Jack Was Here. I Was There.

I've spent the last two evenings in the Big Town (that would be Des Moines, Iowa) hanging with my friend Jack McAuliffe, the "godfather" of craft brewing. (There are many other posts about Jack here at the blog; you can search for those, but this pair from Jay Brooks about the Great Trip to New Albion constitute my favorite online riffs on Jack.) (If you're not familiar with Jack and his work, see my book or this piece by John Holl.)  This morning there was a nice piece in the Big Town Daily (aka The Des Moines Register) by writer extraordinaire Kyle Munson.

And finally, there's this lovely photo, taken by a friend of Brian Fox, a local brewer.

Many and sincere thanks to the people at Doll Distributing for bringing Jack to town; to Jeff Bruning for hosting the El Bait Shop event; to the folks at the Keg Stand (what a great place! Who knew?); and to Eric Sorensen and Jay Wilson for letting us crash the Rock Bottom party. And, of course, to the many people who attended the events. Thanks, thanks, thanks!