USA, IA: Field Day Brewing Company already open in North Liberty

Provisions at North Liberty’s first brewery, opened Aug. 1, ensure diners can eat, drink and be merry with an unusual distinction of beers, elevated eats and a sprawling campus with activities for adults and kids alike.

In short, Field Day Brewing Company has designed its 20,000-square-foot building to be true to its name — a place to step out of your normal routine for a good time.

“We are native Iowans, we’re proud of this state, this is where we want to be. So it’s a play on cornfields, soybean fields, the agricultural aspect,” said Joe Selix, partner in the new brewery’s owner, Craft Concepts Restaurant Group. “We’ve also got a wide array of things to do. It’s the nostalgic field day from back in your childhood.”

While Field Day is the first and only brewery in North Liberty, the owners wanted it to also be the best one. With more than half the building’s space dedicated to an array of niche and mainstream beer types, Field Day is well on its way.

The four-vessel, 15-barrel system seen there today dwarfs the original plans for a five to seven barrel system — until the founders realized it just wasn’t enough for their 6,000 square foot taproom.

“It takes a lot of space to make beer. It takes even more space to make good beer,” said partner Alec Travis, who brings multiple gold medals from his work over the past nine years at SingleSpeed Brewing Company in Waterloo and Lion Bridge Brewing Company in Cedar Rapids’ Czech Village.

With a custom system that can break down and process locally sourced ingredients in-house, he said Field Day’s biggest distinction from other local breweries will be on the taps.

“It’s really just trying to bring all the different styles of the world as close as we possibly can to one spot in North Liberty,” Travis said. “We want everybody to be able to come in and find something they enjoy.”

Specialty Czech pale lagers are brewed the traditional way — double-decocted using Moravian malt and Czech hops — before being poured through Czech side pull faucets into Czech mugs.

German pilsners are made according to strict German purity laws — nothing more than malt, hops, yeast and water. Water for each brew is stripped down and rebuilt to come as close to the water of the country each beer originates from.

But for those who don’t care as much about the details, a full menu is rounded out by a variety of IPAs, sours and light, sessionable beers that allow drinkers to enjoy multiple rounds over conversation without getting too tipsy.

A mimosa-inspired sour, fermented with mango and passion fruit, mimics the base of grape champagne with its acidity, making the 7.7 percent beer taste like a 2 percent — a great choice for brunch or morning drinking on football game days.

10 August, 2023