January 27, 2019 – Ookapow Brewing & Steam Horse Brewing Co.

I was going to Steam Horse for a friend’s birthday, though since they didn’t open until 1pm and I got to the area before they opened, I drove past a sign that said Ookapow and well, decided I’d stop in for a bit and try their beers before I go to Steam Horse.

It was my first time coming here, the brewery itself had a nice set up, sat at the bar where it’s easiest to see the beer menu. (I’m bad with taking pictures of places sometimes to add in here. Oops. Need to work on that.) Figured I would order a flight to try a few beers.

I went with Chocolag, Chocolate Lager; Butterscotch cream; Blueberry Saison and Celtic Monk, hybrid belgian beer.

The Chocolag. I smelled some oats, I can’t say I smelled chocolate. It was a light beer with some chocolate notes to it. I applaud the effort. Though it’s decent and I think it could do with some improvement in adding more chocolate.

The Butterscotch cream. This was good, definitely could smell/taste the butterscotch. The flavor came thru well and I thoroughly enjoyed this one out of all of the beers here.

Blueberry Saison. Honestly, after drinking a few sips it reminded me of Robitussin cold medicine. I did get some thyme flavor possibly at some point and then some tart blackberry. I like the attempt, not the beer.

Celtic Monk. I should have asked why it was a hybrid, though all in all it does have some belgian notes to it and was decent.

After finishing the flight I left and went to Steam Horse, which it also happened to be my first time here as well. I walked in and saw some friends at the bar who were early as well, so came over sat at the bar with them and grabbed a menu.

The place itself is extremely spacious, huge bar area in the middle of the location, with tables and chairs towards the left area of it and I think I saw some couches near the front, I could be wrong. While I tried to pull out a chair from the bar, I think the floor/chair combo at the bar is horrible. The chairs don’t easily slide out, you have to actually physically move the chair in order to sit since again, no easy sliding of bar chairs.

None the less, I opted to a flight of, Porter Please; Coppertop; Elder’s Choice; Conductor Marzen.

Porter Please. They describe it as “Deep rich mocha espresso notes throughout this medium bodied black ale”, 6.2%. It’s an average/middle of the line beer. Personally I’m not sure about those espresso notes supposedly in here, can’t say I discovered that.

Coppertop. Described as “Medium bodied with nutty biscuit and graham cracker notes”, 5.3%. It’s decent, a good amber.

Elder’s Choice. Described as “Spelt wheat beer made with elderberries and blueberries for a smooth finish”, 5.3%.

Conductor Marzen. Described as “Medium bodied with nutty, biscuit and graham cracker notes”, 5.6%, I found out of all the ones I tried, I liked this one the best.

After my flight, I sampled the Lager, Derailed and Golden Spike to determine if I wanted to order one to drink. I noted that I thought the lager was “meh” so, a lager is a lager, though not sure i’ll be ordering a glass of one one from here. Derailed was okay, I expected more mango and papaya, not bad for an IPA. Golden Spike , definitely IPA tasting and I won’t be drinking that. I opted for Conductor Marzen.

I find that they seem to be more into brewing IPAs, Pale Ales and European style beers I gather. Most of the beers here are around average of 5% abv with only the DIPA being around 8%. I would have liked more options to choose from in regards to their beers. Though I may be back in a few weeks so I’ll see if they still have the same beers on tap at that time.

As we started to get hungry, we walked to the Grandview Public Market, since all we had to do was go out the back of the brewery, head to the left and go straight, like 0.1 mile or less.

It’s pretty cool, essentially a food hall, there were various options to choose from. When I first walked into the location, the vender I came across was Zipitios – took a look at their menu, they have tacos, burritos and papusas, so I went with a Revuelta papusa, which has pork, beans and cheese in it. I’m not sure if I would order this again, only because I would have like more filing within, although I know overall that it was filled as it should be.

As I was walking around and down the vendors, I stopped at one,
El Cochinito, I saw they had on their chalk board “Croquettas” and the price. Yes, please! I loove croquettas!! They were great.

After ordering that, I went to see what Clare’s had on menu, I saw Chicken & Waffle Bites that said served with thai blueberry maple syrup. Yum! This was delicious! This certainly made my day.