I cannot wrap my taste buds around this!! We also got to sample there Rye Porter which had been aged in bourbon barrels for 1year it was FANTASTIC!!!

Look at all those barrels!

After the tour we spent some time in there tap room which is a nice place to sit back on sip on there selection of beers. I would love to go back and spend a late afternoon/evening there it has a great atmosphere. You may  be asking yourself  is this worth the drive? The answer is YES!

A shot of  the tap room

And a picture of the rowdies who came with me 

And this is where the magic happens!

After the brewery tour we came back to Des Moines I invited my travel companions over and we liberated my beer fridge of  the Kolsch that was taking up space. Since the kolsch is gone now that means South Union Brewing has space to fill up with new beers!! This week off game me plenty of time to do just that!!  I got my Surly Cynic Saison bottled this week and brewed 2 more beers.The partial mash Spotted Cow clone from Norther Brewer and a Honey Wiezen. Here are a few pictures of  Saturdays brew day.

Speckled Heifer boiling away 

My wort chiller in action

And of course the brew master with his lovely assistant brewers

Well there is sure to be lots of racking and bottling in the days hopefully the end product will be well worth the time and effort until next time CHEERS!